The Internet and real life

[Millea]

Hang on, people are being convicted based on internet posts?

*burns computer

You need to burn anything you've came into contact with.

 

[Bigmaclad]

THE ROBOTS ARE TAKING OVER

 

[Bungle]

You need to burn anything you've came into contact with.

That would be the Mrs this morning then, this is beginning to not seem so bad.

 

[Millea]

That would be the Mrs this morning then, this is beginning to not seem so bad.

Ffs I don't want to be accessory to murder.

 

[RFUS]

If you sent someone a horribly abusive letter, then you'd deserve the same sort of punishment. There's no difference to doing it online.

An email, a tweet, a facebook post. Whatever -- they're avenues for saying something that can be seen by people. If that thing is horribly offensive to the point where it can cause harm or incite hatred, then I don't see the problem with punishment.

There is most definitely a difference to being online and real life, hence the increased amount of vitriol, trolling and nastiness on the net. People think a lack of accountability and the presence -- often illusion -- of anonymity gives them free reign to be awful people. But if you were a parent who recently lost a child for example, and were spammed by links to a facebook page laughing at their death (I've heard all sorts of stories equivalent to this) that would impact you just as much as someone saying something to your face. More accountability should hopefully make the internet a nicer place.

 

[coollino]

Think I'm very much the same on the internet as I am real life, dislike the majority of people and things and enjoy doing so.

 

[HSD]

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.c...ng-offensive/story-21074768-detail/story.html

It's ridiculous and a waste of resources. People need to realise that there's a difference between online behaviour and real life behaviour.

It's nothing more than the establishment trying to take control.

So what do you think when a kid kills his/herself after being bullied online?

 

[Dithering Dougie]

People should be responsible for there opinions and actions at all times, whether that's in real life or cyber space. There's always consequences it's just while you do it online you don't get to see them.

 

[DualityNSNO]

Think I'm very much the same on the internet as I am real life, dislike the majority of people and things and enjoy doing so.

+1 to this.

I think I spend most of my time passionately disliking things ffs.

I've been a grumpy old man since the age of 16.

 

[rascal]

So what do you think when a kid kills his/herself after being bullied online?

I've been bullied myself online and in real life. It feels a lot more personal in real life. Kids don't kill themselves because they've been bullied online, that's only a small part of the problems that they face.

They need to open up, I never did and in many ways I regret it.

 

[chrissyjack]

It's different giving an offensive opinion to your mates in person , maybe one bloke, to posting it on social media . Where hundreds can see it . And, as HSD as already stated, people have committed suicide due to comments and rumours growing . These people are just morons who wouldn't say these things in real life , for fear of being chinned .

 

[heatmeiser]

I've been bullied myself online and in real life. It feels a lot more personal in real life. Kids don't kill themselves because they've been bullied online, that's only a small part of the problems that they face.

They need to open up, I never did and in many ways I regret it.

I'm gonna need you to cite your sources on this please mate.

 

[GwladysBlue]

I'm the pretty much the same on here as I would be in real life, I wouldn't hide my opinions facing people but then air the same opinion on here. I wouldn't go up to somebody and hurl abuse at them to their face, so why should doing it online be seen as any different?

 

[red1]

so why should doing it online be seen as any different?

Because *it is* different. Online is not the same as offline. Sometimes it is better , sometimes worse.

1) For example, walking down the high street naked is illegal, posting a naked pic of yourself on twitter/ facebook is legal. So, an exhibitionist would have far more freedom online.

2) However if you abuse somebody offline, there is a higher chance of getting away with it than online, because online abuse can be recorded via IP addresses and criminal prosecutions can easily arise whereas there is usually no recording of offline abuse whatsoever so it's harder to bring charges. In fact, the police have direct access to people's skype conversations/video conversations through cyber crime units so they can catch online pedophiles and predators almost instantaneously whereas it would take a long time to gather evidence of a pedophile's activities offline.

3) There's a reason why all extremist groups have a much larger following online in their websites than they do offline. People can voice unpopular dissent online which would probably be flagged to the police offline even if they aren't worthy of prosecutions.

4) Different websites have different servers and the UK police cannot prosecute comments on a website whose servers are of a different sovereign nation so this provides a higher degree of protection for offenders especially if those websites are non-cooperative to UK requests for identifying information of the perpetrator. Some websites have deals with the UK such as Skype, google, twitter etc. but most do not.

 

[Minimeister]

I often think about whether we were better off not having the internet growing up. The times I'd get pissed and end up in strange situations was bad enough, add the hassle of on-line communication in with that and I could of got in a bit of trouble.

Some bloke who trolled a dead persons site got jailed this week which is great. I however don't believe on the other hand that anyone expressing a racist view should be. I know not many would agree but where does this stop? Is this only going to be a white person crime?