According to the blurb, the author of this prophylactic approach to the Internet for new users “has logged more than 30,000 hours online since 1979,” which works out to an average of about 4.5 hours a day. Banks has apparently spent a good part of these 18 years of travail protecting his privacy, fighting off predators, and tracking down Internet malefactors. But, in truth, while anecdotes abound, virtually no criminality or harm of genuine consequence is documented. The alleged danger is largely chimerical, but those with a critical need for total control of the unruly beast called the Internet might want to learn the techniques and visit the Web sites reviewed. Since the main text is bloated and repetitious, perhaps the most efficient strategy would be to first skim the 15-page appendix, “Web Sites and Other Online Resources,” and then use the index to look up items of interest.

The author sees threats everywhere on the Internet, some “merely annoying,” others “dangerous.” Veteran Internet users or readers of popular computer magazines need only hear a litany of buzzwords to immediately grasp the threats posed: spamming, invasions of privacy, stolen passwords, email harassment, downloaded computer viruses, accessible databases of personal information, chat room miscreants, credit card number theft, flaming, online dating, cookies, multilevel marketing, scamming, obscene language, pornography, and so on. Banks shows how, to a greater or lesser extent, Internet users can protect themselves from these dangers and annoyances, but one wonders whether the perceived wrongs justify the extraordinary efforts he advocates. After all, one can, for example, delete the occasional spam or scam email in a fraction of a second. Is that not preferable to spending innumerable hours concealing and expunging one’s online identity, finding and unmasking the spammer or scammer, complaining to various authorities, searching online resources for help, installing filtering software, and so on?

The founder of rational therapy, Albert Ellis, often wrote about “grievance collectors,” who so preoccupy themselves with largely petty grievances and minor slights that collection and remedy become a pathology that overwhelms other, more adaptive behavior. One wonders whether Banks is inviting new Internet users to join that fraternity.

Many pundits, politicians, and educators, among others, have made extravagant, overly rosy claims for the Internet. Perhaps a presentation of the other, darker side, however exaggerated and neurotic, is a welcome counterweight.