A survey released at September’s end says that while people spend more time online than before they may be putting less faith than before in the information they find there. And, concurrently, there may be more calls for letting elected representatives govern the Net amidst rising cybercrime.
The University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for the Digital Future’s 2003 survey results said barely more than half the Netizens surveyed (50.1 percent), for its Digital Future Report, believe most or all online information is reliable or accurate. That result was down from the report saying 58 percent in 2001 believed most or all online information reliable or accurate.
“Four years ago, we went online and trusted everything,” said Center for the Digital Future director Jeffrey Cole, announcing the study findings. “People got burned… people have figured out there’s a lot of useless information on the Internet.”
But that doesn’t stop them from trusting certain Web sites, particularly those of traditional media and government. The new DFR said 74.4 percent of Netizens surveyed said traditional media Web sites’ information was reliable and accurate, while 73.5 percent said the same about what they find on government sites. As for information posted by individuals, only 9.5 percent found it reliable and accurate.
The DFR said those they surveyed (about 2009 households) spent more time online in 2003 (12.5 hours a week on average) than in 2000 (9.4 hours per week), and nine out of ten checked e-mail, while various percentages surfed the Net (77.2 percent), read the news (52 percent), spent time with various hobbies (46.7 percent), sought entertainment information (45.6 percent), shopped (44.2 percent), sought medical information (36.1 percent), tracked their credit cards (32.5 percent), and played games (28.5 percent).
The study also found that Internet users watched 4.6 fewer hours of television a week than non-users. About four out of 10, or 42.9 percent, of the most experienced users surveyed--those online for at least seven years – reported watching less television since using the Internet. For users who were online less than one year, only 20.5 percent said the same.
At the same time, however, at least one major Internet news player suggests that it’s time to let elected representatives in Britain, at least, to have the power to govern the Internet there.
“Today, cybercriminals can launch digital attacks from one country at another, safe in the knowledge that the lack of common legislation means extradition would be unlikely if they were caught,” said ZDNet UK in a September 27 editorial. “Governments already know this is a problem, but without [the United Nations’s Working Group on Internet Governance] they are doing little to address it.”
The WGIG is said to have started a world fact-finding and consulting process, aimed at furthering a stated United Nations commitment to Internet governance on ground the Internet is a “global facility” requiring “multinational, transparent, and democratic” management, never mind that a majority of member U.N. states are not necessarily renowned for democratic government or society.
ZDNet UK also admitted that legislation is only part of the answer to things like swollen spam volume, taking a mild swipe at Microsoft while they were at it. “Politicians could address the technical side too by banging heads together in the Microsoft boardroom,” the editorial said. “Sender ID might yet be saved if the bizarre insistence on licensing can be ditched. Governments en masse are the only earthly powers of which Microsoft seems aware.”
But increasing alarms over apparently swelling spam volumes in spite of several countries passing and enforcing new anti-spam laws, and the rise in cybercrime, may end up leaving little alternative to British government taking more of a hand in cyberspace, ZDNet UK said.
“Giving our elected representatives the power to govern our Internet may stick in the throat,” ZDNet UK concluded, “but it may also be the only way of getting the cooperation needed to fix its flaws.”
