This House Believe The Internet Brings More Harm Than Good

ALL POINTS OF POINTS FOR

Source: http://www.europe.idebate.org/debatabase/debates/science-technology/housebelieves-internet-brings-more-harm-good

TITLE: The quality of information online cannot always be relied upon

POINTS FOR:
1. The Internet has become a major source of information for many people. However, online
information has usually not gone through the same checks as newspaper articles, books or
factual television programming. There is a higher risk that some of the facts or quotations
from a particular source in an article are false. Whereas newspapers might lose customers if
people find out they have been selling lies, a blog and other online content can be easily
created and uploaded as well as just as quickly being deleted. If people base their opinions on
the information they find online, they could well be basing their opinion on false information.
Take for example the 2006 conspiracy film Loose Change which has had millions of views. A
report from the thinktank Demos in a report titled Truth, Lies and the Internet: A Report into
Young Peoples Digital Fluency. State that the film contains a ...litnay of errors,
misattributions, vague insinuations, subtle misquotes, and outright falsehoods... Since the
Internet gives equal space to material of greatly varying quality, the degree to which the
internet can been viewed as being a total force for good is drawn into question. If an informed
society is an empowered society it therefore stands to reason that a misinformed society is
disempowered society.
COUNTERPOINTS:
1. The Internet gives millions of people access to information they would not otherwise have
had, which is a huge benefit. People who read the news, offline or online, are not inherently
dupable, they like all people do not simply accept messages they are, to varying degrees,
critical of what they read and not simply passive. When people spend a lot of time reading
online content they can differentiate between bloggers who are untrustworthy or extremely
biases from bloggers who carefully refer to legitimate sources. The problem of bad
information in news-making is not unique to the Internet; there are lots of trashy magazines
and poorly researched news content in traditional print channels of communication as well.
We learn in formal education to double-check our sources and not believe everything we
read, and we can apply that skill while surfing the Internet.
It is not enough to say that the internet contains falsehoods to dismiss the value of the
internet. All mediums contain falsehoods whether intentional or unintentional but there is a
much broader picture that needs to be considered in terms of the ability of the internet to
provide people with freedom of expression and freedom of information, if it being a free for
all has the downside of some falsehoods then that is a price worth paying.

TITLE: The Internet is a threat to privacy

POINTS FOR:
2. Everyones privacy can be greatly harmed by the Internet. Some websites store
information. Some ask us to fill in information which can be sold to other sites for
commercial purposes. As the Internet gains more and more users the temptation for criminals
to gain our private information becomes greater. Hackers can hide their true location when
engaging in illegal activities online, so the likelihood of their being brought to justice is low.
Whenever people post something online, it becomes almost impossible to erase, and with the
proliferation of social networks posting personal information online is becoming second
nature, this is a dangerous precedent. Take for example the posting of our locations online via
geotagging, this for many is an action which doesnt take much consideration, however, to
demonstrate the danger of this designer Barry Borsoom setup the website PleaseRobMe.com
which would grab geocaching data and tell people when a persons house was potentially
empty.
With the aid of the Internet then, we are symbolically sleepwalking into a big brother style
existence, in an information age all data about ourselves is an important asset and one which
needs defending. The infringement and degradation of our privacy as a side-result of the
Internet should be of great concern, and it is potentially one of the most detrimental effects
the Internet could have on society.
COUNTERPOINTS:
2. Privacy online is a big concern, but an educated citizen can navigate the Internet in a safe
and sensible manner with minimal privacy issues, although as with being offline a the threat
of crime can never be entirely eliminated. When we go online no-one forces the user to share
private information, it is volunteered by the user in exchange for a free service, it is often a
small price to pay for the services that can be received in return, such as free e-mail or free
webspace. Of course privacy can be infringed in other ways, by unlawful access to personal
files for example, but if protection such as firewalls are setup and users are careful about
what they download privacy online can be easily maintained. It is misleading to say we are
sleeping walking into a big brother existence, it gives in impression that the effect the Internet
is having on society is conspiratorial, this is clearly not the case, people like the way the
Internet can bring people all over the world together. Privacy is no more of a problem online
than privacy is in the offline world, the issue is being overstated by the proposition.

TITLE: The Internet has allowed a large amount of criminal, offensive and discriminatory
information to be easily accessed.
POINTS FOR:
3. The ability for anyone to be able to publish anything online without barriers resulted in a
large amount of information which could not only be incorrect but could also be criminal,
offensive or discriminatory if it were available to the general public. This sort of information
would not usually be widely published via offline channels, but with the advent of the
Internet it is very easily accessible by anyone like never before, and this is a dangerous
president. A cavalcade of propaganda from extremist groups such as religious zealots or NeoNazis for example can be accessed by anyone around the world. This is dangerous as
vulnerable people could easily be taken in and exploited if the discovered this material. It is
quite often found that lone-wolf terrorists, for example, have gotten their information and
inspiration from the Internet. Garry Reid, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Special
Operations and Combating Terrorism in the USA states that Enabled by 21st-century
technology, extremists have optimized the use of Internet chat rooms, Web sites and e-mail
chains to spread their virulent messages and reach a global audience of potential recruits.
But it is not only terrorists who are utilizing the Internet at a detriment to society. Various
reports have linked a sharp rise in paedophilia with the growth of the Internet as it is an easy
and often anonymous way to share such material with the world. The ability for anyone to
publish anything online could clearly do considerable harm to society, which would have
otherwise been much less prevalent and easier to control and regulate.
COUNTERPOINTS:
3. Freedom of information should mean freedom of all types of information, even if it is
extreme propaganda from fringe groups such as neo-Nazis or Al-Qaeda. The public must be
trusted to be able to make its own decisions on the value of such texts. What is great about
the Internet is that points of view that would not necessarily get much publicity in traditional
media can be aired and discussed online, from serious issues such as capital punishment to
less serious ones like aliens. Of course one of the downfalls of such freedom is that illegal
content such as child pornography can be made available in a way which it could not have
before, but highlighting this issue is not entirely fair as it is greatly outweighed by the
information available online that is perfectly fine and legal. This does not of course excuse
the publication of such images. It is, however, a slight misnomer to suggest that the Internet is
entirely free from the restraints of law. In issues of legality, governments can take action: they
can either trace the origin of the images or force web space providers and ISPs (Internet
Service Providers) to take down the content. On the whole, having ready access to such a
large amount of information, and being able to freely add and discuss it, is beneficial to
society, because it is both liberating and educational.