Side effects of rapidly advancing technology
- In the 21st century, we are advancing faster than ever before. What is surprising is that the online market is growing more explosively than the offline market as the distance between people is getting closer. However, as always, drastic changes have side effects.
New crimes and ethical issues that occur in a new environment are emerging as social issues in 2022, in which we are now living.
The world we live in now, where IT technology develops rapidly, and everything is mobile, faces many problems. It includes national hacking, infringement of rights, and various new types of fraudulent crimes. As various online services replace contact between people who have been physically separated due to COVID-19, these problems are approaching seriously.
When ‘Twitter’ was activated in Asia, an incident shocked the world, and it involved the distribution of videos of sexual exploitation targeting teenagers. It was seen in Asia and many countries worldwide, such as Europe and the United States. However, the governments of each country responded by trying to punish them by substituting the laws currently in force, but there were no laws to respond to because it was done in a new way.
In other words, since the new community and platform are also made of people, there must be basic manners, and there must also be a ‘law’ to restrain actions that harm others. However, if we look at new problems and try to solve them by making substitutions and amendments in the current laws that have been organized and set for dealing with problems traditionally between people, many factors of the current problems cannot be applied.
In addition, since the Internet has a structure that guarantees anonymity, new types of crime can occur daringly, and there is a possibility that the number of victims will increase explosively in the public online environment.
On the national level, there is an opinion that if the state controls social media and information, it can infringe on the people’s right and freedom to know. On the other hand, there is an opinion that a social safety net should adequately control information. At the moment, the world hasn’t come to a consensus on information control, but it is necessary to think about the victim. In other words, it is because both sides agree that it is clear that there must be a safety net to protect the ‘weak.’ In general, the person whose information is disclosed online is the underdog. If privacy is violated, the possibility of material and mental damage increases. If someone is identified online and is a target of hate, he has the absolute right to be protected. In addition, there are cases where offline violence is transferred online. It appears in the form of cyberviolence and cyberstalking, and the reason the damage is enormous is that an unspecified number of people attack them. Furthermore, due to the nature of the online environment, where records are exposed, secondary damage may occur.
In conclusion, new online crimes can threaten our lives in more advanced forms. Unfortunately, the reality is that we are not being quick enough to protect ourselves in the new world that is happening in the metaverse, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies. Rather than the law, we need to adapt to the changes in the ethical awareness of the company that operates the platform and our educational environment using the platform and changing it in a way that responds to crime. Furthermore, it should be a priority. If our consciousness is one step ahead of the crime and adequate controls are implemented within the platform, each of us can become a social safety net protecting the victim until the perpetrator is brought to justice.
Reference list
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HOSSAIN, B. (2021). The effects of The metaverse into Facebook on human life. [online] www.linkedin.com. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/effects-metaverse-facebook-human-life-md-billal-hossain/ [Accessed 25 Dec. 2021].
johnson (2020). Negative effects of technology: Psychological, social, and health. [online] www.medicalnewstoday.com. Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/negative-effects-of-technology [Accessed 25 Dec. 2021].
Townsend, P. (2018). The dark side of technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
