FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Internet freedom has its dark side

Internet freedom has its dark side

Suicide by girl who was abused online shows the dangers that youngsters can be exposed to

In some cases, Internet “trolls” are given more credit than they deserve. In others, they are underestimated. Last week, the issue of online harassment reared its ugly head again when a 14-year-old girl committed suicide in Britain because some anonymous web surfers allegedly tore her self-esteem apart with provocative comments. 
Twitter, a major social media channel, also toughened its stance against stalkers using messages to threaten targets with rape or bomb attacks.
Some may wonder why the girl who killed herself did not simply turn off her computer and go on with her life outside the cyberworld. Others understand why it must have been hard for her and other youngsters to do that. Many youths nowadays don’t know how to live their lives without the Internet. When the first thing you do after waking up and the last thing you do before going to bed is check your inboxes, escaping from tenacious trolls may be easier said than done.
In Thailand, it’s all about politics and one man’s trolls can be another man’s freedom fighters. It can be argued that both sides of the digital war deserve each other. Things can be different when one party is an innocent Internet user and the other is malicious, sophisticated and hell-bent on intimidation, destruction or harassment. Of course, there are “block” or “unfriend” buttons, but if stalkers are determined enough, chances are they will eventually find a way to remain as dark shadows following their targets.
Advocates of Internet censorship or control must be saying, “We told you so”. But there’s a clear line between demanding a true identity for online registration and having unlimited access to whatever a person does online. In the case of the teenage suicide, it would have been a great deterrent if the individual who told her to go and kill herself had been registered in his or her real name.
Internet freedom must be advocated, but there is no such thing as freedom to use a false identity to provoke a girl into taking her own life. The Internet has empowered people, but they must not mistake what is honest and dishonest in exercising their voice or power. False identities have mushroomed to distort polling results or what gets posted on opinion web-boards. And Internet trolls have become so common they are now accepted as a fact of online life. But when they issue death threats or drive some people to commit suicide, they have gone way too far and must be stopped.
One must not be confused between a reporter using a real name to write about the possibility of a coup on Facebook and a mysterious troll doing every heinous thing to destroy another person. Freedom is precious because it requires us to be responsible for what we do. If a person cannot be held accountable for their actions, that is simply not freedom.
Societies must pull together. Young people, in particular, should be educated on how to cope with trolls that cross the line. In fact, dealing with online stalking or intimidation should be part of every school’s curriculum. That would not only help potential victims, but also serve as a warning to would-be offenders the sort of tragic results that cases of Internet abuse can have.
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