There are many things you can do on the internet that, at best fall into a gray area of legality and at worst, are completely illegal. One of the worst things, in my opinion, is collecting information about children. There is no reason anyone should be collecting data about minors. That is an absolute invasion of privacy and can be used to harm them. Children are a vulnerable population and should be protected, not spied upon, and put in danger. Nothing good can come of it, and people shouldn’t do it.
Another serious thing that people do online is faking their identity. This could be completely illegal if using it with the intent to be someone in particular in order to commit fraud. It could also be illegal if they end up using it to harm someone. For instance, someone could pretend to be a minor and “date” another minor online and end up harming them. It can also fall into more of a gray area when people are lying about the little details of their life because they are embarrassed about something. This is, in a sense, faking their identity, but since it is done without malicious intent, it might be more of a gray area than illegal.
Another harmful thing that people do on the internet is conduct illegal searches. Illegal searches are illegal for a reason, and people don’t usually need to know those things. Looking to hire someone to kill your ex? Illegal. Looking for child pornography? Illegal. Want to know how to make a bomb? Don’t do it. Searches like these are illegal because they can lead to devastating consequences. So, even if you don’t intend to do anything bad with the information, it is best not to use the internet to satisfy a curiosity for things like that.
Yet another damaging and illegal thing people do on the internet is sharing passwords, addresses, or photos of others. Those things are private information and do not need to be made public. Sharing things like these can often have a cascade of effects. Sharing someone’s social media password might lead to their banking password being compromised and the loss of all their money. Sharing someone’s address can let someone find that person and cause serious harm to them, physically, psychologically, or both. People have the right to feel safe in their own homes, and that might not happen if any stranger or someone with bad intentions has such easy access to them. Even something that seems simple, like sharing photos of other people, could be illegal. Sharing explicit or compromising photos is definitely not ok and is very illegal. Other photos may seem harmless, but someone might feel like it is an invasion of privacy. Photos of others should not be shared online without their permission.
Bullying or trolling online is also becoming not just frowned upon but illegal. Many people use the internet for bullying others because it makes them feel safe. They don’t have to confront the person face-to-face or maybe they hide completely behind a mask of anonymity which is allowed by the internet. Either way, bullying can cause devastating, long-lasting consequences that can even go as far as death. Consequences like this reach far past the intended target and can have a ripple effect. No one should be bullying other people online.
These are just five examples of things people do online that are often illegal, although there are many more. People need to stop and think before they do things online. They should think about what they are doing, what other people might do with the information, and what consequences could come from their actions. Once things are on the internet, they are there forever. People need to keep that in mind before doing things.