Web Hoaxes

The article “Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet” is an eye opening article that illustrates problems with fictitious websites on the internet that I did not know existed. I knew that there were some sites that seemed fictitious or not 100% accurate but I did not know that there were sites that were devoted to such idiotic ideas as lip balm addiction. I also agree with the statement that there are many sites which contain accurate information for the most part but may have errors due to poor editing which could mislead or misinform its readers. These sights are not bad but the sites that try to fool readers on purpose and sell products or ideas that are completely false should be eliminated from the internet, but there is no way to do this. One website that came to mind when I was reading this article is “LegalSteroids.com”. This website attempts to sell every banned steroid in the United States “legally”. Anyone who would seriously try to order products from this site and give them a credit card number would have to be out of their mind. Although the products seem legit and the site is somewhat professional looking, there is something about it that just tells you it is trouble. There are sites that are fake that are not harmful or deceitful that can be for shear amusement of readers such as Edreport.com as listed in the reading. This site was created by two creative writers who wanted to entertain readers while voicing opinions. There is a line that should not be crossed as far as funny/fictitious sites and harmful/illegal/deceitful sites that do nothing positive for the internet and society.

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On Friday, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank and senior member Ron Paul announced the introduction of legislation to prohibit the federal government from issuing regulations called for in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The legislation, H.R. 5767, will forbid the secretary of the Treasury and the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System from proposing, prescribing, or implementing any regulation that requires the financial services industry to identify and block internet gambling transactions. There have been issues dealing with internet gambling for the last few years because there is really no way to control what people do with their own money and by u sing the internet they can gamble on sites run from over-seas. According to Ron Paul the Act of 2006 infringes on two basic rights of Americans: freedom from the government regulating our internet use, and the right to do what we want with our own money. These two reasons are solid grounds for getting rid of the Act because honestly what is the harm in people spending their own money gambling? The internet allows us to gamble with/against people in other countries and makes it so we do not have to go to Vegas to go on a gambling spree. I think that the main concern with the Act of 2006 is the rights of Americans. The expense of enforcing the regulations is an unnecessary cost for our country and we should focus on more significant issues than someone losing their money on an online poker site etc.

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A group of teenagers who videotaped a beating of a fellow teenage girl were arrested in Lakeland Florida last week. The father of the victim is blaming the internet in general for the beating of his daughter because of the popularity of youtube videos about fighting and beatings that lure kids today. What is disturbing is that one of the teens was heard saying “make it good”, meaning they wanted the video to be something that would be good to watch on the internet and would get lots of attention. The internet is putting a spotlight on lots of illegal activities as far as videos on youtube go because children can access the site and watch gruesome fights and even see people being killed and they feel that there is nothing wrong with this behavior. I would have to agree with the father of the victim as he feels the internet is to blame because of its appeal to teens and the desire to see videos of brutality. However, it is the fault of those who put these videos on the internet not the websites themselves. Youtube could edit and not allow such videos but then it would lose its popularity. This is just another situation where there are lines of what is right and acceptable and what should not be allowed on the internet. Seeing young teens making videos of brutality is disturbing, however our society is entertained by such things and there is no easy way to edit material being put on the internet today.