The Internet Real-name System
According to a recent report, China now has about 400 million Internet users. Whether to
make all netizens register their real names or not has been debated for years in China,
but government officials have confirmed that how to implement a system of entire
real-name registration is being considered. Some netizens support the Internet real-name
system. They hold that people should be responsible for what they do and what they say
on the Internet just as in the real world. They also list the advantages in
terms of fraud prevention and network security protection. On the contrary, other people
are concerned that if the real-name registration system is enforced, the freedom to
conduct discussion and exchange of ideas online will be threatened. Another problem is
that it is hard to protect a netizen's right of privacy once their real identity is
available on the Internet. In my opinion, the real-name system is necessary in some
fields of the Internet, for example, e-commerce. But for those blog users and other
netizens, a real-name system is unjustifiable.