by Danny Kwok

Created on: December 20, 2007

The communication of human beings has changed dramatically from the ancient ages to modern times. Man has used different modes of communication from fire, letters, and mail to telephony. Yet, nothing has evolved as significantly as the Internet. Ever since the ARPANET had invented the Internet, technology have been accelerated by leaps and bounds. Although many articles have discussed on the advantages of the Internet due to the improved communication flow, faster turnaround time, convenience and ease of conducting business, there exists several disadvantages of the Internet that could give rise to many issues. By understanding these disadvantages, one could conduct their behavior and be aware of various pitfalls in the Internet. In a similar aspect, a business can transact on-line without fear of breaking any laws.

These disadvantages can be classified broadly into legal, social and ethical categories. Legally, the Internet has enabled the "bending" of many laws across different countries with disregard to physical boundaries. The social impact has been notably with younger generations who prefer to reside within their virtual world. Subsequently, the Internet has also allowed criminals to prey with disregard to ethics behind the mask of their monitors. Therefore, the proliferation of the Internet is not without its consequences. Thus, an in-depth discussion is necessary to explore each category.

In the legal world, the Internet has created many problems for each country. Many established legal systems have been caught off-guard by the rapid spread of the Internet. Their systems are not catered to handle the complexity of how people and business make use of the Internet. Examples would be the laws concerning the privacy and tax. Companies could utilize on-line behaviors and surfing habits through automated spiders, cookies or customer relationship management (CRM) system. Users are tracked as they move from one web site to another and with each click of the mouse. The use of on-line diary or blogging may allow one to express their emotions or opinions. However, some of these thoughts could be dictated as defamation if one is not careful about using words that are directed at specific companies or person. On the other hand, governments have lost enormously in taxes as the Internet allows on-line companies or individuals to avoid paying taxes like custom tax, goods tax or even income tax. Ironically, tax law is one of the laws that have been constantly reviewed

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