MORALITY in the Age of the Net

The Global Nature of the Internet: Does this Change how Morality is Defined and Perceived?

The Internet and its global nature make it easy to for you to communicate with someone from any number of countries.  It also allows you to gather information in a real-time fashion from news sources around the world.  How is the Internet effecting your definition of morality?  Is it changing as you are exposed to other cultures and view-points through the Internet?  Could this be occurring in other countries?

    Calls for a type of international regulation of the Internet have been widespread in recent years.  For example, there has been talk of an International Internet Rating System, and organization such as INCORE and ICRA have attempted to make this type of system a reality. In countries such as Germany the desire for a rating system is present in an attempt to keep Nazi Culture off the Internet.  Countries such as Germany and France want to keep material offensive to their cultures off the Internet.  As a result they want their standards of morality to dictate what web-sites in other countries publish and advertise.   Is this possible?  Will diverse countries actually be able to create a standard of morality accepted by all?

  Despite the overwhelming global impact of the Internet, some governments are attempting to give access to the Internet while concurrently restricting such access to only sites that are align with their cultural and moral standards.  For example, the government of Saudi Arabia through the Internet Services Unit and the King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST) has attempted to create a controlled Internet environment. 

Of further interest:  The Lawless Internet – An argument for the uncontrollable nature of the Internet.