.cross.wired.mind.

One of the greatest things about the Internet (other than it being tubes rather than a dump truck) is that you can be your true self.  You do not have to worry about feeling out of place or rejected because you can remain anonymous and find your niche.

The trouble is that some people use that anonymity as an excuse to cause problems for the rest of us.  This goes beyond trolling, though that is a major problem.  Anonymity combined with powerful social software tools allow individuals to slander, libel, harass, and bring harm to others without repercussion or accountability.

Now, I know what your thinking – INVASION OF PRIVACY!  No.  There is a difference between privacy and anonymity. I am all for privacy, but if an individual causes serious disruption and damage to a forum, blog, wiki, or online game there needs to be some form of accountability.

The reason we have a police force is to ensure that 95% of us can live our lives while the 5% that would seek illicit gain or do harm to us are held accountable when they do.  Police in the real world have the ability to pierce the veil of privacy to discover the identities of perpetrators of crime.  Legal accountability is only possible because we have no real world anonymity.

Let’s look at gaming.  When Halo 2 came out I was ready with my new xbox live subscription.  I was looking forward to playing multi-player online games any time of day with people from all over the world.  Within a few short months it became clear that Halo 2 on xbox live was being ruined by cheaters, modders, hackers, and abusers.  There is nothing more frustrating than playing a serious, ranked match only to have one of your team mates turn on you or start to commit suicide to lower their rank because they are tired of playing challenging games and would prefer lower their rank so they can paWn n00bz.   To their credit xbox live has the ability to track down offenders and get them kicked off the system but nothing prevents these no-goodniks from jumping right back on with a new account.

I understand that the actions of cheaters in an online game does not rise to the level of a risk to life and limb but Net anonymity facilitates real crime too.  People are using Craig’s List to find victims to rob.  Email fraud, phishing, identity theft, sexual harassment, stalking, and worse are now on the rise because anyone can go online with complete anonymity commit crimes with little hope of actual accountability.

If there was a mechanism to map an individual’s online identity to an individual’s real world identity then he or she could be held accountable for his or her actions.  Then the 95% would be able to live, work, and play online safe from the crap thrown at us by the 5%.

Let’s keep identity privacy.  But anonymity should be a privilege that can be lost when laws, or the rules of conduct, are broken.