The history of human communication is something like a long journey from the Babel Experience to the Experience of Pentecost, from total confusion in communicating to the total comprehension in what is communicated, from the absence of God to the overwhelming presence of God, from egoism to the common good of the international community. So for the Church, all the social communication tools, including the Internet, are tools to better the communication and communion. That is why the Church never sees the Internet as an evil.

The Church has two fold aims with regard to the Internet. One, the Church has a duty to make sure that the use of the Internet worldwide is based on the principle of solidarity. That is, the goodness or badness of the Internet is decided upon how far the Internet promotes the common good of the International community. Second, the Church must be able to use the Internet for its causes effectively.

The first aim is dealt extensively by the Church in a document called, “Ethics in Internet” and the second in a document called, “the Church and Internet.”

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Ethical aspects of the Internet

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The basic ethical principle guiding the good or evil of the internet is the principle of solidarity, whether the use of the Internet leads one to common good of the international community or not. Another principle is that it must stand for the integral growth and the dignity of the person.

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Characteristics of the Internet

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Egalitarianism

The Internet is egalitarian, in the sense that anyone with the necessary equipment and modest technical skill can be an active presence in cyberspace, declare his or her message to the world, and demand a hearing. It allows individuals to indulge in anonymity, role-playing, and fantasizing and also to enter into community with others and engage in sharing. According to users’ tastes, it lends itself equally well to active participation and to passive absorption into “a narcissistic, self-referential world of stimuli with near-narcotic effects”. It can be used to break down the isolation of individuals and groups or to deepen it.

Decentralization

An idealistic vision of the free exchange of information and ideas has played a praiseworthy part in the development of the Internet. Yet its decentralized configuration and the similarly decentralized design of the World Wide Web of the late 1980s also proved to be congenial to a mindset opposed to anything smacking of legitimate regulation for public responsibility. The decentralization has posed lots of hindrances to regulate the Internet worldwide.

Individualism & Radical libertarianism

Here, it was said, was a new realm, the marvelous land of cyberspace, where every sort of expression was allowed and the only law was total individual liberty to do as one pleased. Of course this meant that the only community whose rights and interests would be truly recognized in cyberspace was the community of radical libertarians. This way of thinking remains influential in some circles, supported by familiar libertarian arguments also used to defend pornography and violence in the media generally.

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Ethical issues in the cyberspace

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The spread of the Internet raises a number of ethical questions about matters like privacy, the security and confidentiality of data, copyright and intellectual property law, pornography, hate sites, the dissemination of rumor and character assassination under the guise of news, and much else. These are problems elsewhere also but have come more critical in the Internet. Some issues which are more serious and have longstanding effects need some more explanations:

Digital divide

It is a form of discrimination dividing the rich from the poor, both within and among nations, on the basis of access, or lack of access, to the new information technology. In this sense it is an updated version of an older gap between the ‘information rich’ and ‘information poor’.

Secularization

The Internet has become the tool of secularists to promote secularism. The values predominantly seen in the cyberspace are of secular and the slowness of the Church to be present in the cyberspace has made things worse.

Freedom of expression

It is a complex issue. The church has always upheld this value. It is because of this value the Church and other such entities can make its presence felt in the cyberspace. But at the same time, many powerful people use this for their advantage to do evil things. So the church has drawn a criterion for the freedom of expression so that this value will be there in the internet to guard the Truth. Public opinion, an essential expression of human nature organized in society, absolutely requires freedom to express ideas and attitudes, provided that he respects the moral order and the common interest.

Manipulative journalism

Journalists are very powerful in this media savvy world. But since lots of corporate and ideological interests creep into and the flow of money has increased, journalism is seen more as a way to make money rather than as a seeking of the truth.

Integrity and accuracy of data

One of the most critical problems in the cyberspace is the lack of facilities to check the authenticity and accuracy of the data available in the Internet. This increases the responsibility of the user who uses the data. He must check for himself the accuracy and integrity of the data he receives from the Internet.

Criminal behaviors in other context is not criminal here

The difficulties in formulating laws internationally acceptable have made the Internet a place of criminals.

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Internet to help the Church in its communication of love

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Paul VI once said, “Church would feel guilty before the Lord if she failed to use the media for evangelization.” The primary duty of the Church is communicate the Good news of Jesus Christ to the world. The Church sees the Internet as a very effective tool in its missionary work. The Church speaks of another area where the Internet can be very useful. It is sharing the ideas among different groups in the Church, like Pope, Bishops, priests, nuns and laity. It will help to address effectively some pressing problems faced by the societies of today and also to deepen the bond between these groups.

Some precautions to be taken while using the Internet

1. Though being an effective tool in her missionary duty, should the church be overwhelmed of the Internet? No, it should not be. The Church has always made the distinction between the real and the virtual. Virtual is always to support the real, not to replace. A person who relates more comfortably with another in a virtual space than in a real space is not a healthy symptom.
2. There is no sacrament in the Cyberspace.
3. As far as the learning of the Internet is concerned, a mere learning of the techniques of how to use the Internet is not enough. Rather, one must learn the morality of the Internet.
4. We see many sites with a label, “Catholic” in the Internet, most of them are not catholic in its nature. There should be some ways to authenticate from the part of the Church authorities which sites are catholic or not.

Recommendations

To catechetists

Teach the students how to use the internet morally and accountably

To parents

1. Act as models of prudent use of media in the home
2. Children are more familiar with the internet than their parents. So learn it.
3. Parental supervision by parental software
4. Have dialogue with the children on the these matters

Children and young people

1. overcome peer pressure
2. overcome uncritical passivity
3. overcome commercial exploitations
4. your owe to yourself, families, friends and ultimately to God in the use of the internet well
5. Internet places in the grasp of young people at an unusually early age an immense capacity for doing good and doing harm, to themselves and others. It can enrich their lives beyond the dreams of earlier generations and empower them to enrich others’ lives in turn. It also can plunge them into consumerism, pornographic and violent fantasy, and pathological isolation.

The virtues one must foster to be better users of the Internet

Prudence

Prudence is necessary in order clearly to see the implications—the potential for good and evil—in this new medium and to respond creatively to its challenges and opportunities.

Justice

Justice is needed, especially justice in working to close the digital divide—the gap between the information-rich and the information-poor in today’s world. This requires a commitment to the international common good, no less than the “globalization of solidarity”.⁵³

Fortitude

Fortitude, courage, is necessary. This means standing up for truth in the face of religious and moral relativism, for altruism and generosity in the face of individualistic consumerism, for decency in the face of sensuality and sin.

Temperance

And temperance is needed—a self-disciplined approach to this remarkable technological instrument, the Internet, so as to use it wisely and only for good.