In today’s era, Internet is one of the most used and most important aspect of the daily digital life of humans. Internet has seeped into our lives to such an extent that we possibly can’t even imagine our lives without it. This inclusion of internet in our day to day lives has proven to be very beneficial to us all but that doesn’t mean that there has been no adverse effect on the society. This means that the internet has both positive and negative effects.
In reality, the Internet was made with a goal only to deliver positive results and not negative results. But this is totally dependent on the users of internet. If the users use it in a way such as to yield positive results, i.e. use it responsibly, then it has a positive impact whereas if not used in a responsible manner, i.e. use it irresponsibly then negative results are bound to be received. Today is the era of social media and interconnectedness. We are connected to people all over the world through the internet in a such a way that human history has never seen before. Social media has a very strong hold in the real world society. Social media is being used to spread news, information, used to communicate feelings to the world, used to express individual opinions and views, used to share emotions and much more.
But most people use internet in a very irresponsible manner, and this irresponsible behavior is affecting the whole human society and everything in it, starting from social lives to business lives and everything else. By studies it has been found that 41% of employees in any organization use the unrestricted internet facilities given to very irresponsibly, like using to watch adult content, gambling, and even using phishing websites (maybe intentionally or unintentionally). This may lead to unintentional damage to the company’s internal network as it may even lead to breaches in the network. Likewise, there are children using internet on their home PCs and smartphones mostly. These children need to be taught and made to understand about the consequences of irresponsible internet behavior and how to behave responsibly, in a safe, ethical and respectful way.
The easiest way to encourage responsible internet behavior is to promote responsible digital citizenship. Every single person who indulges on the internet for anything is a digital citizen. Being a responsible digital citizen means having the online social skills to take part in online community life in an ethical and respectful way.
Responsible digital citizenship also means:
- Behaving lawfully – for e.g. it’s a crime to hack, steal, illegally download or cause damage to other people’s work, identity or property online.
- Protecting privacy of self and others.
- Recognizing one’s own rights and responsibilities when using digital media.
- Thinking about how our online activities affect ourselves, other people we know, and the wider online community.
Things like the above need to be kept in mind of each and every internet user in order to achieve proper responsible internet behavior. Internet cannot be made a safe place for communities until each and every member strives to behave responsibly.
BY: Sandeep Choudhury, MSc Cybersecurity, AUR
Behavioural Science 