Are You a Good Cybercitizen?

It's important to be a good citizen wherever you may find yourself, by following the rules of that place. The Internet is a "place" with its own very special rules. People who communicate over the Internet are called "cybercitizens." It's important to learn the rules of the Internet before you log on, so that you can be a "good cybercitizen." Each of the following stories describes a situation that you might find yourself in while "surfing" the Internet. What would you do in each of these situations? Click on one of the “GO!” links to choose what you might do, and what might happen as a result of your choice.


"My friend Joey and I wanted to buy this really cool computer game, but it cost a lot of money. Then Joey found a web site where you could get this game FOR FREE just by trading a copy of any other game that you had. But I've heard that copying games for free without the permission of the company who makes them is illegal."
"My friend Quentin brags that he can break into any computer there is! He figures out how to get into a computer network, and then he can read anybody's e-mail or even send fake e-mail from someone else's account. He says this is really fun, and he wants me to help him get into the computer at school."
"I have a paper due in history tomorrow, and I just started to research it. I found a web site that has a lot of term papers ALREADY WRITTEN. They are grouped by subject matter and age group (middle school, high school, college, or graduate school). There's a paper there on my topic. All I have to do to get a copy is trade a copy of any other paper that I did for school. That would be a lot easier than researching and writing this entire paper in one night."
"At school, I saw this girl enter her password for Internet access, and now I can log in and read all her e-mail. I can send e-mail from her account, too, so that people will think the message is from her."
" I got a copy of a really funny computer 'joke' from my friend. It asks you if you want Internet Access for FREE? When you say 'yes,' it changes some files on your computer so that each time you log on, your computer says ' Way to go, DODO'. I think I will send it to my friends as a joke."

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Updated page May 31, 2002
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