The Laws of the Internet

By: Nicole Shalit

The internet, much like the outside world, can be a dangerous place. There are all kinds on laws and restrictions to make it a safer place, that doesn’t always work though.

One thing that happens on the internet that a lot of people are naive about is identity theft. There are many things you could do on internet that you would need your social security number, credit card, etc. This is for sites where you would buy something, have a credit check done, and much more. Not all of these sites will do you harm, however it is important that you check into the company before giving out your information. Before the internet, criminals had to go to a bank and open an account with a fake ID, etc. which was a greater risk for them. They could run into the person they were trying to impersonate, the cops, or the person who they are trying to impersonate could have put an alert out on their ID, etc. In 1999 a criminal found a list of officers in the US armed services, along with their serial numbers which were also their social security numbers. The criminal then applied for credit in these names, and received numerous credit cards. Then this person opened P.O. boxes where he had cash advances sent. One victim in this case was Lt. Col. Jones. He ran a credit check on himself to only to discover that this man ran up over $50,000 of charges in his name. He contacted the law enforcement authorities in Baltimore. The actions of this person have caused Jones and his wife tremendous grief. They have been denied credit, been told they could only purchase a car with cash, etc.

There is also a copyright law for the internet. You probably heard the term plagiarism in high school. This is when someone writes a paper and it gets copied. This can also happen on the internet, and does quite often. On the internet anything could be plagiarized. Photos, drawings, charts, essays, articles, etc. can all be plagiarized.

The most important and dangerous issue is that of the internet sex offenders. There is a movie on lifetime called “Defending Our Kids: The Julie Posey Story” which is about a teenager who finds an pen pal online. This boy says he is her age, but he’s really an older man who likes to abduct young girls and rape them. When her mother Julie finds information that she is going to the park to meet her online friend, Julie rushes to find her daughter. She reaches her just in time, and brings her home. After that she decides to pose as a teen girl and chat with other teens on the web. Going undercover, she decides to inform the police of where she is meeting these guys and begins working with them to dwindle down the sex offenders list. There are many websites you can go to and check your area for sex offenders which have to inform the police whenever they move so they can keep a list of where they live. Many kids and teens love chatting with kids their own age, but how can you really be sure who you are talking to? Anyone can get a picture of their teenage brother or neighbor and tell you it’s them. There are safety features on computers parents don’t take the time to set up. Most schools have these set up on the library computers. I even tried to get onto my email on a school computer once, and was unable to because they had them set to high security. There are a few different settings, and if you set them correctly for each user on your computer, you can insure that your 18 year old daughter is allowed to go onto MySpace and chat rooms, but your 9 year old son isn’t.

If you feel that any of these laws have been broken, and you are a victim of identity theft, copy write infringement, or if you think your child has been in contact with a sex offender, you should immediately contact the police.