Are We Too Free on the Internet?

I almost forgot that I even had a blog, but now I am writing again and I wanted to discuss something that I have been wondering quite often for the past couple of months and that is, are we too free on the Internet?

What I mean by this is that on the Internet, we have to ability to openly mock, threaten, demonize, support, sympathize with, or any other verb you can imagine with any person, place, or thing with little to zero consequences. Now while having this much free speech is a great thing, I will always support it, there is a negative consequence that comes from it as well. Because of the fact that 99% of what one will do and say will not harm them whatsoever, it has clouded how we conduct ourselves virtually as compared to reality. It is no secret of how "bloody" forums, chat rooms, and comment sections can get if there is any sort of dispute amongst Internet users, or if someone is purposefully picking a fight in an attempt to get an out of control argument going, they are commonly referred to as trolls. This has led to "cyber-bullying" and although commercials have tried to get a hold on the Internet by saying that whatever you post will last forever and doesn't "truly" come off, just going to any typical website with comment abilities will show that it hasn't really sunk in.

This has caused us to basically treat topics in one of these ways: we agree and type about how much we support it, we don't like what we're reading so we bash, ridicule, and say any and all insults we can think of, or we just move to something else/just express our dislike peacefully (that never happens). There are even stories of kids who end up getting bullied at school because of what they said or did on Facebook, and it turns out that the kid in question does not have a Facebook, and someone else created a profile for them, befriended people from school, and began harassing them. In this case, this kid is being harassed for things they genuinely did not do. Other examples come from online gaming where people will be as nasty and as cruel as possible, and even if their account is banned after being reported, they just create another profile and start over.

So I pose this question because with bills like SOPA, PIPA, and others being proposed, and luckily shot down, it got me thinking. While I NEVER want any of those type of bills passed due to the implications of what could, and would, happen, but I still wonder if perhaps the Internet isn't due for a little humility? I believe SOPA scared so many users because it actually showed how vulnerable the Internet actually is as compared to thinking it is something invincible. For a short period of time, the Internet users were somewhat united against this, but as one could expect, the unity broke away quickly once the bills were gone. This is why I think that perhaps we are too free because if we don't like someone, we can create profile, harass them is they do have a profile on whatever website, or just hack them and either ruin them virtually or in real life. That is A LOT of power to give to millions...scratch that...billions of people especially when the software, hardware, and ability to hack or just create chaos isn't that difficult at all to find or use.

This isn't an easy, "This solution works for every situation," kind of problem, which is exactly what SOPA and PIPA were trying to do with piracy, but it is something that needs discussion. Some would just suggest some maturity on the issue since the tantrums typically seen in chat is reminiscent of an immature child, but that may only work in situations where you are talking to people that personally know you and where you have a profile that has pictures and information of yourself so people will know it is you. In situations where you can be an unknown, or just a fake profile with the picture being taken from using a search engine, then there truly is no consequence to your actions. It is no secret of how vulgar people can be online and the typical rebuke being "You would never say that in real life/to my face" and there is truth there. People have so much security thanks to the computer screen that they act out like they never would normally. So my question is two fold; do you think Internet users have too much freedom and if so, how can we make it more user-friendly? I by no means want to cut down on freedoms, when I say too free, I mean if the freedom of there being little consequence to actions too great?