Education and the internet seem to go hand in hand. Sadly, making the internet available to children may be the best way to kill off their thirst for knowledge for ever.

The internet is fundamentally unreliable. Web sites are not necessarily created by experts, so unless you know the credentials of the person whose reference web site you are using, you may well be reading absolute rubbish.

This may come as a shock to those who believe the written word is always right but most people recognise that even books can be wrong.

We have come to accept that there is a huge amount of completely worthless nonsense on the web. But most people still tend to think that the internet is a pretty good reference source and, in part, I would agree with them.

University and top industry web sites tend to get things about right, with some dreadful exceptions (no names, no pack drill), but frankly the rest should be viewed as being as reliable as a chocolate teapot.

This week, I discovered an extremely technical web site I would probably have described as fairly reliable was, in fact, created and currently maintained and updated by a precocious 17-year-old with a taste for technical manuals.

I know that several of my more academic associates have used the site as part of their research and I am not looking forward to telling them that they may need to check weeks of work all over again.

In part, society is to blame for constantly encouraging us to look for the easiest solution and then providing the internet without a comprehensive Government health warning attached.

People simply do not understand that much of the information available on the web is dubious in the extreme. Some is downright dangerous.

So what can you do to make sure your reference work is not a waste of time?

Simply regard the internet as a great place to find the clues to help you get the right answer, but do not just rely on it to provide facts. Make your nearest library the final reference source.

Check everything and believe nothing until a real expert has confirmed it.

The last thing you need as you prepare for GCSEs and A-levels or labour at a degree course is to include information in an essay that is fundamentally flawed. Talk about throwing marks away.

The internet simply does not do it all for you. Books are still the best way to accurate information with good CDs and academic web sites a long way down the line.

The internet provides a quick and dirty path to information but if you choose to walk that path be sure your feet will get grubby.