How is the Internet bad for us?
Sorry - yet another collective picking of brains... As part of a literature review for a report I mentioned earlier (led by Sonia Livingstone and Andrea Millwood Hargrave) I am trying to pull together an overview of academic literature on the harms associated with Internet use. I am looking primarily for effects-centred literature and individual-level effects - things regulators might be reasonably expected to tackle - so macro-level theories are not what I am after. Here is a list of concerns I have come across in the literature so far. Can anyone suggest further areas where there has been research? Can anyone suggest concerns that haven't been researched but which need researching so we can recommend it? I would also be interested to receive further citations for any of the categories where I have indicated I haven't found much so far. I am aware this is a huge topic so I feel bound to have missed something... Note: this review will be freely downloadable online when it is finished and we hope will be a useful aid to both academics and regulators so please help if you can! Here are the categories of harm and offense I have found so far: Reinforcement of undesirable attitudes: * Anorexia * Hate group membership * suicide clubs Enabler of undesirable behavior: * Bullying (would like more lit) * Sexual harassment (would like more lit) * stalking (would like more lit) * Grooming of children by paedophiles (would like lit that provides quantitative evidence) Providing access to unsuitable/undesirable content * Porn * gambling (would like more lit) * alcohol/smoking and other anti-social advertising (would like more lit) To this I would add my personal favourite potential problem with the Information society: * The surveillance society'for your convenience and safety' (increased government and commercial surveillance and data mining related to your "public face") * The slow death of the privacy of your "private face" through increased public self-documentation and the self-documentation of others you interact with. What happens when significant numbers of us are cyborgs like Steve Mann http://wearcam.org/ and we're under continuous 'sousveillance'? My favourite book on the former issue is Garfinkel, S. (2000) Database Nation, O'Reilly, Cambridge but it is not an academic text. I would love to be able to say something in my lit review about either of these privacy issues but it is hard to measure the extent or the effects of such intrusion. Has anyone found any effects-based papers on either of these points? Or failing that could you recommend what you consider the key academic texts about the online privacy issue in general so I can cite them and add, "clearly more research is needed"? --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone) --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
On the slow death of the "private face," see the following: Daniel Solove, The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age (NYU 2004) Anything by Helen Nissenbaum, http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/ Also, I think you need to add another major category, unauthorized/unmediated access to information (e.g., P2P file-sharing, etc.). This is sort of a subcategory of the "undesirable content" category, but not quite, as it isn't the *content* that's undesirable, and sort of a subcategory of the "surveillance" category, but not quite, as the goal seems to be a more comprehensive use of technology to regulate conduct in ways that need not involve surveillance. See my paper, "Normal Discipline in the Age of Crisis," http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=572486. It's undergoing a major rewrite at present, but you can get the general idea. Best, Julie -- Julie E. Cohen Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Center 600 New Jersey Ave., NW Washington, DC 20001 V 202-662-9871 F 202-662-9410 jec@law.georgetown.edu http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/jec/ David Brake wrote:
Sorry - yet another collective picking of brains... As part of a literature review for a report I mentioned earlier (led by Sonia Livingstone and Andrea Millwood Hargrave) I am trying to pull together an overview of academic literature on the harms associated with Internet use. I am looking primarily for effects-centred literature and individual-level effects - things regulators might be reasonably expected to tackle - so macro-level theories are not what I am after.
Here is a list of concerns I have come across in the literature so far. Can anyone suggest further areas where there has been research? Can anyone suggest concerns that haven't been researched but which need researching so we can recommend it? I would also be interested to receive further citations for any of the categories where I have indicated I haven't found much so far. I am aware this is a huge topic so I feel bound to have missed something...
Note: this review will be freely downloadable online when it is finished and we hope will be a useful aid to both academics and regulators so please help if you can!
Here are the categories of harm and offense I have found so far:
Reinforcement of undesirable attitudes: * Anorexia * Hate group membership * suicide clubs
Enabler of undesirable behavior: * Bullying (would like more lit) * Sexual harassment (would like more lit) * stalking (would like more lit) * Grooming of children by paedophiles (would like lit that provides quantitative evidence)
Providing access to unsuitable/undesirable content * Porn * gambling (would like more lit) * alcohol/smoking and other anti-social advertising (would like more lit)
To this I would add my personal favourite potential problem with the Information society:
* The surveillance society'for your convenience and safety' (increased government and commercial surveillance and data mining related to your "public face") * The slow death of the privacy of your "private face" through increased public self-documentation and the self-documentation of others you interact with. What happens when significant numbers of us are cyborgs like Steve Mann http://wearcam.org/ and we're under continuous 'sousveillance'?
My favourite book on the former issue is Garfinkel, S. (2000) Database Nation, O'Reilly, Cambridge but it is not an academic text. I would love to be able to say something in my lit review about either of these privacy issues but it is hard to measure the extent or the effects of such intrusion. Has anyone found any effects-based papers on either of these points?
Or failing that could you recommend what you consider the key academic texts about the online privacy issue in general so I can cite them and add, "clearly more research is needed"?
--- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
--- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
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David - you sure have seen Trust and Crime in Information Societies (Mansell, R. & Brian S. Collins), Edward Elgar Publishers, forthcoming January 2005. Also see http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/pdf/Synthesisofthesciencerevi ews.pdf This on the back of great old book edited by Bauer, M. (1995). Resistance to new technology : nuclear power, information technology, biotechnology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Quite a few micro accounts I seem to remember. I wrote something time back but the dog ate it [well, the laptop was stolen]. Good look with the review Best Wainer
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of David Brake Sent: 20 June 2005 15:01 To: air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] How is the Internet bad for us?
Sorry - yet another collective picking of brains... As part of a literature review for a report I mentioned earlier (led by Sonia Livingstone and Andrea Millwood Hargrave) I am trying to pull together an overview of academic literature on the harms associated with Internet use. I am looking primarily for effects-centred literature and individual-level effects - things regulators might be reasonably expected to tackle - so macro-level theories are not what I am after.
Here is a list of concerns I have come across in the literature so far. Can anyone suggest further areas where there has been research? Can anyone suggest concerns that haven't been researched but which need researching so we can recommend it? I would also be interested to receive further citations for any of the categories where I have indicated I haven't found much so far. I am aware this is a huge topic so I feel bound to have missed something...
Note: this review will be freely downloadable online when it is finished and we hope will be a useful aid to both academics and regulators so please help if you can!
Here are the categories of harm and offense I have found so far:
Reinforcement of undesirable attitudes: * Anorexia * Hate group membership * suicide clubs
Enabler of undesirable behavior: * Bullying (would like more lit) * Sexual harassment (would like more lit) * stalking (would like more lit) * Grooming of children by paedophiles (would like lit that provides quantitative evidence)
Providing access to unsuitable/undesirable content * Porn * gambling (would like more lit) * alcohol/smoking and other anti-social advertising (would like more lit)
To this I would add my personal favourite potential problem with the Information society:
* The surveillance society'for your convenience and safety' (increased government and commercial surveillance and data mining related to your "public face") * The slow death of the privacy of your "private face" through increased public self-documentation and the self-documentation of others you interact with. What happens when significant numbers of us are cyborgs like Steve Mann http://wearcam.org/ and we're under continuous 'sousveillance'?
My favourite book on the former issue is Garfinkel, S. (2000) Database Nation, O'Reilly, Cambridge but it is not an academic text. I would love to be able to say something in my lit review about either of these privacy issues but it is hard to measure the extent or the effects of such intrusion. Has anyone found any effects-based papers on either of these points?
Or failing that could you recommend what you consider the key academic texts about the online privacy issue in general so I can cite them and add, "clearly more research is needed"?
--- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
--- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
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Good look with the review
Never thought that the Mancunian accent would surface one day, and in print :D Wainer
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Wainer Lusoli Sent: 20 June 2005 16:13 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: RE: [Air-l] How is the Internet bad for us?
David - you sure have seen
Trust and Crime in Information Societies (Mansell, R. & Brian S. Collins), Edward Elgar Publishers, forthcoming January 2005. Also see http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/pdf/Synthesisofthes ciencerevi ews.pdf
This on the back of great old book edited by Bauer, M. (1995). Resistance to new technology : nuclear power, information technology, biotechnology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Quite a few micro accounts I seem to remember. I wrote something time back but the dog ate it [well, the laptop was stolen].
Best
Wainer
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of David Brake Sent: 20 June 2005 15:01 To: air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] How is the Internet bad for us?
Sorry - yet another collective picking of brains... As part of a literature review for a report I mentioned earlier (led by Sonia Livingstone and Andrea Millwood Hargrave) I am trying to pull together an overview of academic literature on the harms associated with Internet use. I am looking primarily for effects-centred literature and individual-level effects - things regulators might be reasonably expected to tackle - so macro-level theories are not what I am after.
Here is a list of concerns I have come across in the literature so far. Can anyone suggest further areas where there has been research? Can anyone suggest concerns that haven't been researched but which need researching so we can recommend it? I would also be interested to receive further citations for any of the categories where I have indicated I haven't found much so far. I am aware this is a huge topic so I feel bound to have missed something...
Note: this review will be freely downloadable online when it is finished and we hope will be a useful aid to both academics and regulators so please help if you can!
Here are the categories of harm and offense I have found so far:
Reinforcement of undesirable attitudes: * Anorexia * Hate group membership * suicide clubs
Enabler of undesirable behavior: * Bullying (would like more lit) * Sexual harassment (would like more lit) * stalking (would like more lit) * Grooming of children by paedophiles (would like lit that provides quantitative evidence)
Providing access to unsuitable/undesirable content * Porn * gambling (would like more lit) * alcohol/smoking and other anti-social advertising (would like more lit)
To this I would add my personal favourite potential problem with the Information society:
* The surveillance society'for your convenience and safety' (increased government and commercial surveillance and data mining related to your "public face") * The slow death of the privacy of your "private face" through increased public self-documentation and the self-documentation of others you interact with. What happens when significant numbers of us are cyborgs like Steve Mann http://wearcam.org/ and we're under continuous 'sousveillance'?
My favourite book on the former issue is Garfinkel, S. (2000) Database Nation, O'Reilly, Cambridge but it is not an academic text. I would love to be able to say something in my lit review about either of these privacy issues but it is hard to measure the extent or the effects of such intrusion. Has anyone found any effects-based papers on either of these points?
Or failing that could you recommend what you consider the key academic texts about the online privacy issue in general so I can cite them and add, "clearly more research is needed"?
--- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
--- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
_______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-> aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
http://www.aoir.org/ _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Hi David, One of the elements missing from your list, and not yet mentioned by others in their excellent and helpful responses, is - impact on conceptions of knowledge, wisdom, and how we acquire these. These topics - technically, of epistemology - for better and for worse may be of interest only to philosophers. If so, ignore the rest of this. There are two central books here - Albert Borgmann, Holding on to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium, University of Chicago Press, 2000. Hubert Dreyfus, _On the Internet_. Routledge Press, 2001. I've written an essay that reviews and comments on Borgmann's central claims here, along with some reference to Dreyfus: Borgmann and the Borg: Consumerism vs. Holding on to Reality, Techné: Journal of the Society for Philosophy and Technology 6(1), 2002. <http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v6n1/ess.html> And,at the risk of violating all sorts of copyright laws - a sketchy document is available at http://www.drury.edu/ess/notesondreyfus.html Most of the document is devoted to clarifying for my students what Kierkegaard and Dreyfus mean vis-à-vis knowledge gained through the web and the Net. As I hope these notes help clarify - by all means, by drawing on Kierkegaard's taxonomy of knowledge (aesthetic / ethical / religious), Dreyfus' taxonomy indeed heads us in the direction of the metaphysical, though not necessarily religious. Briefly, the religious stage of human wisdom and existence for Kierkegaard involves a level of commitment and risk not found in the aesthetic and ethical stages. As Dreyfus puts it, our most important commitments are neither the ones that I arbitrarily choose nor the ones that I am obliged to keep because of my social role. Rather, these special commitments are experienced as grabbing my whole being. When I respond to such a summons by making an unconditional commitment, this commitment determines who I am and what will be the significant issue for me for the rest of my life. Political and religious movements can grab us in this way as can love relationships and, for certain people, such vocations as the law or music. (19) Of course, this sort of argumentation will drive social constructivists and postmodernists nuts - but from my perspective, the arguments are critical and I'm by no means convinced that the s.c. / p.m. schools have clearly won the day on this. So, to put it in a nutshell: with regard to your question - if Borgmann and Dreyfus are right, then, if we increasingly identify knowledge, information, wisdom, and learning with what is available via CMC to the exclusion of all other forms of knowledge, wisdom, and learning, we run the risk of losing not simply whole kinds of knowledge and wisdom that do _not_ fit through the pipelines of CMC (at least in their current forms), but further, we risk losing both the abilities and awareness of these abilities for gaining and refining such knowledge and wisdom - knowledge and wisdom that historically in both Western and Eastern traditions are characteristically presented as centrally important to becoming human and living humane lives. Before anyone gets too riled up - please note that having said this, I also make as much use as possible of distance learning techniques in my own teaching; it is clear that the Internet, the Web, and CMC more broadly have extraordinary capabilities for doing extraordinarily good things, etc. - these matters are not necessary either/or's, in my view. O.k. - hope that helps? Cheers, Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes Norwegian University of Science and Technology NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
Hi David, you also wrote:
My favourite book on the former issue is Garfinkel, S. (2000) Database Nation, O'Reilly, Cambridge but it is not an academic text. I would love to be able to say something in my lit review about either of these privacy issues but it is hard to measure the extent or the effects of such intrusion. Has anyone found any effects-based papers on either of these points?
Or failing that could you recommend what you consider the key academic texts about the online privacy issue in general so I can cite them and add, "clearly more research is needed"?
I'll be eager to see and review what others have recommended / might recommend: here's what I can share for the time being on privacy. In Information Ethics proper, the following are primary resources: Johnson, Deborah. 2001. Computer Ethics. 3rd. ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. (Chapter 5 on privacy is a classic, if by now a touch dated.) Michelfelder, Diane. 2001. The moral value of informational privacy in cyberspace. Ethics and Information Technology 3(2): 129-135. Spinello, Richard A. and Herman T. Tavani (eds.). 2004. Readings in CyberEthics, 2nd edition. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. [extensive chapter (4) on privacy, including: Moor, James H. Toward a Theory of Privacy for the Information Age. 407-417. Elgesem, Dag. The Structure of Rights in Directive 95/46/EC on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and the Free Movement of Such Data. 418-435. Herman T. Tavani and James H. Moore. Privacy Protection, Control of Information and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies. 436-449. Nissenbaum, Helen. Toward an Approach to Privacy in Public: Challenges of Information Technology. 450- Vedder, Anton H. KDD, Privacy, Individuality, and Fairness. 462-470. Fulda, Joseph S. Data Mining and Privacy. 471-475. Introna, Lucas D. Workplace Surveillance, Privacy, and Distributive Justice. 476-487. Van den Hoven, Jeroen. Privacy and the Varieties of Informational Wrongdoing. 488-500. Stahl, Bernd Carsten. 2004. Responsible Management of Information Systems. Hershey, Pennsylvania: Idea Group. [Stahl develops a very robust and cross-cultural notion of "reflective responsibility" - one intended to work as a bridge concept between applied ethicists, on the one hand, and professionals in computer and information sciences, on the other. He applies this notion specifically to the question of whether or not a company should use surveillance technology on its employees. This nicely complements the focus in Tavani on surveillance of customers through technologies such as data mining, etc. Tavani, Herman T. 2004. Ethics and Technology: Ethical Issues in an Age of Information and Communication Technology. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. [For an introduction to Information Ethics, this is the best text I've found - I've just used it in a graduate course at NTNU with both philosophy graduate students and a computer science professional; it worked very well indeed, I'm pleased to say.] If you read German, the following are basics: Bizer, Johann. 2003. Grundrechte im Netz: Von der freien Meinungsäußerung bis zum Recht auf Eigentum. In Schulzki-Haddouti (Hrsg.), 21-29. Schulzki-Haddouti, Christiane (Hrsg.). 2003. Bürgerrechte im Netz. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Available online: <http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/UZX6DW,,0,B%fcrgerrechte_im_Netz.html> Wassermann, Rudolf. 2003. Das Grundgesetz: Anspruch und Verpflichtung. In Schulzki-Haddouti (Hrsg.), 13-20. Kuhlen, Rainer. 2004. Informationsethik. Umgang mit Wissen und Information in elektronischen Räumen. Universitätsverlag Konstanz. There's a great deal more to add here in the direction of concepts of privacy and data privacy protection laws in Asia (including several things currently under review that thus, for better and for worse, I can't cite just yet) - but as a start you can look at: Mizutani, Masahiko, James Dorsey and James H. Moor. 2004. The internet and Japanese conception of privacy, Ethics and Information Technology 6: 121128. "Protection of Privacy in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan" <http://newmedia.cityu.edu.hk/cyberlaw/gp15/cnlaw1.html> (This is from an online course on "Protection of Privacy in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan," created by Michelle Chiu, Anthony Lee and Tsui Hou Ming: very good overview! Unfortunately, it's also been taken off the web, last I checked - let me know if you'd like me to send you an archived copy) Caslon Analytics. Privacy Guide. (Overview of Asia) <http://www.caslon.com.au/privacyguide6.htm#landscapes>. Retrieved October 15, 2004. A more complete account of privacy rights and law in the PRC is available at <http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/phr2003/countries/china.htm>] McDougall, Bonnie S. 2001. Briefing paper: concepts of privacy in English. <http://www.arts.ed.ac.uk/asianstudies/privacyproject/briefing.html> McDougall, Bonnie S. and Anders Hansson (eds.) 2002. Chinese Concepts of Privacy. Leiden: Brill. Ramasoota, Pirongrong. 2001. Privacy: A Philosophical sketch and a Search for a Thai Perception. MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities 4 (2: September), 89-107. Tang, Raymond. 2002. Approaches to Privacy ~ The Hong Kong Experience. <http://www.pco.org.hk/english/infocentre/speech_20020222.html> White & Case LLP. 2002. Global Privacy Law: a Survey of 15 Major Jurisdictions] . [Includes China]. Available online from: <http://www.whitecase.com/pr_wc_privacy_law_survey.html> == I hope this is helpful. Good luck! Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes Norwegian University of Science and Technology NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
David Brake wrote:
Here are the categories of harm and offense I have found so far:
Reinforcement of undesirable attitudes: * Anorexia * Hate group membership * suicide clubs
Enabler of undesirable behavior: * Bullying (would like more lit) * Sexual harassment (would like more lit) * stalking (would like more lit) * Grooming of children by paedophiles (would like lit that provides quantitative evidence)
You might consider adding 'adultery', if you consider adultery to be undesirable behaviour ;-). I'm thinking of people getting back together with old flames via sites like Friends Reunited, under the noses of current life partners. There's been a recent UK television documentary on this phenomenon, but perhaps too recent for research to have kicked off.. FR and similar sites also enable people to track down others who may not wish to be tracked down e.g. violent men tracking down ex-wives that they have abused; parents or children tracking down those children or parents who do not wish to have contact. Individuals may be literally ex-directory (re phone directories, to protect themselves), but may not realise they are not 'ex directory on the Internet' until it is too late. This is related to your stalking category, but maybe separate (the individuals are well known to each other, whereas stalking is perhaps more often associated with strangers).
Providing access to unsuitable/undesirable content * Porn * gambling (would like more lit) * alcohol/smoking and other anti-social advertising (would like more lit)
To this I would add my personal favourite potential problem with the Information society:
* The surveillance society'for your convenience and safety' (increased government and commercial surveillance and data mining related to your "public face") * The slow death of the privacy of your "private face" through increased public self-documentation and the self-documentation of others you interact with. What happens when significant numbers of us are cyborgs like Steve Mann http://wearcam.org/ and we're under continuous 'sousveillance'?
There have been cases documented of Friends Reunited etc. being used by the UK police to collar criminals e.g. a cocaine dealer, later convicted (he'd been telling his old school-mates about his activities). The UK police have said they monitor such websites for evidence of criminal behaviour, and have stated that the public should assume that this occurs. Again, this has been covered by TV documentary makers, though don't know whether any research is under way. Louise
Another example for the danger of tracking down abused ex-partners via Internet: I have met an organiser of a women's shelter who argued she didn't want a homepage because it would help violent husbands finding the shelter where their wives are now; of course they are not listed in telephone directories. She didn't know, however, that some well-meaning person had already set up a website: with complete address, telephone number, photos (and a call for donations). Apparently, the violent husbands hadn't figured that out (yet), either. ***************************************************** Isa Ducke PhD Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin / Research Fellow Sozialwissenschaften / Social Science German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) 3-3-6 Kudan-Minami, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0074 , JAPAN Tel: +81-3-3222-5077 (reception) -5468 (Direct) FAX +81-3-3222-5420 e-mail: ducke@dijtokyo.org http://www.dijtokyo.org ***************************************************** ----- Original Message ----- FR and similar sites also enable people to track down others who may not wish to be tracked down e.g. violent men tracking down ex-wives that they have abused; parents or children tracking down those children or parents who do not wish to have contact. Individuals may be literally ex-directory (re phone directories, to protect themselves), but may not realise they are not 'ex directory on the Internet' until it is too late. This is related to your stalking category, but maybe separate (the individuals are well known to each other, whereas stalking is perhaps more often associated with strangers).
participants (6)
-
Charles Ess -
David Brake -
Isa Ducke -
Julie Cohen -
Louise Ferguson -
Wainer Lusoli