[LINK] Calls for regulation following Internet suicide

[Jan Whitaker]

At 12:40 PM 22/11/2008, Stephen Wilson wrote:
>If we all believe that the Internet really has
>fundamentally changed the way we live and work (usually for the better),
>then we have to concede that it may well have caused qualitative (not
>merely gradual) changes in long standing issues like bullying, spying,
>fraud, and youth suicide.  We must with the good and the bad.

Yeah, I made a similar point in a different forum when the discussion 
was about the use of spoofcards. That had come out of a thread about 
calling line identifiers and public payphones. Someone pointed to 
spoofcards as a way to frame someone. Evidently they are being used 
by low lifes to set people up with 911 (US emergency number) 
emergencies where the SWAT team is called out. When those bad 
examples were given, someone else pointed out that these cards could 
be useful to people who are threatened, say an abused spouse, to keep 
in contact without giving away their calling location.

Anyway, the use to which these tools are put is normally all in the 
hands of the user except for some built in limitations or physical 
realities. But the punishment should be for the specific act, not the 
technology itself, except perhaps with nuclear weapons. But even some 
people in weird ways look at those as having 'good' purposes. 
Unfortunately, those people are usually in very powerful positions. Go figure.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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