For anyone concerned about the dark side of the Web, Kathy Sierra’s post about disturbing comments left on her blog – and other blogs – should have the alarm bells rings. As much as no one really likes to talk about anything bad other than perhaps spammers, the Web has become a vehicle for criminal, scam artists, sexual predators, etc. – fueled by the ability to operate in anonymity. As much as the Web has been allowed to grow like a wild weed with little or no government interference or involvement, it seems like the time has come for everyone (government, the business community, think-tanks, etc.) to determine how to fight the dark side while still allowing the Web to flourish and grow. Sierra is showing tremendous courage in publicly telling her story but, sadly, her story is not an isolated incident. Be strong, Kathy. Note: To support Kathy, Robert Scoble has decided to take the week off from blogging. It’s a really nice gesture but I’m not sure that’s the answer because it means the dark side has won by being able to shut down your voice. To be clear, I’m not advocating the Internet become a regulated-entity
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Mark – as you recall from last summer, (http://mhgoldberg.com/blog/2006/08/blocking-content.html) we have some experience with precisely this kind of case, but adding the complexity of an international border between the victim and the person calling for his death.
In our case, we knew who was generating the threat but still had difficulty.
Your call for an industry-wide consultation is welcome. We’re going to be looking at the issue on the opening day of the Canadian Telecom Summit in a session called ‘Illegal Content on the Internet’.
Why is there not more discussion on this topic? This seems like a scary issue and yet no one seems to want to talk about it….Are people not outraged that this threatening behaviour is going on? Surely, there must be genuine concern.
Hey there EGuy – there is lots of buzz – check out Technorati and Kathy Sierra – she’s the number one top search item, and has been for a few days now. There’s alot of people talking, and realizing and conversing. I think people are starting to *get it* finally, that there’s a bit of a problem.
cheers,
jules
Thanks Jules. Actually, I was referring to Mark Evan’s readership…and why people were not commenting on his blog. His readership seems relatively active on other topics (especially when it comes to technology tools) but this one seemed quiet…and if there was ever a topic where readership should NOT be quiet, it would be this one…