Should Regulation for Internet Information Be Accepted?
According to the paper from Andy Greenhaw, it shows the tremendous number of 1.2 zettabytes(1.3 trillion gigabytes). This is the number of the information in the cyberspace. If you can not get the picture of the number, think of this; the 339 miles of 75 billion fully-loaded ipads stacked to the sky(as a guide, exosphere is 230 miles from the earth). (Andy Greenhaw, 2010). It is apparent that extremely much information exist. Besides, around 40% of the world population has an internet connection today, and most of the purposes for the internet was to search various kinds of information. As there are so much information exposed to people on the internet, and it is available in everywhere in the world, it seems that people are relying on the information on the internet. But, think about the difficulties when you were using the internet information. Yes, there are certain difficulties. When you are using internet information, you must have been irritated by extremely enormous amount of information or been frightened if your identity is released or been exposed to violent information. These experiences that might be considered as trivial things because they are just daily things. However, these trivial things are becoming big and negative consequences, like crimes or degradation of an ability, and it seems the situation will become more serious when the internet information is not regulated. Information must be regulated on the internet to prevent further disasters. I'll show my arguments with the examples to highlight the necessity for internet information regulation in this essay.
According to the web-site internet live stats, it can be seen that the number of the internet users has increased tenfold from 1999 to 2014. Most of these internet users may use the internet for finding information. (World wide web foundation, 2014) It obviously seems that the information on the internet can give people a big effect. However, perceptions that considering and doubting internet information that it may not be useful all the time has been coming out from the past. The research from Flanagin and Miriam tried to compare internet information to other traditional media and also tried to found out what information was the most credible thing on the internet through several surveys and experiments. It showed that unlike most other mass media, the Web has few centralized information filters relative to the amount of information available. Although sites that parallel their traditional media counterparts, such as the New York Times Online, do have formal information gatekeepers, the most of the web sites do not. Also, web-based information also differs from the information delivered through more traditional channels in the point that it is more prone to alteration, which can be difficult to detect. Web-based information, however, is easy to create and can appear credible, even when they are not. It seems that internet users could meet a bad result by inaccurate information that is easy to believe credible. (Flanagin and Metzger, 2000)
To see the model that the internet regulation is already being applied, in Singapore, it has the most highest internet access and even Singapore government promotes the internet for national development. For promoting a better environment of the internet, Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA), responsible for the online censorship, judged that internet has some negative effects. Therefore, according to the Minister of information, SBA is trying to keep Singapore's "backyard and front yard clean by sweeping daily." The SBA regulates Internet Service/Content Providers through the Class License Scheme and the Internet Code of Practice (prohibiting the materials under the set of limitations). (Wu Wei, Koo Soh Hoon, 2001)
People go through many difficulties when using information on the internet. If you are an internet user, you must have suffered once: making your internet slow, meeting so much information that makes you confusing are those. The problem that extremely much information causes is "Information Overload." Information overload is a phenomenon that there are too many information uploaded on the internet so that it takes too much time to access to the page. It is mainly caused by increasing new information, ease of duplication, contradictions and inaccuracies in available information, unrelated information, etc. It can be also experienced by distracting information, like email spam, email notifications, instant messages, Tweets and Facebook updates, etc.
There are three bad effects of this phenomenon, found by several experiments, conducted by Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School. First, it can make people feel powerless and anxious, and this was proved by the researchers who found out that multi-taskers have more stress hormones. Second, it can make people less creative. According to the experiment from Havard Business school, if there are fewer interruptions while working, people will become more creative. Third, it will make workers' productivity lower. According to David Meyer of the University of Michigan, people who complete the same tasks in sequence are more productive. These bad influences of 'Information Overload' will not only make internet users not show their capacities, but also reduce the competence of individuals, corporations, and even country. If this situation is neglected, the problem will become more serious. (Schumpeter, 2011)
Also, information of one individual on the internet can give a bad impact on one person. Citing 'freedom of expression', the spread of one's personal information on the internet is prevailing so that lots of people having a reputational damage by those information that they can hardly have a normal life. Displayed examples, extracted from the book 'After Leveson', will show how regulation is urgent:
Someone took a name of a work colleague of the author and set up a Facebook account. Some true and some false facts were on the site. Those facts and events seemed to be credible, and this played havoc with his personal life and relationships. But Facebook company avoided the responsibility. (Roy Greenslade, 2013)The example shows the traits and impact of the internet information. Even the information was false, but it spread fast and widely through SNS. In this situation, some kind of control needed to be applied to solve the problem. The information updated by a hacker had to be regulated first, and the company had to take the responsibility of the spread of the false information. Lack of the regulation, however, caused one person to be a weirdo and have his life go bankrupt.
Case of Jimmy Savile: Jimmy Savile (1926-2011) was an English DJ, television presenter and charity fundraiser, and he hosted the BBC television show and music chart show. Right before his death, he was praised for his personalities and as a fund raiser. After his death, however, a great amount of allegations of sexual abuse were against him and he is today considered as a predatory sex offender due to the extensive media coverage. The author says that the main cause of reputational damage of Jimmy Savile was due to the information terrorism. "Post-Savile, family men, often with lives of unblemished public success, have been suddenly traduced by anonymous, out-of-the-blue allegations from 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Because of completely unrelated media stories, about completely unrelated people, mainly completely unrelated circumstances, and unrelated crimes. Based on untested historical information, presumably without a scrap of forensics or contemporaneous medical examinations, the police arrested first and asked question later." The author also say that the author himself was close to Jimmy Savile but Savile was "highly professional, a pleasant but wily man, the life and soul of the crowd that sought him out for autographs."(Roy Greenslade, 2013)
The case of Jimmy Savile also shows the internet information that could impact on one's reputation. Savile met with several allegations even during his lifetime, but he coped with it legally. After his death, meaning that Savile can't do anything for himself, hundreds of allegations were against him and he was treated only as a terrible sex offender, even though he contributed for the society. Although this Savile's case is true, unlike the example above, it seems that his negative aspect is awfully emphasized through the internet. If you search for 'Jimmy Savile' on the internet search engine, you may find infinite information about his sexual abuse, without his contribution to the society.
Similarly, today in Korea, people, who become issue by their arrogant and thoughtless action, are hard to live a normal life because their identities are released by netizens on the internet. It seems to be a desirable way to blame those people to reflect themselves but once one's identity is on the internet, one is stigmatized by the society. For instance, there was a man who betrayed his girlfriend and because of this shock, his girlfriend committed suicide. Post related to this case was on the internet, and then the netizens started to find out and release his identity. Now, he has a difficulty on finding a job and live a normal life. In some cases, the false information of someone is released so sometimes an innocent person is damaged. Therefore, whether it is true or false, it is urgent to regulate the information on the internet because it can give a big negative impact on one's life,
Lastly, prevailing violent information is another why the information on the internet should be regulated. The violent information is easily exposed to the people today, and it is a moment that information can grow into violent behavior in people. For example, 'The Nuremberg Files', the website which advocates the murder of abortion doctors, listed the names and addresses of the abortion doctors. This kind of information could provoke a reader to action, and could be a positive reinforcement for negative behavior. Fortunately, this web-site was sent to the U.S court and was close. (Jon Bellona)
Here is an example that violent information on the internet became a reality. The students, named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, walked into their high school and murdered 12 of their classmates, one teacher, and wounded 23, before killing themselves. These students, who enjoyed the violent online game, once contacted with the website posting all of the negative information, including how to make pipe bombs. They also said that their purpose for murdering was to "kill and injure as many of you as I can", the words from one website posting. The violent information on the internet, that must have been regulated, made the students more confusing between the game and the reality. It seems that the internet information is to blame for the students' murdering because the website with the information of how to make a bomb, encouraged Harris and Klebold take an action to kill people. (Jon Bellona)
Moreover, as the cases of sexual abuse is increasing, one of the biggest reasons for the increase of sexual abuse, especially in youth, is that internet users are exposed to unwanted sexual information, such as sexual solicitation, pornography, etc. According to NSOPW, approximately 1 in 7 (13%) youth Internet users received unwanted sexual solicitations and 9% of youth Internet users had been exposed to distressing sexual material while online. This shows that the youth are likely to access on sexual information on the internet. (Wolak, J., K. Mitchell and D. Finkelhor, 2011)
It seems to be reasonable that the information regulation is necessary in the internet, according to the reasons that I displayed, but many opponents mainly insist that it's a democratic society today, that guarantees freedom and their freedom of expression should be fully granted. They make a resistance when the information they use are regulated and cite that the Court has ruled that the right to receive information prohibits a government from restricting a person from receiving information that others may wish or may be willing to impart to her.(Rikke Frank Jørgensen, 2000-2001) For example, some people argue that the government is violating their right to receive information, when the government is trying to block the porn site to prevent the further danger. These opponents, however, are just worrying about their advantage and shortsighted. Although the constitution over many of the world has specified the 'freedom of expression', it does not mean the government should leave the internet until the citizens become in danger. In other words, the government not only have to guarantee the citizens' right of freedom, but also have to protect the citizens from the danger and have the responsibility to make a proper environment for the internet user. Even the Special Rapporteur, expert appointed by the Human Rights Council, specifies on his 2000 annual report that internet needs to have some kinds of restriction "on the ground that control, regulation and denial of access is necessary to preserve the moral fabric and cultural identity of societies is paternalistic, and presume to protect people from themselves”. (Rikke Frank Jørgensen, 2000-2001) Of course, regulation doesn't mean that the internet users don't have any freedom to express on the internet. It is just said that regulation is necessary for better internet environment and peaceful society.
Whether the internet information should be regulated has been an issue for a long period so for many people, regulation of it might not be a considerable topic. However, without people realizing it, internet has been pervading in their lives as the technology has reached to smartphones, tablet PCs, etc., and has been influential beyond words. In this present, it seems necessary to check if modern people are receiving internet information in a desirable way. Through the research, it was possible to specify the problems that people just simply experience while using internet and find out the results when they are not regulated. Too much information on the internet, would not only make users feel stressed but also can degrade one's skill and even stop one country's development. Also, when the false personal information is spread, it'll have a large social effect and would make one's life go bankrupt. Furthermore, the violent information on the internet are likely to make so many crimes and make the society in a state of agitation. These would seem to be trite facts, but it is true these trite facts are still happening in our society so frequently. People have to remind of the negative effects of prevailing internet information. From these three situations, the need of regulation on the internet is essential, for the prevention of much bigger disasters.
References
Andy Greenhaw (2010, August 2). How big is the internet? Retrieved from https://andygreenhaw.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/how-big-is-the-internet/
World wide web foundation (2014). Internet users. Internet live stats. Retrieved from http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/
Andrew J. Flanagin and Miriam J. Metzger (2000). Perceptions of internet information credibility. Journalism & Mass Communication. Retrieved from http://www.jasonmorrison.net/iakm/4006074.pdf
Wu Wei, Koo Soh Hoon (2001). Perceived Effects of Sexually Explicit Internet Content: The Third-Person Effect in Singapore. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly , Vol. 78, No. 2. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-80872189/perceived-effects-of-sexually-explicit-internet-content
Schumpeter (2011). Too much information. The economist. Retreived from http://www.economist.com/node/18895468#footnote2
Roy Greenslade (2013). After Leveson: the internet needs regulation to halt 'information terrorism'. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/mar/06/leveson-report-internet
Jon Bellona. Violent Behavior. The dark side of the internet. Retrieved from http://people.hamilton.edu/bhouse/DoWeEncourage/DoWeEncourage3.html
Wolak, J., K. Mitchell, and D. Finkelhor (2011, December 21), Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2006. Retrieved from http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/NC167.pdf
Rikke Frank Jørgensen (2000-2001). Internet and Freedom of expression. EUROPEAN MASTER DEGREE IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRATISATION. Retrieved from http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/faife/publications/ife03.pdf
