Internet safety & appropriate use of digital technology - Essay Example

It goes without a word that the societies have become a global village, with the support of the vast technologies that allow people to socialize, share, create, and manipulate available digital information and images across the globe. These substantial benefits in the current digital age have however, propelled numerous irregularities ranging from illegal to unethical conducts, such as unauthorized copying and reproduction of copyrighted works, cyber and computer crimes, irresponsible postings of online contents, invasion of privacy, and unsafe use of the digital information and technology (James et al, 2009).

To avoid and prevent all those factors, while promoting effective use of the technology, the society (both adults and the young generation) needs adequate information to guide them on what can and cannot do. Using Copyrighted Work Technology through the use of binary digits has enabled production of replicas of original works of authors. Because the modern computers are very advanced, people and especially students find it very easy to locate written materials and copy them in their assignments, or compile them as reports of their work.

Very genuinely, some do not have the idea behind the copyright law and the penalties associated; but others have overlooked the legitimacy of the copyright protections, to accomplish their activities at the expense of the others (authors). According to Popek, copyrights protections exist where a work has been created (whether, music, artwork, written books, magazines, films, and software among others) by an author and demonstrates his or her creativity, besides having being recorded and proved to be original; as such, copyright law makes it legal to sue any persons or companies for criminal charges, if they acted against the author’s wish (which could be unauthorized copying, creating replicas, sharing or viewing on other grounds) (2011).

All the published works are always protected by the copyright law, and unless the author authorizes certain activities, the people accessing the copyrighted work are bound to use it according to what the law specifies. It therefore becomes important to acknowledge the author when documenting one’s work, if at all there exists a replica of a part or the whole of the copyrighted work. An original work is someone’s intellectual property; hence the society is obliged to respect that and access the services through a legal process, such as buying and using the legal opportunities provided by the author of the work, otherwise if law is enforced, the violations are harshly charged for the crime.

The people, especially students and those who deal with documentations need to refer their borrowed ideas and quotations to the authors of the published work, in appreciation and with respect to the law. It saves them from engaging in plagiarism and directs them towards building their own original work with authenticity. Safe use of the technologies is a matter of self-discipline to behave as supposed, whether being observed or not. Knowing that, students with advanced technological devices, such as enabled cameras and internets in their smart phones can avoid cheating and plagiarism, because even available systems can detect copies of published work.

Privacy Dealing with information technology