Using computers is not easy. When I was at university I rendered a library computer unusable by altering the screen size to a resolution only visible from the moon. But since then I have learnt to leave the control panel alone - most of the time.

Other people are still learning, however, and these people need looking after. This is because there are lots of threats online - many more than you would probably find in the local high street - though that depends on where you live.

One of the biggest threats to the user is their own trust - a kinder word than gullibility. Phishing scams are almost omnipresent these days. Anyone with an email inbox probably gets a phishing email every other day - if you don't, let me know, I am probably getting yours - and they are often temptingly well written.

Other threats are pop-ups that appear on random sites, and assume the identity of official Microsoft warning messages. These tell the user that they could optimise their PC by clicking here, or that their computer could be infected by spyware. In fact doing so is likely to be as beneficial to the user as cardboard pants with sand in the gusset - and will undoubtedly put things on their machine that are equally as difficult to remove.

To educate users about the risks, the government has just launched an online safety and virus warning site. Called ITsafe, the service promises to provide both the home and small business user with bite-sized, plain English advice on new threats and vulnerabilities, and covers everything from PCs to mobile phones.

But, and this is a big but, the only reason I know about this is because I read it in another trade publication. I've not seen it advertised on the television, nor have I seen it mentioned on the internet.

My elder relatives still stand around computers oohing and aahing at the coloured lights, and live in communities where mobile phone users are tried as witches. They are as likely to be aware of the new government site as they are the details of Bill Gates's love life.

At the moment there are no warnings on the ITsafe web site, which presumably means that there have been no online threats of note since it went live, late last month. Security vendors might dispute this, as would any home user who has had their PC hijacked by pornography or some mass-mailing worm.

But I suspect that whether written in plain English, represented in Chinese shadow plays, or acted out by John Cleese and Julie Walters, information about viruses and how to deal with them will go over the heads of most users. So why bother?

Admittedly, something needs to be done. But giving someone advice on tinkering with their firewall, updating their virus definitions, rebooting in safemode and checking their proxy settings is as potentially dangerous as arming everyone in the country with a shotgun, just because there's been a spate of burglaries.