what is happening with the net these days? rant

I was just watching sky news and shocked to find out that a guy has committed sucide 'live' on the net and the deceased's family is begging desperately for people not to circulate the images over the net.

What is going on? The net is great for so many things....sharing information, learning, talking to others and of course TCS....but for this tragic occurence to be allowed to happen...because what is published on the net cannot be always monitored, its awful, sick and very worrying.

I hope we don't see a growth in this kind of thing.

I don't understand why someone would do that "live".

How tragic for the family. I know that things are getting real bad with images that are being placed on the net..It is really sad.

Let me preface this by saying that I have the deepest sympathy for anyone who is driven to kill himself -- even those who do it in ways that are destructive to others as well. The anguish such people suffer is its own punishment... and certainly they've paid the price for their actions.

But having said that...

The internet puts power into the hands of virtually anyone who wants it -- including a lot of people who don't have the maturity, intelligence, or common decency to use it responsibly. So we end up with spammers and scammers and hackers and identity thieves and exhibitionists and hatemongers and, worst of all, sociopathic nutjobs who feel some kind of sick need to share their monstrous perversions with the rest of the world.

I used to hope for the day when law enforcement would catch up to the technology and get some control over the internet -- but I no longer think that's possible. For better or worse, the internet is going to remain a no-holds-barred Wild-West free-for-all where it's impossible to avoid being exposed to the bad right along with the good.

So my feeling now is that instead of trying to protect ourselves (and more to the point, our children) from the madness of the internet, our best course of action is to try to prepare for it... to train ourselves to hold fast to our own principles, and to question both the validity and the value of everything we see on the internet... or in any other medium, for that matter.

I've thought for a long time that there should be courses in critical thinking taught from first grade right on up... to teach kids to think for themselves, to apply rational judgment, and to resist becoming easy marks for every sales pitch they see. Does anyone know of such things being taught anywhere?

its been out there for a long time.or at least since the net started booming.
Porn and death sites started popping up as fast as the net. I can remember back in the 9800 or was that 9600 days, there was paid boards for that, Those types of sites appeal to the lowest common element within everyone. Thats why they are still there,

the great thing about the net is to have the infromation you want right at your fingertips, but for that freedom, you have to pay the price of dealing with the other stuff. I dont want to see type of control over the net, do you really want someone coming along and picking what you can see? We have a office in china, and i used to get people calling me telling me they are unable to open The BBC, the reason was for a time china blocked the BBC from its people. DO you want to deal with that? I dont want to deal with someone else picking what i am allowed to view, be it the internet, a book, a tv, or a cartoon.

But the free for all days of the net will soon be coming to a end. I owuld not be shocked at all, if soon you will have to pay to view websites that are not part of your ISP, lawmakers keep toying with the idea of a tax to send email.
yahoo and google have to keeps records for the goverments. Some places all search and activiy are always kept a eye on by the goverment

Its always a bad idea to want other to protect you, you need to be the one that makes the choice of what and what not to see. That also means watching as much as you can what your kids do.Dont hide the computer in there room. Put it right out in the middle of the floor. so that you can see what they are doing.Sure i know it does not look nice,but you need to see who your kids are talking to, and what they are looking at.

As to why he did something like that. Cause he wanted the attention of knowing people where see it.

also to the course in critical thinking,that is are job to teach the kids. school have never been there to teach people to think. Just to throw up the subject matter, not to really understand it. Which is fine, they need to learn the basic stuff first. But dont expect them to teach your kids how to think.

Why, Imp... if I read you right, we pretty much agree on this -- even though you seem to be 'way out on the right wing and I'm definitely on the left! Maybe there's hope for us all yet!