Carl the Computer

Figure 1: Carl the computer

"Hello everybody, I'm Carl the computer (see figure 1) and I was brought here today to teach you the potential dangers of computers. Computers themselves are not dangerous we are actually very user friendly and we like to cooperate as much as possible. Computers like me are very useful pieces of technology and can make everyday life easier."

Terry, a student from the crowd, asks Carl, "How can computers be dangerous?" 
Carl explains carefully, "Well there are many different ways computers can be dangerous but I'm here today to specifically talk about the dangers of black hat hackers, which are criminals who use computers like me to ruin other peoples lives. Hackers like that are criminals just like people who steal money or take stuff from you without asking. These hackers are very smart people and can tell me to do whatever they want even if I don't want them too! They take advantage of my intelligence and they make me do bad things to people.

Sydney calls out from the crowd, "How do they force you to hurt people?"

Figure 2: Gary McKinnon

Carl explains, "Like I said they are very smart people that spend their time writing lines of code which alters my thinking, a line of code is what is programmed into my brain and it's what I read when you type something into my keyboard and I can then put it onto the screen for you to see. Hackers break into my brain and retype my coding so I am able to access anything they tell me to like, bank accounts and secret information. They are allowed to rewrite my code to make me do different things, but it is against the law to hack into other peoples information and steal it. Many people have become famous by doing what people thought was impossible with a computer, Gary McKinnon (2) was able to hack into NASA's private information just using a computer."

Figure 3: Computer Criminal

Phillip asks Carl, "How can we stop bad guys from hacking?"
Carl replies, "Hacking is a difficult criminal act to track down and catch the criminal. These criminals can steal other peoples things while being INVISIBLE! The government has imposed the Computer Misuse Act to try and prevent criminals from misusing the computer, this act prevents criminals from hacking into somebody else's computer to steal information or to send them virus' to harm their computer. A virus is a piece of code that is capable of copying itself and can be harmful to the computer, a virus in a computer is like the flu that you can get if you don't wear a coat outside and you start to get sick and eventually your body either fights off the disease or you become more sick, the same thing happens to a computer when it catches a virus the virus starts to attack the computer and eventually makes the computer very sick."

"Okay class, thank you for having me in today to talk to all of you about the dangers of computer hacking and criminal activity. I hope you all learned a lot and I hope that i didn't frighten you too much that you're hesitate to use a computer in the future. Just remember to be safe and don't misuse me because you now know that computers are not intended to hurt other people", says Carl.

Mrs. Jefferson, class teacher, speaks up, "Thank you very much Carl! I'm sure everybody here learned something today and we enjoyed having you all in class with us today. What do you all have to say to Carl the computer class?"

Entire class roars,"THANK YOU!"

References 
Carl the computer [Illustration]. Retrieved from http://images.clipartpanda.com/happy-computer-clip-art-cutcaster-photo-100361700-Happy-computer.jpg
Computer criminal [Illustration]. Retrieved from http://cdn.graphicsfactory.com/clip-art/image_files/image/0/693410-PCPIRACY.gif

Gary McKinnon [Illustration]. Retrieved from http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/freegary/images/me.png

National Conference of State Legislatures. (2014). Computer crime statutes. Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/computer-hacking-and-unauthorized-access-laws.aspx