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Ethics in Internet
Pontifical Council for Social Communications
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 28, 2002
* * *
Ethics in Internet
Pontifical Council for Social Communications
CONTENTS
I. Introduction
II. About the Internet
III. Some Areas of Concern
IV. Recommendations and Conclusion
I. INTRODUCTION
1. "Today's revolution in social communications
involves a fundamental reshaping of the elements by which people
comprehend the world about them, and verify and express what they
comprehend. The constant availability of images and ideas, and their
rapid transmission even from continent to continent, have profound
consequences, both positive and negative, for the psychological,
moral and social development of persons, the structure and functioning
of societies, intercultural communications, and the perception and
transmission of values, world views, ideologies, and religious beliefs".1
The truth of these words has become clearer than
ever during the past decade. Today it takes no great stretch of
the imagination to envisage the earth as an interconnected globe
humming with electronic transmissions -- a chattering planet nestled
in the provident silence of space. The ethical question is whether
this is contributing to authentic human development and helping
individuals and peoples to be true to their transcendent destiny.
And, of course, in many ways the answer is yes.
The new media are powerful tools for education and cultural enrichment,
for commercial activity and political participation, for intercultural
dialogue and understanding; and, as we point out in the document
that accompanies this one,2 they also can serve the cause of religion.
Yet this coin has another side. Media of communication that can
be used for the good of persons and communities can be used to exploit,
manipulate, dominate, and corrupt.
2. The Internet is the latest and in many respects
most powerful in a line of media -- telegraph, telephone, radio,
television -- that for many people have progressively eliminated
time and space as obstacles to communication during the last century
and a half. It has enormous consequences for individuals, nations,
and the world.
In this document we wish to set out a Catholic view
of the Internet, as a starting point for the Church's participation
in dialogue with other sectors of society, especially other religious
groups, concerning the development and use of this marvelous technological
instrument. The Internet is being put to many good uses now, with
the promise of many more, but much harm also can be done by its
improper use. Which it will be, good or harm, is largely a matter
of choice -- a choice to whose making the Church brings two elements
of great importance: her commitment to the dignity of the human
person and her long tradition of moral wisdom.3
3. As with other media, the person and the community
of persons are central to ethical evaluation of the Internet. In
regard to the message communicated, the process of communicating,
and structural and systemic issues in communication, "the fundamental
ethical principle is this: The human person and the human community
are the end and measure of the use of the media of social communication;
communication should be by persons to persons for the integral development
of persons".4
The common good -- "the sum total of social conditions
which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach
their fulfillment more fully and more easily"5 -- provides a second
basic principle for ethical evaluation of social communications.
It should be understood inclusively, as the whole of those worthy
purposes to which a community's members commit themselves together
and which the community exists to realize and sustain. The good
of individuals depends upon the common good of their communities.
The virtue disposing people to protect and promote
the common good is solidarity. It is not a feeling of "vague compassion
or shallow distress" at other people's troubles, but "a firm and
persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good;
that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because
we are all really responsible for all".6 Especially today solidarity
has a clear, strong international dimension; it is correct to speak
of, and obligatory to work for, the international common good.
4. The international common good, the virtue of
solidarity, the revolution in communications media and information
technology, and the Internet are all relevant to the process of
globalization.
To a great extent, the new technology drives and
supports globalization, creating a situation in which "commerce
and communications are no longer bound by borders".7 This has immensely
important consequences. Globalization can increase wealth and foster
development; it offers advantages like "efficiency and increased
production ... greater unity among peoples ... a better service
to the human family".8 But the benefits have not been evenly shared
up to now. Some individuals, commercial enterprises, and countries
have grown enormously wealthy while others have fallen behind. Whole
nations have been excluded almost entirely from the process, denied
a place in the new world taking shape. "Globalization, which has
profoundly transformed economic systems by creating unexpected possibilities
of growth, has also resulted in many people being relegated to the
side of the road: unemployment in the more developed countries and
extreme poverty in too many countries of the Southern Hemisphere
continue to hold millions of women and men back from progress and
prosperity".9
It is by no means clear that even societies that
have entered into the globalization process have done so entirely
as a matter of free, informed choice. Instead, "many people, especially
the disadvantaged, experience this as something that has been forced
upon them rather than as a process in which they can actively participate".10
In many parts of the world, globalization is spurring
rapid, sweeping social change. This is not just an economic process
but a cultural one, with both positive and negative aspects. "Those
who are subjected to it often see globalization as a destructive
flood threatening the social norms which had protected them and
the cultural points of reference which had given them direction
in life. ... Changes in technology and work relationships are moving
too quickly for cultures to respond".11
5. One major consequence of the deregulation of
recent years has been a shift of power from national states to transnational
corporations. It is important that these corporations be encouraged
and helped to use their power for the good of humanity; and this
points to a need for more communication and dialogue between them
and concerned bodies like the Church.
Use of the new information technology and the Internet
needs to be informed and guided by a resolute commitment to the
practice of solidarity in the service of the common good, within
and among nations. This technology can be a means for solving human
problems, promoting the integral development of persons, creating
a world governed by justice and peace and love. Now, even more than
when the Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communications
Communio et Progressio made the point more than thirty years ago,
media have the ability to make every person everywhere "a partner
in the business of the human race".12
This is an astonishing vision. The Internet can
help make it real -- for individuals, groups, nations, and the human
race -- only if it is used in light of clear, sound ethical principles,
especially the virtue of solidarity. To do so will be to everyone's
advantage, for "we know one thing today more than in the past: we
will never be happy and at peace without one another, much less
if some are against others".13 This will be an expression of that
spirituality of communion which implies "the ability to see what
is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from
God," along with the ability "to 'make room' for our brothers and
sisters, bearing 'each other's burdens' (Gal. 6, 2) and resisting
the selfish temptations which constantly beset us".14
6. The spread of the Internet also raises a number
of other 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. We shall speak
briefly about some of these things below, while recognizing that
they call for continued analysis and discussion by all concerned
parties. Fundamentally, though, we do not view the Internet only
as a source of problems; we see it as a source of benefits to the
human race. But the benefits can be fully realized only if the problems
are solved.
II. ABOUT THE INTERNET
7. The Internet has a number of striking features.
It is instantaneous, immediate, worldwide, decentralized, interactive,
endlessly expandable in contents and outreach, flexible and adaptable
to a remarkable degree. It 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".15 It can be used to break
down the isolation of individuals and groups or to deepen it.
8. The technological configuration underlying the
Internet has a considerable bearing on its ethical aspects: People
have tended to use it according to the way it was designed, and
to design it to suit that kind of use. This 'new' system in fact
dates back to the cold war years of the 1960s, when it was intended
to foil nuclear attack by creating a decentralized network of computers
holding vital data. Decentralization was the key to the scheme,
since in this way, so it was reasoned, the loss of one or even many
computers would not mean the loss of the data.
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. An exaggerated
individualism regarding the Internet thus emerged. 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.16
Although radical individualists and entrepreneurs obviously are
two very different groups, there is a convergence of interests between
those who want the Internet to be a place for very nearly every
kind of expression, no matter how vile and destructive, and those
who want it to be a vehicle of untrammeled commercial activity on
a neo-liberal model that "considers profit and the law of the market
as its only parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the
respect due to individuals and peoples".17
9. The explosion of information technology has increased
the communication capabilities of some favored individuals and groups
many times over. The Internet can serve people in their responsible
use of freedom and democracy, expand the range of choices available
in diverse spheres of life, broaden educational and cultural horizons,
break down divisions, promote human development in a multitude of
ways. "The free flow of images and speech on a global scale is transforming
not only political and economic relations between peoples, but even
our understanding of the world. It opens up a range of hitherto
unthinkable possibilities".18 When based upon shared values rooted
in the nature of the person, the intercultural dialogue made possible
by the Internet and other media of social communication can be "a
privileged means for building the civilization of love".19
But that is not the whole story. "Paradoxically,
the very forces which can lead to better communication can also
lead to increasing self-centeredness and alienation".20 The Internet
can unite people, but it also can divide them, both as individuals
and as mutually suspicious groups separated by ideology, politics,
possessions, race and ethnicity, intergenerational differences,
and even religion. Already it has been used in aggressive ways,
almost as a weapon of war, and people speak of the danger of 'cyber-terrorism.'
It would be painfully ironic if this instrument of communication
with so much potential for bringing people together reverted to
its origins in the cold war and became an arena of international
conflict.
III. SOME AREAS OF CONCERN
10. A number of concerns about the Internet are
implicit in what has been said so far.
One of the most important of these involves what
today is called the digital divide -- 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'.
The expression 'digital divide' underlines the fact
that individuals, groups, and nations must have access to the new
technology in order to share in the promised benefits of globalization
and development and not fall further behind. It is imperative "that
the gap between the beneficiaries of the new means of information
and expression and those who do not have access to them ... not
become another intractable source of inequity and discrimination".21
Ways need to be found to make the Internet accessible to less advantaged
groups, either directly or at least by linking it with lower-cost
traditional media. Cyberspace ought to be a resource of comprehensive
information and services available without charge to all, and in
a wide range of languages. Public institutions have a particular
responsibility to establish and maintain sites of this kind.
As the new global economy takes shape, the Church
is concerned "that the winner in this process will be humanity as
a whole" and not just "a wealthy elite that controls science, technnology
and the planet's resources"; this is to say that the Church desires
"a globalization which will be at the service of the whole person
and of all people".22
In this connection it should be borne in mind that
the causes and consequences of the divide are not only economic
but also technical, social, and cultural. So, for example, another
Internet 'divide' operates to the disadvantage of women, and it,
too, needs to be closed.
11. We are particularly concerned about the cultural
dimensions of what is now taking place. Precisely as powerful tools
of the globalization process, the new information technology and
the Internet transmit and help instill a set of cultural values
-- ways of thinking about social relationships, family, religion,
the human condition -- whose novelty and glamour can challenge and
overwhelm traditional cultures.
Intercultural dialogue and enrichment are of course
highly desirable. Indeed, "dialogue between cultures is especially
needed today because of the impact of new communications technology
on the lives of individuals and peoples".23 But this has to be a
two-way street. Cultures have much to learn from one another, and
merely imposing the world view, values, and even language of one
culture upon another is not dialogue but cultural imperialism.
Cultural domination is an especially serious problem
when a dominant culture carries false values inimical to the true
good of individuals and groups. As matters stand, the Internet,
along with the other media of social communication, is transmitting
the value-laden message of Western secular culture to people and
societies in many cases ill-prepared to evaluate and cope with it.
Many serious problems result-for example, in regard to marriage
and family life, which are experiencing "a radical and widespread
crisis"24 in many parts of the world.
Cultural sensitivity and respect for other people's
values and beliefs are imperative in these circumstances. Intercultural
dialogue that "protects the distinctiveness of cultures as historical
and creative expressions of the underlying unity of the human family,
and ... sustains understanding and communion between them" 25 is
needed to build and maintain the sense of international solidarity.
12. The question of freedom of expression on the
Internet is similarly complex and gives rise to another set of concerns.
We strongly support freedom of expression and the
free exchange of ideas. Freedom to seek and know the truth is a
fundamental human right,26 and freedom of expression is a cornerstone
of democracy. "Man, provided he respects the moral order and the
common interest, is entitled to seek after truth, express and make
known his opinions ... he ought to be truthfully informed about
matters of public interest".27 And public opinion, "an essential
expression of human nature organized in society," absolutely requires
"freedom to express ideas and attitudes".28
In light of these requirements of the common good,
we deplore attempts by public authorities to block access to information
-- on the Internet or in other media of social communication --
because they find it threatening or embarrassing to them, to manipulate
the public by propaganda and disinformation, or to impede legitimate
freedom of expression and opinion. Authoritarian regimes are by
far the worst offenders in this regard; but the problem also exists
in liberal democracies, where access to media for political expression
often depends on wealth, and politicians and their advisors violate
truthfulness and fairness by misrepresenting opponents and shrinking
issues to sound-bite dimensions.
13. In this new environment, journalism is undergoing
profound changes. The combination of new technologies and globalization
has "increased the powers of the media, but has also made them more
liable to ideological and commercial pressures",29 and this is true
of journalism as well.
The Internet is a highly effective instrument for
bringing news and information rapidly to people. But the economic
competitiveness and round-the-clock nature of Internet journalism
also contribute to sensationalism and rumor-mongering, to a merging
of news, advertising, and entertainment, and to an apparent decline
in serious reporting and commentary. Honest journalism is essential
to the common good of nations and the international community. Problems
now visible in the practice of journalism on the Internet call for
speedy correcting by journalists themselves.
The sheer overwhelming quantity of information on
the Internet, much of it unevaluated as to accuracy and relevance,
is a problem for many. But we also are concerned lest people make
use of the medium's technological capacity for customizing information
simply to raise electronic barriers against unfamiliar ideas. That
would be an unhealthy development in a pluralistic world where people
need to grow in mutual understanding. While Internet users have
a duty to be selective and self-disciplined, that should not be
carried to the extreme of walling themselves off from others. The
medium's implications for psychological development and health likewise
need continued study, including the possibility that prolonged immersion
in the virtual world of cyberspace may be damaging to some. Although
there are many advantages in the capacity technology gives people
to "assemble packages of information and services uniquely designed
for them", this also "raises an inescapable question: Will the audience
of the future be a multitude of audiences of one? ... What would
become of solidarity -- what would become of love -- in a world
like that?" 30
14. Standing alongside issues that have to do with
freedom of expression, the integrity and accuracy of news, and the
sharing of ideas and information, is another set of concerns generated
by libertarianism. The ideology of radical libertarianism is both
mistaken and harmful -- not least, to legitimate free expression
in the service of truth. The error lies in exalting freedom "to
such an extent that it becomes an absolute, which would then be
the source of values. ... In this way the inescapable claims of
truth disappear, yielding their place to a criterion of sincerity,
authenticity and 'being at peace with oneself"'.31 There is no room
for authentic community, the common good, and solidarity in this
way of thinking.
IV RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
15. As we have seen, the virtue of solidarity is
the measure of the Internet's service of the common good. It is
the common good that supplies the context for considering the ethical
question: "Are the media being used for good or evil?" 32
Many individuals and groups share responsibility
in this matter-for example, the transnational corporations of which
we spoke above. All users of the Internet are obliged to use it
in an informed, disciplined way, for morally good purposes; parents
should guide and supervise children's use.33 Schools and other educational
institutions and programs for children and adults should provide
training in discerning use of the Internet as part of a comprehensive
media education including not just training in technical skills
-- 'computer literacy' and the like -- but a capacity for informed,
discerning evaluation of content. Those whose decisions and actions
contribute to shaping the structure and contents of the Internet
have an especially serious duty to practice solidarity in the service
of the common good.
16. Prior censorship by government should be avoided;
"censorship ... should only be used in the very last extremity".34
But the Internet is no more exempt than other media from reasonable
laws against hate speech, libel, fraud, child pornography and pornography
in general, and other offenses. Criminal behavior in other contexts
is criminal behavior in cyberspace, and the civil authorities have
a duty and a right to enforce such laws. New regulations also may
be needed to deal with special 'Internet' crimes like the dissemination
of computer viruses, the theft of personal data stored on hard disks,
and the like.
Regulation of the Internet is desirable, and in
principle industry self-regulation is best. "The solution to problems
arising from unregulated commercialization and privatization does
not lie in state control of media but in more regulation according
to criteria of public service and in greater public accountability".35
Industry codes of ethics can play a useful role, provided they are
seriously intended, involve representatives of the public in their
formulation and enforcement, and, along with giving encouragement
to responsible communicators, carry appropriate penalties for violations,
including public censure.36 Circumstances sometimes may require
state intervention: for example, by setting up media advisory boards
representing the range of opinion in the community.37
17. The Internet's transnational, boundary-bridging
character and its role in globalization require international cooperation
in setting standards and establishing mechanisms to promote and
protect the international common good.38 In regard to media technology,
as in regard to much else, "there is a pressing need for equity
at the international level".39 Determined action in the private
and public sectors is needed to close and eventually eliminate the
digital divide.
Many difficult Internet-related questions call for
international consensus: for example, how to guarantee the privacy
of law-abiding individuals and groups without keeping law enforcement
and security officials from exercising surveillance over criminals
and terrorists; how to protect copyright and intellectual property
rights without limiting access to material in the public domain
-- and how to define the 'public domain' itself; how to establish
and maintain broad-based Internet repositories of information freely
available to all Internet users in a variety of languages; how to
protect women's rights in regard to Internet access and other aspects
of the new information technology. In particular, the question of
how to close the digital divide between the information rich and
the information poor requires urgent attention in its technical,
educational, and cultural aspects.
There is today a "growing sense of international
solidarity" that offers the United Nations system in particular
"a unique opportunity to contribute to the globalization of solidarity
by serving as a meeting place for states and civil society and as
a convergence of the varied interests and needs. ... Cooperation
between international agencies and nongovernmental organizations
will help to ensure that the interests of states-legitimate though
they may be-and of the different groups within them, will not be
invoked or defended at the expense of the interests or rights of
other peoples, especially the less fortunate".40 In this connection
we hope that the World Summit of the Information Society scheduled
to take place in 2003 will make a positive contribution to the discussion
of these matters.
18. As we pointed out above, a companion document
to this one called The Church and Internet speaks specifically about
the Church's use of the Internet and the Internet's role in the
life of the Church. Here we wish only to emphasize that the Catholic
Church, along with other religious bodies, should have a visible,
active presence on the Internet and be a partner in the public dialogue
about its development. "The Church does not presume to dictate these
decisions and choices, but it does seek to be of help by indicating
ethical and moral criteria which are relevant to the process-criteria
which are to be found in both human and Christian values".41
The Internet can make an enormously valuable contribution
to human life. It can foster prosperity and peace, intellectual
and aesthetic growth, mutual understanding among peoples and nations
on a global scale.
It also can help men and women in their age-old
search for self-understanding. In every age, including our own,
people ask the same fundamental questions: "Who am I? Where have
I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there
after this life?" 42 The Church cannot impose answers, but she can
-- and must -- proclaim to the world the answers she has received;
and today, as always, she offers the one ultimately satisfying answer
to the deepest questions of life-Jesus Christ, who "fully reveals
man to himself and brings to light his most high calling".43 Like
today's world itself, the world of media, including the Internet,
has been brought by Christ, inchoately yet truly, within the boundaries
of the kingdom of God and placed in service to the word of salvation.
Yet "far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the
expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that
the 0body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way
the age which is to come".44
Vatican City, February 22, 2002, Feast of the Chair
of St. Peter the Apostle.
John P. Foley
President
Pierfranco Pastore
Secretary
__________
(1) Pontifical Council for Social Communications,
Pastoral Instruction Aetatis Novae on Social Communications on the
twentieth anniversary of Communio et progressio, n. 4.
(2) Pontifical Council for Social Communications,
The Church and Internet.
(3) Cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications,
Ethics in Communications, n. 5.
(4) Ibid., n. 21.
(5) Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes, n. 26;
cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1906.
(6) John Paul II, Sollicitudo rei socialis, n. 38.
(7) John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy
of Social Sciences, n. 2, April 27, 2001.
(8) John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Ecclesia in America, n. 20.
(9) John Paul II, Address to the Diplomatic Corps
Accredited to the Holy See, n. 3, January 10, 2000.
(10) Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social
Sciences, n. 2.
(11) Ibid., n. 3.
(12) Pontifical Commission for Social Communications,
Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communication, Communio
et progressio, n. 19.
(13) Address to the Diplomatic Corps, n. 4.
(14) John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo millennio
ineunte, n. 43.
(15) Ethics in Communications, n. 2.
(16) Pontifical Council for Social Communications,
Pornography and Violence in the Communications Media: A Pastoral
Response, n. 20.
(17) Ecclesia in America, n. 56.
(18) Message for the Celebration of the World Day
of Peace 2001, n. 11.
(19) Ibid., n. 16.
(20) John Paul II, Message for the 33rd World Communications
Day, n. 4, January 24, 1999.
(21) John Paul II, Message for the 31st World Day
of Communications, 1997.
(22) Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social
Sciences, n. 5.
(23) Ibid., n. 11.
(24) Novo millennio ineunte, n. 47.
(25) Message for the World Day of Peace 2001, n.
10.
(26) John Paul II, Centesimus annus, n. 47.
(27) Gaudium et spes, n. 59.
(28) Communio et progressio, nn. 25, 26.
(29) John Paul II, Address to the Jubilee of Journalists,
n. 2, June 4, 2000.
(30) Ethics in Communications, n. 29.
(31) John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, n. 32.
(32) Ethics in Communications, n. 1.
(33) Cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Familiaris consortio, n. 76.
(34) Communio et progressio, n. 86.
(35) Aetatis Novae, n. 5.
(36) Cf. Communio et progressio, n. 79.
(37) Ibid., n. 88.
(38) Cf. Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social
Sciences, n. 2.
(39) Ethics in Communications, n. 22.
(40) John Paul II, Address to the UN Secretary General
and to the Administrative Committee on Coordination of the United
Nations, nn. 2, 3, April 7, 2000.
(41) Aetatis Novae, n. 12.
(42) John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides et ratio,
n. 1.
(43) Gaudium et spes, n. 22.
(44) Ibid., n. 39.
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