Glossary of terms

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Chat - Real-time text conversation between users in a chat room with no expectation of privacy. All chat conversation is accessible by all individuals in the chat room while the conversation is taking place.

Chat Rooms - Created, maintained, listed and monitored by public domain systems. A number of customers can be in the public chat rooms at any given time, which are often monitored for illegal activity and even appropriate language by systems operators (SYSOP). Some public chat rooms are monitored more frequently than others, depending on the type of chat room. Violators can be reported to the administrators of the system which can revoke user privileges. The public chat rooms usually cover a broad range of topics such as entertainment, sports, game rooms, children only, etc.

Electronic Mail (E-Mail) – E-mail provides for the transmission of messages and files between computers over a communications network similar to mailing a letter via the postal service. E-mail is stored on a server, where it will remain until the addressee retrieves it. Anonymity can be maintained by the sender by predetermining what the receiver will see as the "from" address. Another way to conceal one's identity is to use an "anonymous remailer," which is a service that allows the user to send an e-mail message repackaged under the remailer's own header, stripping off the originator's name completely.

Instant Messages - Private, real-time text conversation between two users in a chat room.
Internet - An immense, global network that connects computers via telephone lines and/or fiber networks to storehouses of electronic information. With only a computer, a modem, a telephone line and a service provider, people from all over the world can communicate and share information with little more than a few keystrokes.

Newsgroups - A system of communicating with large numbers of recipients simutaneously. All recipients may read the communcation sent by one person to the entire group.

Second Life – A virtual world where subscribers assume identities known as “avatars,” creating and interacting in a virtual, computer-graphically created world.

Spyware – Software which allows computer owners to monitor the activity on that computer by its users, either with or without the knowledge and consent of the users.

World Wide Web – A decentralized system of computers connected by the Internet which offer digital media material and various modes of communication to others on the network.  The visual interaction of users viewing various websites is created by a code known as HTML (hypertext markup language), and is characterized by “hotlinks,” words or symbols which when clicked on lead to other websites.