E-mail build up. It's like plaque, hard to get rid of once it has built up. However, I can announce with some satisfaction that I managed to cut my Gmail inbox to 250 items from 1,200.

No, I did not just hit select all and delete, as a friend of mine does after he comes back from holiday.

Most of mine were e-mails left over after three years of winnowing them down for "dealing with later". I had sent many to myself, of notes I had made of sites, information or ideas I wanted to save for later reference.

Very few were from friends who had gotten lost in the mix. I replied to those as best I could.

Lots were images people had sent me a long time ago, which I had quickly viewed before moving on to the next urgent message. I saved those for later download and classification.

About 20 percent of what I had thought important at the time I found to be no longer so. Any saved for this column, did not make it into this column. It's curious how fast last year's issues quickly become dated.

Others sent as comments from family and distant friends brought back good memories. Many had information useful to know and reference as part of my job. A clean-up gives one time to reflect on the contents-at least for five seconds.

I know many of you are also smothered by e-mails. We are all so busy, busy, have signed up for many newsletters, have many contacts, need to keep on top of the flux of life, and are afraid to miss something, anything.

We are a distracted generation. If you are a pack rat like me, the email pileup is even worse.

My mad bout of clearing up my main e-mail account was spurred by a comic piece in the New Yorker magazine.

It took the form of a long automated e-mail answer with multiple choice entries for any occasion. I quote a bit from the end of Martin Marks' take on e-mail as a pointed commentary on the onslaught we face.

"In closing, I would like to say that the internet has become a veritable buzzing, stinging hornet's nest of pings and pongs and klings and klangs, so please do not e-mail, text-message, direct-message, Facebook-message (if you're still on MySpace or Friendster, that's plain creepy), Facebook-chat, iChat, tweet, retweet (don't even mention Twitter mentions), StumbleUpon, LinkIn with, zoom into, Google Buzz, Plaxify, Jigsaw, Digg, Skype, Spoke, poke, flick, or tag me… I just want to be left alone."

***

In Europe, children start to use the internet at the age of seven on average, according to a survey published by the European Commission.

The survey found about 84 percent report using the internet for school work, while 83 percent say they use it for watching videos.

About 74 percent play games online, and 61 percent use it for instant messaging.

About one in eight report having "upsetting experiences" online. About five percent say they have been bullied online.

Many lack skills and confidence when online as the survey found they did not know how to set privacy settings or how to block unwanted contacts.

Another troubling sign is about 30 percent of 11-16 year-olds report the symptoms of excessive internet use, such as surfing out of boredom, spending less time with friends, family or doing schoolwork, and feeling irritated when they cannot be online.

This is a large survey of 23,000 children and it has relevance to Bermuda in the sense it might give an indication of the problems children can run into on the iInternet and the kind of guidance parents might provide. The full report is available at www.eukidsonline.net.

As reported by the RDIS Tech newsletter, Bermuda's government signed a new agreement with Microsoft on 22 October to continue the use of the company's online safety information for children.

The package of online content and videos on cyber security is available at www.cybertips.bm.

It has content on online bullying, a guide to digital music and copyright, and information for parents on texting.

Send any comments to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com