Security and Appropriateness on the Internet

When we watch television, listen to the radio, read a book, or go to a movie, we don’t need to provide personal information to get access to the media content we’re consuming. However, when we use the Internet—whether it’s to sign up for an e-mail account, comment on a blog, or shop online—we give away personal information, even if we don’t mean to. This has raised concerns about the security of information, personal safety, and the appropriateness of content available on the Web.

Information Security: What’s Private?

Government surveillance, online fraud, and unethical data-gathering methods have become common, making the Internet a potentially treacherous place.

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Online crimes can include massive data breaches, like the one that resulted in the stolen credit- and debit-card information of more than forty million Target customers at the end of 2013. The settlement of a lawsuit against Target on behalf of victims of the breach may cost the company as much as $10 million.
George Frey/Landov

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In 1998, the FTC developed fair information principles to combat the unauthorized collection of personal data online. Unfortunately, the FTC has no power to enforce these principles, and most Web sites either don’t self-enforce them or say they do when they really don’t.17 Consumer and privacy advocates are calling for stronger regulations, such as requiring Web sites to adopt opt-in policies. Opt-in policies require a Web site to obtain explicit permission from consumers before it can collect their browsing-history data.

Personal Safety: Online Predators

In some cases, predators have used access to Internet users to cause harm. For instance, child molesters have used social networking sites to pose as friendly people, with the goal of forming relationships with naïve underage youngsters. Once a relationship takes root online, the predator suggests a face-to-face meeting, with the intent of exploiting the youngster sexually. These incidents have provoked an outcry from parents and demands for better mechanisms for protecting Internet users’ safety.

Appropriateness: What Should Be Online?

The question of what constitutes appropriate content has been part of the story of every mass medium, from debates over the morality of lurid pulp-fiction books in the nineteenth century to arguments over the appropriateness of racist, sexist, and homophobic content in films and music. But the biggest topic of debate has centered on sexually explicit content.

Public objection to indecent and obscene Internet content has led to various legislative efforts to tame the Web. For example, the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000 was passed and upheld in 2003. This act requires schools and libraries that receive federal funding for Internet access to use software that filters out any visual content deemed obscene, pornographic, or harmful to minors, unless disabled at the request of adult users. Yet regardless of laws, pornography continues to flourish on commercial sites, individuals’ blogs, and social networking pages.

Although these back alleys of the Internet have caused considerable public concern, sites that carry potentially dangerous information (such as bomb-building instructions and hate speech) have also incited calls for Internet censorship. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, along with tragic incidents in which armed and disturbed high school students massacred fellow students, have intensified debate about whether such information should be available on the Net.