Responsible Surfing

On the earliest days of the world wide web people started to use the internet for self help and helping others. Website, newsgroups, chat rooms, social community groups and blogs have always been a place for people that share the same problems could help each other. People are sharing solution and motivating each other in hard times. At the same time has the web also been a community people become a victim of harassments and people are getting bullied. I recently came a across a talk on experience that women had online. These were women using the internet for various self help issues, sharing similar ideas on e.g. Women’s rights and etc.. Most felt the internet was great place to share ideas, motivate each other, get women organized in groups all over the world. They felt the internet got the women’s voice out from countries that freedom of speech was limited.. At the same time many of those women who used the net to chat and blog about this women’s subject felt that there was too much harassment going on that interrupted they’re chat. They were getting sexual harassed, just because they were women on women’s websites.

The other day I was listening to the BBC on the way home from work. There was an interesting discussion going on, on the good side and the bad side of the internet. I am sorry to say I forgot the names of those who were speaking but remember an interesting story for this subject. One of the speaker told a story of an experience some women had that managed an website for health and beauty. A self help site that was closed because even though it was extremely useful, they just did not „get the pro-ana girls to shut up“ (Pro Ana A pro-ana is someone which promotes anorexia nervosa as noble and good way of living). The internet is similar to all other things it has both positive and negative sides. People in this virtual world will relate to other people on the internet, trust them and open up often more than they would to in real world. The internet makes it possible for anyone to be part of a discussion, but still remain anonymous. This possibility of hiding behind the screen makes us more open and honest about our feelings and problems. At the same time people that have negative agenda can also hide behind the screen, harass people, bully them and almost do what they like to anyone. Also self help sometimes can refer to not just helping people get well but also help people not get well as the pro-Ana’s do.

We cannot close down the internet and we probably do not want to do that even though it has these bad sides, because luckily the good sides are more than the bad ones. Therefore we just need to be more alert for negative sides of the internet so we can find knowledge, solutions, parental control software’s and tools and other ways to get more informed and spread the good word out

Bjorn Hardarson
Clinical psychologist
Director of Responsible Surfing

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