towards the end of the 20th century, technology brought to the fore the commercial use of the internet for personal use. Soon, it received wide acceptance as a wide range of activities started taking root on the internet. As we speak today, the internet is home to several multi billion dollar businesses. Government agencies are also not left out as they have found a wide range of activities to make use of the internet for.

The internet is a world wide network of computers that can send and receive information from one another. This function has been put to use by way of setting up websites. As we speak today, there is virtually no area of human endeavor that is not well represented on the internet.

The internet as a virtual world holds such a huge potential of dominating the real world. As of today, globalization is being accelerated by information proliferation. This would have been difficult to achieve without the use of the internet.

However, because of the open-endedness of the internet, it is prone to all sorts of frivolous actions if adequate measures are not taken to control its use, this will go a long way to decrease the level of misuse. it is therefore paramount to set up a form of control in order to monitor the use of this huge instrument.

Use of the internet should be subjected to a lot of scrutiny in order to safeguard some things, including the privacy of individuals, the copyright of intellectual materials, safeguarding against the use of the internet for terrorism acts to mention but a few.

The protection of intellectual property should be undertaken as a matter of urgency. In recent times, there have been a proliferation of free websites where free copies of commercial softwares, movies and music can be downloaded for free. This will no doubt lead to loss of revenue for the developers of these intellectual property.

It is important to help these people safeguard their works so that upcoming and enterprising artists would not be deterred by the large scale loss of revenue. Some record companies have, in recent times dragged some consumers accused of sharing music files over the internet. I believe that such moves would go a long way in deterring other potential offenders.  The ordinary users of the internet should also be drawn into the picture so that they can report erring websites to the appropriate authorities.

The internet is such a huge collection of computers that the regulatory authorities can not boast of completely sweeping the internet for unwanted activity. I believe that websites that offer free download of any intellectual property for which a copyright is obtained should sanctioned accordingly.

The internet can also be used to perpetuate acts of terrorism. The security agencies should be alive to their responsibilities in this regard also.

The area of information proliferation is also a source of concern. A situation whereby anybody is free to lay claim to any discovery or propound laws and principles, should be looked into. As of today, any one is free to post information regarding any issue or any subject matter, including health care for that matter. This is not good enough as it can mislead gullible people into doing things that are detrimental to their well being. I believe that only professionals should be allowed to give this kind of information.

In conclusion, the internet is such a huge ‘virtual’ body that it is not possible to effectively police it in order to rid it of all sort of junks. To this end, a multidisciplinary approach needs to be undertaken. All stakeholders should be involved in cleansing the internet and keeping it relatively clean. This is to safeguard the future of the internet and     the future of mankind as a whole.