[LINK] Calls for regulation following Internet suicide

Stilgherrian stil at stilgherrian.com
Sat Nov 22 11:52:19 AEDT 2008


I must admit, I'm getting pretty sick of references to "The Internet"  
in stories like this as if "The Internet" is some central, coherent  
place where The Internet People decide what will and won't happen.  
This is a tragic case, sure, but it wasn't "The Internet" which turned  
the camera on, it wasn't "The Internet" which watched, and it wasn't  
"The Internet" which downed a mouthful of pills  -- it's US, people,  
the human race, communicating with each other. Or, in this case,  
tragically failing to.

Calling for "The Internet" to be regulated because someone used it to  
do something tragic or stupid or illegal is like calling for "writing"  
to be regulated, or "talking" or "the telephone", because someone  
wrote a suicide note, or someone used speech to insult someone.

Stil


-- 
Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com/
Internet, IT and Media Consulting, Sydney, Australia
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