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The challenges of morality on the Internet.

Would you walk up to a stranger in the street and ask them their age and where they live ? Would you ask them if they had large breasts underneath their pullover ?

Of course not.

People say that the Internet affects morality although common sense will tell most people that a code of morality is learned from childhood right through to adulthood, and is a lesson that is for ever evolving. People at any age can learn moral behavior. What the Internet has on offer is a chance for people to get a little braver than they would be face to face, though do you really think that someone asking you your age, sex and location would influence your moral stance on life ? I think not.

There are areas of Internet usage that are dangerous and open up concern, and this is where human beings do need to ensure the safety of their children. What the Internet does is make contact between human beings easier, although what has been happening over the last ten years is the increase in child pornography, and child emotional and physical abuse. Of course, this kind of behavior would be carried out behind closed doors and unheard of if the Internet did not exist. In many ways, what the Internet did was make parents aware that they teach their children safe on line behavior, and has alerted mankind to something that would otherwise be swept under the carpet. It is not the Internet that has made those people that are already perverted morally worse than they already were. What it has done is give them a means of predatory behavior towards children that society, in its moral judgment, should not allow to happen.

Flirting on-line is rife, and many relationships break up because of it, although questioning the medium that causes these break-ups and gets blamed for immorality, one needs also to balance the lives of those who are unfaithful into a reality stance. Without the Internet, perhaps they would have been unfaithful anyway, and the real cause of the infidelity may be deep rooted within the failure of their marriage, rather than the accessibility of the Internet.

In many ways, the Internet allows interaction that increases knowledge, and knowledge is such an asset to human beings. We can never stop learning. We can never stop growing, and here, if anything the increase in knowledge that the Internet gives us, and the viewpoint of people all over the world should, if anything, give greater understanding to mankind, rather than diminishing any kind of responsibility and morality.

Studying on-line can be a wonderful way to learn biblical text, but also a means to discuss in order to get a better understanding of the written text that perhaps offline, we have no one to talk to about. Certainly my understanding of the Bible has been influenced by my Internet usage.

In conclusion, the world is filled with immoral people and moral people. Nothing changes that, and with or without the Internet, there will be good and bad in human behavior. The ways in which we can protect ourself from immorality is to ensure that our actions do not harm others, and to make sure that our kids are protected from harm, and use this wonderful tool as a learning curve, and one that will benefit them in the long run, leaving the lessons in morality to be taught within the family unit, so that they grow into responsible human beings that know how to behave and have enough self respect and confidence to use the Internet wisely.

Learn more about this author, Rachelle de Bretagne.
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