As Tom Clancy fans know you want the character John Clark on your side. Shadowy and lethal, this former Navy Seal ends up heading the counter-terrorist force, Rainbow. But in the book, "Without Remorse" he runs a one-man vigilante operation to clean up the illegal drug industry. The book was set during the Vietnam War. If it was in today's setting I am willing to bet John would be going after the shady parts of the WWW.
As this article in 2001 by Terrence Berg (then in the Michigan Attorney General's office) expresses "Unfortunately,
the example of the child predator is only one of many. Because the
Internet is as broad as the human psyche, it naturally encompasses all
of the darkest manifestations of evil imaginable: every form of
denigration of human dignity and antisocial behavior, from racial
hatred and white supremacist ideology, to self-mutilation, torture and
sado-masochism, to virulent misogynism, to violent extremism and
Satanism. Web sites and chat rooms dedicated to glorifying such
behaviors—as well as more mundane unlawful conduct such as hacking,
credit card fraud, tax evasion and the manufacture of illegal drugs and
explosives—are easily located by entering simple search terms into any
Internet search engine."
Things have only gotten worse since 2001. In modern democracies we protect freedom of expression and our privacy. But we also need to protect our kids and ourselves from predators and fraudsters. As this CSO article details the criminals have many places to hide.
That means smarter and more computer literate cops to go after them. The tech industry (particularly Microsoft with IE) needs to do so much better about making the Web less vulnerable to spyware, adware, viruses and more. But each of us technologists in our ways need to speak up more, educate our politicians, reason with civil rights groups.
As we excitedly watch the emergence of Web 2.0 and prepare to make our New Year's resoultions, we need to remind ourselves about the shameful aspects of Web 1.0. If we do not collectively do much about it, the John Clarks of the world will.
The Wild, Wild Web
As Tom Clancy fans know you want the character John Clark on your side. Shadowy and lethal, this former Navy Seal ends up heading the counter-terrorist force, Rainbow. But in the book, "Without Remorse" he runs a one-man vigilante operation to clean up the illegal drug industry. The book was set during the Vietnam War. If it was in today's setting I am willing to bet John would be going after the shady parts of the WWW.
As this article in 2001 by Terrence Berg (then in the Michigan Attorney General's office) expresses "Unfortunately, the example of the child predator is only one of many. Because the Internet is as broad as the human psyche, it naturally encompasses all of the darkest manifestations of evil imaginable: every form of denigration of human dignity and antisocial behavior, from racial hatred and white supremacist ideology, to self-mutilation, torture and sado-masochism, to virulent misogynism, to violent extremism and Satanism. Web sites and chat rooms dedicated to glorifying such behaviors—as well as more mundane unlawful conduct such as hacking, credit card fraud, tax evasion and the manufacture of illegal drugs and explosives—are easily located by entering simple search terms into any Internet search engine."
Things have only gotten worse since 2001. In modern democracies we protect freedom of expression and our privacy. But we also need to protect our kids and ourselves from predators and fraudsters. As this CSO article details the criminals have many places to hide.
That means smarter and more computer literate cops to go after them. The tech industry (particularly Microsoft with IE) needs to do so much better about making the Web less vulnerable to spyware, adware, viruses and more. But each of us technologists in our ways need to speak up more, educate our politicians, reason with civil rights groups.
As we excitedly watch the emergence of Web 2.0 and prepare to make our New Year's resoultions, we need to remind ourselves about the shameful aspects of Web 1.0. If we do not collectively do much about it, the John Clarks of the world will.
November 28, 2005 in "New Web" and enterprise computing, Industry Commentary | Permalink