Internet users need help ...

[quote][B]Internet users need help to separate fact from fiction as web is full of lies, says its inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee[/B]

[IMG]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i301/pixiefeet369/PEOPLE/InternetInventor.jpg[/IMG]

The inventor of the world wide web yesterday called for a new labelling system to help people distinguish fact from fiction when browsing the internet.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee said he was increasingly worried at the way his creation is being used to spread lies, hoaxes and urban myths.

Sir Tim invented the web while working at the Cern particle physics laboratory in Switzerland 20 years ago.

He devised the system of organising and linking pages on the net used today and created the first website in 1991.

But while the net has become the world's definitive source of information,
its 100million websites are rife with errors and misinformation.

Sir Tim cited emails and websites that promoted the myth that the latest Cern atom smasher - the Large Hadron Collider - could create black holes capable of gobbling up the earth.

He was also concerned about the way the internet spread misinformation about the unproven links between the MMR vaccine and autism.

'On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable,' he said.

'...a sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging.'

Sir Tim and colleagues at the World Wide Web consortium looked at simple ways of branding websites, but have concluded that a more complicated system is needed.

'I'm not a fan of giving a website a simple number like an IQ rating because like people they can vary in all kinds of different ways,' he said.

'So I'd be interested in different organisations labelling websites in different ways.'

Some of the urban myths spread on the internet have remained deep in the public consciousness.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, police were swamped with calls from the public concerned about a story which had spread via emails and websites.

In the most popular version, a member of the public returns a dropped wallet to an Arab in a petrol station, pub or restaurant, who in turn mysteriously warns them to 'stay away from London tomorrow'.

The World Wide Web Foundation is also being set up to improve the web's accessibility. Only a fifth of the world's population can use it.[/quote]

So there you go only FIFTH of the world can use or have access to the internet and they're influencing the rest of the world - how brilliant is that !!! World domination looms over the horizon !!!