Growing up, I was aware of certain illegal activities like stealing, driving under the influence,
and murder but mostly ignorant to the illegal activities conducted on the internet. Going into this
article, I expected to be surprised by some of the listed activities, but I didn’t anticipate just how
many there would surprise me. Initially skimming over the article, the activities that I knew
were illegal where bullying and trolling online and faking your identity.
The first illegal activity that surprised me was sharing passwords, addresses, or photos of others.
When my friends and I first got our phones, we constantly took pictures of each other, thinking it
was funny. It was shocking to learn that if we had done that to someone else, it would have been
considered illegal.
Another activity I used to partake in was downloading audio from YouTube. When YouTube
first emerged and smartphones became popular, there weren’t as many streaming services as
there are today. As a young person without the resources to pay for albums, I used apps from the
App Store to download audio from YouTube, allowing me to bypass paying for music.
I was also surprised to learn that while certain searches may be illegal, you wouldn’t be
prosecuted for them. I believe it’s good to make certain searches illegal and restrict access to the
results, but I also think that if the searches become continuous, the person should be prosecuted.
The article mentioned child pornography as an example of illegal searches, and I believe that
offenders who continue to conduct these searches should be flagged and prosecuted.