Ad-blocking is not entirely harmless

Bad advertisements make you wish you used an ad-blocker.

Noisy online advertisements wake up sleepy family members, disturb co-workers and can even interfere with telephone calls. (Who doesn't click on the browser during a dull call?)

Thanks to bad, noisy ads, users switch off their computer speakers. That means they can miss useful audio cues.

An ad-blocker might be handy way of dealing with video commercials and annoying animated advertisements that dance across the screen.

But please don't automatically block ads

Advertising pays for the best free stuff online. Without online advertising, we would have to pay for everything we read, hear or see on the Internet.

There’s nothing illegal or immoral about blocking ads. Ad-blocking isn’t killing the internet.

But it is damaging. It means publishers invest less in writers and other media. It means there are fewer decent jobs.

If you feel you must use an ad-blocker, please choose one where you can whitelist pages or sites that deserve to earn advertising revenue. The best, most valuable online sites will choose not to run noisy, annoying ads. Reward that behaviour. Don't punish everyone for the sins of a minority.