Is there a way to stop vigilantes and restore human rights on the internet? A 13-year-old girl, Megan, was driven to suicide because of online bullying. Sarah Wells, who learned about this situation took it upon herself to bring the girl's family justice. She posted the name, phone number, address, and more personal information of Lori Drew- who had decieved Megan, on her blog on the internet. She got exactly what she was looking for when readers attacked Lori's career and threatened her. The anonymous bullys and vigilantes on the internet need to have consequences for such actions.
Verbally attacking one over the internet is easy when almost absolute anonymity can be acheived. Morals are supposedly directly related to culture. And yet most people have personal morals that they live by. However, the internet has taken on a culture of its own, sucking in everyone and anyone. These people tend to go by false names and even take on a personality they would never have otherwise outside of the web. Because they cannot be harmed for their actions, they do not fear doing wrong upon other people. Due to the extremely large amount of people involved in this type of crime, there are few available solutions that will dilute the abuse effectively. For example- If a ban was set up on posting any personal information, shopping sites would be shut down, art businesses would close. One cannot buy an item from a personal seller if they cannot give an address to send it to.
Suppose that to use the internet, your identity would be easily accessed by anyone. Would this help delete the verbal abuse, or would it escalade beyond control? I believe that it would, quite literally delete shows of internet abuse. Now, how many times a day do you see your fellow students expressing every thought about another person to their face? Not very often, right? However, this is all too common on sites like Myspace, where teens can 'yell' back and forth without risking a hard slap to the face. In many cases, the one being attacked doesn't even know who's attacking them, so the one doing it really has nothing to lose! Although nothing will stop the usual drama of highscool, one wouldn't risk causing such a rukus if they couldn't hide behind their computer screens.
There are laws on harrassment, many which apply to online, as well. Sometimes, these laws are broken, but police cannot locate the wrong-doer to arrest them because they made caution to be totally hidden. If to use the internet, enough information was provided for an arrest like this, most people would probably not break what laws there are. Much of the bullies web-wide are both not aware that they are breaking laws, and not caring because they know they cannot be caught for it. Reduced anonymity would raise awareness on the law and discourage people from breaking them.
Another problem has received more publicity than any other. Many (usually younger girls) will pretend to be older than they are and sign up for various dating sites. There are times where these girls "hook up" with older men, or even where older men posing to be younger hook up with girls, and they plan to meet in real life after creating some sort of relationship. Not to say this always happens, but typically portrayed in the media, the men will kidnap, rape, and murder these children. Without anonymity, they would both be aware of the other's age, and be able to avoid this problem.
Taking all of this into account, Megan's life would have surely been spared, and thus Lori Drew's, untouched. Many other lives could have been spared, and the internet would, in general, be a much nicer place to chat and debate. If this were to be put through as some national law any time in the future, the world would quickly adjust, and possibly enjoy the change.
Omnific Community Member 
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