Resumen
As with any new and powerful technology, there is the inevitable specter of panic. One can see the panic rear its ugly head whenever the media attaches an "Internet angle" to a breaking news story. The best example of this phenomenon was the Internet angle on the Columbine High School, Colorado shootings; where one of the killers had posted threatening materials, including a hit list and bomb-making instructions on his Web site. It's a little nerve-wracking to see the media obsess over the Internet as a cause of antisocial activity. But the panic is more frightening when concern about the Internet is in the pronouncements and programs of policy makers. Whenever a newspaper article or television program reports on some new Internet threat, or when the government seeks to restrict privacy technologies or expand its monitoring powers, citizens need to wake up and be fully participating in democracy and not take for granted what is heard from media or policy makers. The author believes that fear of crime or terrorism is not the real root of media and governments bias against the Internet, but the fear of change and loss of control.