Welcome to THE INTERNET IS SCARY – your essential guide to navigating the online world safely and confidently. Just as you’d want a local guide when traveling through an unfamiliar city, we’re here to help you understand the terrain of the internet, identify its dangerous neighborhoods, and recognize the common scams you might encounter along the way. This isn’t about fear mongering – it’s about developing the same street smarts online that you use in the physical world.
Think of the internet as a vast, interconnected city. There are vibrant public squares like social media platforms, bustling marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, and darker alleyways where scammers and manipulators lurk. Just as you’d teach someone to be aware of pickpockets in a crowded market or avoid certain neighborhoods at night, we’ll show you how to recognize digital threats and protect yourself from manipulation. Whether it’s understanding how pig butchering scams work, identifying coordinated disinformation campaigns, or learning to spot the signs of social engineering, we’re here to build your digital street smarts.
For educators and cybersecurity professionals, we’re developing a curriculum and method for teaching these concepts to others. Our materials will break down complex topics into digestible pieces, using real-world examples and familiar analogies that resonate with students and general audiences alike. We believe that everyone deserves to understand how online manipulation works – not just technical experts. By demystifying these threats and providing practical defense strategies, we’re building a more resilient digital society where users can confidently distinguish between legitimate interactions and potentially harmful ones.
THE INTERNET IS SCARY stands at the intersection of academic research and public education. We aim to work closely with the disinformation research community to translate their critical findings into accessible, actionable guidance for everyday internet users. Our role is not to conduct original research – that work is being done by dedicated scholars and investigators at universities, think tanks, and research organizations around the world. Instead, we serve as a bridge, helping to ensure that important discoveries about online manipulation and digital safety reach the people who need them most.
Our commitment to the research community is twofold: to accurately represent their findings while making them accessible to a general audience, and to help demonstrate the real-world impact of their work. When researchers uncover new manipulation techniques or document emerging threats, we help translate those insights into practical safety measures that digital citizens can implement in their daily lives. Through this partnership, we strengthen the connection between those studying digital threats and those navigating them on the ground.
THE INTERNET IS SCARY 