Breaking the law

The danger

• Either knowingly or otherwise, children and young people can fall foul of the law or get into trouble with other Internet users

• They are not as well known but there are laws that relate to the Internet that – although they are based on common sense - can quite easily and inadvertently be broken

The crimes

• The main ones to be aware of are the laws of:– copyright – libel – obscenity

• Other crimes include:– Hacking– Invading others’ privacy– Planting viruses

The issue shouldn’t be taken lightly

• There are cases of police and schools taking action against young people based on information posted on social networking sites, in chat rooms and via email

Copyright

• Copyright is applicable to a work that has been created by someone– Examples include words, music, video,

software and pictures

• One of the problems is that the Internet makes it very easy to create illegal copies of copyrighted material

Napster

• The most famous example of outright breaching of copyright was the Napster website

• It made it very easy for people to download free music from the Internet

• Eventually it was shut down in its illegal guise but other less famous sites still exist that offer the same service

Libel

• This is the act of publishing a public statement about someone that is derogatory and untrue

• People who make libelous comments on the Internet about someone can be sued in the same way that newspapers, magazines and other forms of media can - the law applies to emails, comments on websites, chat rooms, message boards and all other aspects of the Internet

Obscenity

• If you publish something obscene on the web you can be breaking the law

• It can also be an offence to have obscene material on your computer even if you did not know you had it, or came across it by accident

• Whenever you communicate with someone using the Internet – be it via email, in a chat room, on a message board or whatever – it is important to do so with respect

Behave with netiquette

• When you are online all you see is a computer screen and sometimes it is easy to forget that there is a real person with feelings at the other end

• You don't see facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice so it can be easy to misinterpret things

• People exchanging emails or instant messages often behave as if they were suffering an attack of road rage

Behave with netiquette

• An important thing to remember is that Internet forms of communication are written and are stored somewhere - they can therefore come back to haunt you

• It is important to behave well and in accordance with the rules of Internet etiquette – or ‘netiquette’ as it is known

• See www.netmanners.com for more information

CyberSafety tips

Advice for children and young people• Do not download anything from the Internet if you are not sure if it

is free of copyright• Do not write anything malicious or untruthful over the Internet• Behave in accordance with the ‘netiquette’ - the set of rules for

behaving properly when online – if you don’t, you might find yourself in trouble and receiving hate messages (also known as ‘flames’)

• Here are the three main rules of Internet etiquette to remember:– Remember that there is actually a person at the other end of what you

write – Don’t write in capital letters – it is the Internet equivalent of shouting– Don’t swear – comments can’t be taken back