Crime and Internet: Spread the word – we’re gonna get ya!

If you turn on your computer and open up an internet browser, you can easily access all sorts of information about events, locations and news – anywhere. People are aware of many things that in previous years, they would not have, and not all of these things are good.

Everyone knows not all internet sites are good and progressive, from the most basic negative sites like porn and hate websites like www.fatpeoplearestupid.com to major hate websites like www.stormfront.org (a site dedicated to the supreme white race). Some websites are debatable, such as corporate hate sites set up by people to release their anger but ended up being very popular, such as American Express Sucks (www.Amexsux.com), Wal-Mart Blows (www.WalMart-Blows.com), Microsoft Eradication (www.MS-Eradication.org) and many more. Companies targeted view those as criminal hate sites but others as a critique site. Some websites are meant by their creators to be for releasing some steam or ranting but end up being abused by some more hateful members, such as in one anti-fat people site, a man posted a video of him beating up a fat kid, when the site was strictly for rants and was at times comical. Even YouTube had its share of violence, such as the major Teens invite a girl to their house then beat her up video which was used as evidence to arrest the teenagers. Beyond amateur hate videos, many organizations post videos and information online to spread fear and threaten. Taliban and other terrorist organizations post videos and photos of them beheading hostages or videos of their leaders’ speech. Major media channels play those videos and due to our globalized world, anyone can see it and including people who end up joining or who get influenced by the organizations. Mobs and gangs also fight for media coverage, for it is fee marketing, especially if the coverage depicts them as evil and dangerous.

The internet is also not just limited to news. Business online is booming. Shopping online is flourishing. Online banking is thriving. So is online crime. Stealing bank account information and identity theft is common. I have been a victim to credit card information theft; the culprits bought 6,000 US dollars worth of things and shipped them online. Hacking is a major crime that has been founded recently in the modern world. Computer viruses are also modern forms of crime that affect individuals and major companies alike. SPAM and fishing emails are also malicious internet creations made to trick people into giving up private and personal information, which works well with people just starting to use the internet and who do not have close friends or family members to warn them about such practices. Facebook. Who is not on it? No being on Facebook is not a crime but remember, many member post a lot of their private info on the website, or other social websites, which can be used for stalking, especially of women by sexual predators. Many young people go online and join in chats or forums et cetera and they meet people. You never know who you meet. From pedophiles, to rapists to many other sick people, many people pose online as different people than who they really are.

The internet reaches all of us, directly and indirectly, straight into our computers, in our home or office. We love our computers and we pour our heart and soul into them, problem is, computers are not only that plastic container in front of us, it is virtually, the world. In our globalized world, what happens at home does not stay at home, good or bad.