Monday, October 13, 2014

(Series Piece 1) Anna Kavanaugh - Syndicated Columnist. Launch of Column - Cyber Abuse: The Virtual Violent Crime

Written by: Anna Kavanaugh, Syndicated Columnist
Published for syndication by: The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards

Recently, I enjoyed another of my routine marathon movie weekends, but this time with a twist. I found time to reflect on the profundity of the films I was revisiting, rather than skimming along the surface of the stories now naturally diluted in my familiarity with the scripts, actors and cinematic spectacles that films such as, “Braveheart,” “Troy,” “Gladiator,” and “The Passion of the Christ,” have given us. While these films may have been an unlikely catalyst, I suddenly found myself considering the pandemic of cyber-abuse through a lens I had not looked through before. The questions that have arisen for me are not ones I really want to ask, mostly because I fear the answers, but I more fear the consequences of failing to search for them. And so ask the questions, I will.

The Dark Ages, a period of time spanning some of the most extreme brutality in human history. What a barbaric bunch we were. What red stained soil we rose from. Times that, to declare ourselves righteous, saw savage crusades casting darkness over the lands in the name of God. Times that, for sport and entertainment, saw man pit against beast or fellow man until the prize of death determined the victor. And the crowds went wild. The more brutal the fight, the more we salivated. The more blood that spilled, the more we cheered. That was life. That was who we were. Thank goodness times have changed. Or have they?

We live in a culture of fear. Perhaps it is fear that keeps us in check, for the most part. In our daily lives we interact with one another in the physical world with a common understanding of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, legal and illegal. Our lives are governed by a social norm and code of behavior monitored by the power of law enforcement we instinctively dread dealing with. We understand that when someone angers us at work, in a restaurant, or in a grocery store, it will not be socially or legally approved to launch a physical attack against that individual. If someone cuts us off in traffic, steps in front of us in line, or calls us names, we are not entitled to physically act against them. Our emotions may rage when we feel wronged but fear of being ostracized by our peers, or socially rejected and punished by law, prevents the majority of us from acting on those emotions. We simply find another way to deal with them. Our physical world demands that. Unfortunately, there is another world we must navigate simultaneously.

The internet. What began seemingly harmless enough has evolved into a fully functioning civilization, separate and yet co-existent with our offline civilization. It is still our own society comprising the virtual pulse of this new cyberworld, yet so many netizens become unrecognizable to their physical world norms in their capability to administer extreme cruelty from behind their computer screens. How quickly so many of us abandon our civility and embrace barbarism. Is this an inevitable human regression that occurs when we are thrust into an anonymous environment with no police presence or mechanism in place to hold us accountable for our actions, or is slipping back into brutality merely the human equivalent of a comfortable old shoe?

As our civilization has evolved, there has been a gradual shift in the paradigms of social behavior, human interaction, and the laws that govern them. This has allowed for a consideration of basic human rights and a higher value to be placed on human life and the preservation of it. We now live in a modern society that rejects those who commit acts of violence and will punish the heinous crime of murder most harshly. Yes, we have come a long way and pat ourselves on the back for our moral and ethical advancements. We boast our humane enlightenment and take pride, and even credit for, the undeniable traits that make us a remarkable species. Traits of benevolence and compassion we can now express as part of an evolved society sharing the human experience. Still, I find myself searching for a way to reconcile this image of the great humanity we have defined for ourselves with the daily evidence of its actions. Are we really enlightened or are we still living in the dark? Have we truly evolved or have we only restrained the most ghastly elements of our nature? How do we explain away the undeniable human capacity to maliciously hurt others with deliberate intent to destroy their lives and livelihood? To humiliate and demoralize others as publicly as possible: to perpetrate, condone, celebrate, and derive great pleasure from the crushing cruelty so many of us gleefully inflict on our fellow human beings?

Imposed civility and the function of fear seem to keep our physical society in order. Online, that is not the case. We are all only a click away from being marked as a target and finding ourselves thrown into a merciless abyss of personal vigilantism, misguided vengeance, self-righteous witch hunts and the need to feed on the hurt and public humiliation of others. In our virtual civilization there are no consistent laws or immediate recourse alternatives to provide victims relief from the deplorable conduct of those who abuse the internet to abuse others. This allows the worst of human nature to then manifest in frightening, dangerous and deadly ways. Online abusers relish their perceived anonymity and use it as a cloak to mask their cruel and illegal behavior. This is emboldened by an omnipotent sense of power and false sense of security in believing they are entirely immune to detection, scrutiny, judgment or ramifications. From behind the veil of their computer screens and insidious fingertips, these individuals reveal a shocking capability to inflict ruthless abuse on others and operate in the cyberworld with free reign. This alone makes the internet the most dangerous environment we have ever created, and with that should come great responsibility in how we allow it to evolve. Because the internet is an ideal conduit for these aberrant behaviors, they are rampant. A cyber-abuse campaign can lead to very real consequences that reach into the physical reality of a victim, resulting in devastating destruction.

The internet has given rise to a dangerous set of conditions that stimulate the primitive nature in certain individuals prone to violent tendencies and inner aggression. Cyber-abuse is a game to the abuser. The goal of a game is to win. For a cyber-abuser, the win is the ultimate destruction of their target, even if that results in driving their victim to death by suicide. This is a consequence an online abuser cannot comprehend because they lose the ability in their game-play to distinguish between right and wrong, humane and inhumane. They are masters of dehumanization and disconnect from any form of moral compass. No one has the right to abuse the internet to abuse you. No one has the right to rewrite who you are. And no one has the right to cause someone so much pain and public humiliation that they are driven to die just to escape the trauma. Cyber-abuse kills. And it will keep killing until we no longer allow it to.

Will 2014 be the year our lawmakers pass consistent and effective legislation to address this pandemic? Probably not. Will 2014 be the year we all stand up as an online community and say, “enough”? Probably not. The sad truth is that many more will die before we finally understand that far too many people are dying because the internet is being used to kill. So maybe for now, the best we can hope for is that we will begin to ask these questions of ourselves and others as we enter a new year.

Maybe we could all remind ourselves when online that none of us are immune from becoming the target of a cyber-abuse campaign. And that when one of us falls, so do we all.

Whatever the answers, this much I know: humanity has many redeeming qualities, but none more important than our ability to make the choice to be better tomorrow than we were yesterday. Barbaric tendencies may be at the root of our human nature, but because we can choose, we do not have to give them life in our actions.

Be kind online.

13 comments:

  1. Ow this is a really impressive analysis.I'll be following along this column thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Excellent column. I think this writer raises what lies beneath humanity and exposes it for what it is. These are philosophical questions that nobody wants to answer but by laying it all out on the table like this maybe we can start managing cyber abuses in all countries properly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fully agreed Sean. Anna writes about cyber abuse with a distinct depth and understanding. The definition she provides makes a complex subject with many different areas far less enigmatic. Please share her column and call back in for more from Anna each week. - David Simms, The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards

      Delete
    2. Hi Sean! I want to thank you so much for taking the time to leave your feedback on my column. One of my hopes is that by starting a global dialogue we will begin to see cyber-abuse for the pandemic it has become... and less as an isolated or categorized affliction on a country by country basis. All around the world we are seeing victims suffering at the malicious and cruel fingertips of cyber-abusers, and many of those victims are ending their lives in a desperate attempt to escape the damage and emotional trauma inflicted upon them. This is one big problem that affects us all, everywhere in the world, and I believe that is how we must address it if we are to be successful in our efforts to make our online world a safer and more responsible place. Thank you so much for joining the conversation!

      Anna Kavanaugh xo

      Delete
  3. This is one of the best treatments I've seen on this topic so far. A perspective I never saw before. We really haven't changed much have we?

    -L

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your feedback and kind words of support for my column! That is the question... did we ever really evolve from our barbaric behavior of "The Dark Ages," or have we just been fooling ourselves? Has the lack of safety, standards, and accountability in the new virtual online world we have created simply created an environment that has exposed the barbarism we would much prefer to believe was left in the ancient past?

      Anna Kavanaugh xo

      Delete
  4. Nail on the head here by pointing out what most people don't seem to see and that's across the board not just internet. We're not gonna change human nature but this article says it all and very well. It took laws and a change in social outlook to bring us out of openly violent times in the past and the same's true for online now. Look forward to more coming from this column, well done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for posting your thoughts NetSafety1. Fully agreed. I hope you'll keep up with and share Anna's excellent column. - David Simms, The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards

      Delete
  5. Wonderfully written.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The woman stripped this to the bone. Most people don't think of it this way that cyber abuse is a crime of violence and it does kill people. It's true I think that the internet being basically a rule free anonomous zone brings out the worst of human nature. The line that struck me most in this is where she writes "The sad truth is that many more will die before we finally understand that far too many people are dying because the internet is being used to kill." If things are allowed to go on this way they will only get worse and we'll end up right back in the dark ages like she says if we ever even left. I can't wait to read what else she has to say on this subject.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for adding your comment to Anna's column. Her definition of cyber abuse as an umbrella term for all areas of online hate and abuse (being a virtual violent crime) caught our attention and we knew we had to reach out and try to get her involved with GICSS. We have a global weapon of life destruction available to anyone at anytime and anywhere in the world. If we keep the discussion going we can with any luck save some lives that don't need to be lost otherwise. - David Simms, The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards

      Delete
  7. This is bloody brilliant innit? How often will this column run?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for adding your comment EA. We are syndicating Anna's column weekly so feel free to subscribe or bookmark to reference back for more. Her work is ace and full of uniquely written insights. - David Simms, The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards

      Delete