Should we guarantee the anonymity on the Internet?
As soon as you wake up in the morning, you check your emails with the smartphone. When you get the bus to go to school or work, you starts to search the shocking news happened last night using your smartphone. Can you imagine a day without the Internet? It spread its realm deeply into our lives quickly and the influence is getting bigger and bigger. Accordingly, people thought there should be ethics on the Internet also and determined to make some rules. Anonymity is one of the rules on the Internet. The reason people guarantee the anonymity on the Internet is for the freedom of the press. By the press can express their thoughts freely and it can make people trust the press more. However the voice of insisting real-name system on the Internet is becoming persuasive among people these days. It because the people who abuse the anonymity damages the Internet society. Even though the anonymity on the Internet is important, it should not be guaranteed because of its harmful aspects.
In 2008, Choi Jin Sil, a popular actress of Korea, sucides in her room and it astonished people. The reason she sucide was because of malicious comments about her. This phenomenon is called Internet Flaming. According to Wikipedia, Internet Flaming is a hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users, often involving the use of profanity. A factor that instigates the Internet Flaming is anonymity. People write their comments without considering others' feeling because they are anonymous. Also they make bad rumors about others and spread it thoughtlessly. All these phenomenons are supporting the bad aspects of anonymity. The original purpose of anonymity is to realize a society of justice. However the most important part of 'freedom' is accountability. Freedom does not mean that one can do whatever they want to do. To achieve REAL freedom, we should be responsible for our behavior. However anonymous on the Internet keep us from the accountability. People tend to hide themselves behind the anonymity and express their ideas freely with their face masks on. However their behaviors can seriously harm someone and it is not an appropriate way to embody justice in a society.
By not guaranteeing anonymity, we can create a wholesome Internet culture. Some people abuse an anonymity and it may harm the whole Internet culture. According to the experiment by NIE, 65% of students tend to use profanity in their comments when they were anonymous. On the other hand, among 65% of students, 47% didn't use profanity in their comments when they have to show their real name while they are writing the comments. The results of this experiment mean that people become sensitive when they expose their identity. Internet real-name system is one of the best ways to settle down proper Internet culture. By exposing one's identity, Internet users can be more truthful and honest. Proper Internet culture is not only good for preventing profanity on Internet but also for developing of the Internet. Good Internet culture makes the information more reliable and useful.
More often than not, Anonymity on the Internet makes some troubles. Recently, copyright law is reinforced compared to the past. That's because even though there was a copyright law, infringement of copyright was not reduced. The reason of this phenomenon was also because of the insufficient punishment, but the most important reason was that people ignored the copyright indiscriminately because they were anonymous. An infringement of copyright is not only harmful effects of anonymity. Hacking is another cyber problem. Because of anonymity, deceiving others became easier than past. It means hacking will be more frequent and the damage will be more extensive. Some people will say that real-name system will cause a leak of private information more often, but it is false information. According to a survey by NSO, Personal information leakage was frequent in the anonymous circumstances.
