From: InfoSec News (isnC4I.ORG)
Date: Wed Apr 04 2001 - 02:02:04 CDT

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/8/18079.html

By: Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 03/04/2001 at 22:15 GMT

Child-protective hysterics who want to eavesdrop on the electronic
comings and goings of ordinary citizens in the name of legions of
exploited little lambs have successfully won the hearts and washed the
brains of nearly all Americans.

The US populace is "deeply worried" about Internet crime; and on-line
kiddie porn looms as the greatest terror in the collective
imagination. Fully ninety-two per cent of Americans -- far more than
have ever so much as touched a personal computer -- claim to be
outraged by Internet KP, and half characterize it as "the single most
heinous crime that takes place on line," according to a new survey by
the Pew Charitable Trust Internet Project.

Women are slightly more susceptible to government and media
manipulation, with eighty-six per cent reporting being "very
concerned" about on-line KP compared with seventy-four per cent of
men.

Either way, the entire populace sounds like an incredible lot of
frightened schoolgirls.

Second on the menu of imagined horrors terrifying Americans is credit
card theft. Eighty-seven per cent are "concerned" and sixty-nine per
cent are "very concerned," in spite of the glaring fact that only a
tiny handful have actually had their account numbers stolen and
misused due to Internet shopping.

"Only eight per cent of those who say their credit card was swiped
reported that the thief might have gotten the information because the
consumer had provided it on line," the survey notes. (emphasis
original)

As with the kiddie porn horror, women are slightly more frightened of
on-line fraudsters than men by a margin of seventy-two to sixty-five
per cent.

Next comes the widespread anxiety of Internet terrorism, with
eighty-two per cent of Americans claiming to be "concerned" about
organized efforts to bring all of civilization to its knees with
viruses and packet floods. As one might expect, those who have never
used the Internet are considerably more eager to believe in it.

Fear of contracting viruses and Trojans, and being victimized by
malicious hackers, rounds out the list of persistent fears keeping
America awake all night.

Interestingly, a majority of Yanks (fifty-six per cent) think it's a
great idea for the FBI to monitor e-mail and other IP traffic in order
to fight all these crimes, which are in fact largely imaginary. Women
and Republicans are the most enthusiastic supporters of the Big
Brother approach, the survey finds.

Even more interestingly, Blacks are the most concerned about Internet
crime, and yet the least likely to approve of federal snooping, while
Whites are the least concerned, and yet the most supportive of Big Bro
intervening in their daily lives.

Now that's a digital divide worth looking into.

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