Assessment 2 – Persuasive Blog Post
Unethical human activity is primarily responsible for a lack of privacy and safety on the internet. We live in a time where information is easily assessable via the internet. A great extent of our personal details are at risk of landing in the wrong hands and our sensitive details being put in jeopardy. The internet can be a very intimidating platform if individuals are not aware of unethical people and activities. Experience and confidence can play a vital role in not becoming the victim of unethical human activity on the internet. The internet is a commonly used platform for research, communication and even advertising. Unethical individuals can use this to take advantage of all kinds of people and organisations. Privacy and safety form part of our human rights. If we do not take measures to protect our identity and safety online, we may be in danger of having our private information made public.
There are many forms of unethical human activity on the internet. These can include cyber bullying, hacking, fraud / identity theft and exploitation. It can also impact people through an educational aspect with plagiarism and breaking copyright. Engaging in unethical behaviour online can have serious consequences. These consequences can include job loss and effecting a persons reputation. Unlawfully engaging in unethical human activity online may even result in significant fines or being prosecuted. In this day and age, just by googling an individuals name can supply us with access regarding a person’s private information and an insight to a person’s social media accounts. This can have a profound role in the decision of being offered employment or not. People have the option to apply a setting on their social media accounts to ensure their profiles are made private. This can lower the risk of unethical individuals gaining access to our profiles.
Cyberbullying is intent to cowardly put someone down causing psychological, emotional and physical stress through the use of technology. In today’s society, there are many types of social media platforms. This also means many types of platforms for potential unethical humans to conduct in cyberbullying. Cyberbully can come from someone you know or a stranger. It can include mean or hurtful text messages through social media sites, people sending photos or videos of you to others to hurt you, spreading rumors via emails or text messages, creating fake profiles pretending to be someone else and also attempting to stop communication between you and others (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2019).
Statistics show that at least 1 in 4 young Australian students have been bullied online at some stage, 24% of children and teenagers will be a victim of some form of cyberbullying and 87% of young people have witnessed some kind of cyberbullying (Starshell Student, 2020). These are extremely alarming statistics. I believe parents closely monitoring their child during screen time could ultimately help reduce these numbers. And if children are experiencing cyberbullying, there are great resources and help on offer to support them during a hard time.
(Kids Helpline, 2021)
As mentioned earlier, another example of unethical human activity on the internet is fraud / identity theft. Identity theft occurs when someone uses another individual’s personal information in a negative way, usually as a benefit (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, 2021). Some examples of identity theft can include applying for credit and debit cards, withdrawing money, engaging in illegal activities, applying for a passport and obtaining someone’s identification card (drivers licence) with the purpose to steal a person’s identity. Signs of identity theft include unusual bills or charges on a bank statement, mail that you weren’t expecting to arrive, receiving follow up calls on products and services you have never used and strange emails in your inbox (Moneysmart, 2021). Fortunately, there are easily accessible online payment solutions that are safe and secure for individuals to use. Processing payments via online systems such as PayPal insures a secure form of payment to reduce the risk fraudulent activity.
(Privacy Australia, 2020)
Unethical behaviour can also involve hacking. Hackers work in a way which they gain access into a network. They can use a software code, either developed by themselves or available in a ready-to-use kit online. Once a hacker has access, they can modify how a network works, steal data, obtain passwords, get credit card information, watch what you are doing or install malicious software to further attack (Australian Cyber Security Centre, 2020). A hacking attack can bring businesses and entire industries to a halt. A way to help prevent an attack from occurring is setting strong passwords. Using a mix of characters such as lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols will benefit. Never use personal information such as name, birth date, address or contact numbers as this can make other information easily accessible for hackers.
Unethical human activity is primarily responsible for a lack of privacy and safety on the internet. As demonstrated in the above argument, if we do not apply knowledge and caution on the internet we could be putting our privacy and safety at risk. Unfortunately, there are individuals and groups out there that take advantage of people and vulture from their hard work and success. Whilst we are lucky to live in a generation with advanced technology and methods to prevent unethical human activity on the internet, that also means advanced technology to allow that behaviour to occur in the first place. Applying the preventatives such as setting strong passwords, only using familiar sources to login into secure platforms, never giving personal information out if not a reliable business or organisation and making social media accounts private when able to, will assist in ensuring our private details do not fall in the hands of unethical humans.
Reference List.
Australian Human Rights Commission. (2019). Cyber Bullying: What is it and how to get help: Violence, Harassment and Bullying Fact Sheet.
https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/commission-general/cyberbullying-what-it-and-how-get-help-violence-harassment-and-bullying
Starshell Student. (2020). Cyberbullying: what is it and how can you protect yourself?https://starshellstudent.com/online-monitoring-tool-for-parents-cyberbullying/
KidsHelpLine. (2021). [Cyberbullying image].
https://kidshelpline.com.au/teens/issues/cyberbullying
Australian Government, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. (2021). Identity Fraud.
https://oaic.gov.au/privacy/data-breaches/identity-fraud
Money Smart. (2021). Identity Theft.
https://moneysmart.gov.au/banking/identity-theft
Privacy Australia. (2020). Identify Theft Statistics. [Identity theft image].
https://privacyaustralia.net/identity-theft/statistics/
Australian Cyber Security Centre. (2020). Hacking: How it works. https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/threats/hacking