"Positive Reinforcement for Negative Behavior" focuses on information that can easily be obtained on the World Wide Web. This information contains negative messages and can encourage unacceptable behavior. These sites and information appear as "normal" because of "official-looking" newsgroups, and many people are devoted to this negative behavior. These sites only add positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

1. Positive Reinforcement for Negative Behavior

2. Relationships Formed Over the Internet

3. Cults

4. Pornography

5. Violent Behavior

1. Influence of Violence on Pop Culture
2. Hate Web Sites

6. Three Main Links to Positive Reinforcement
   for Negative Behavior

1. Downloading
2. Bootlegged Software
3. Gaming and Expanding
4. Video Game Addiction
5. Addiction in the Workplace

7. Anti-Social Behavior

1. Internet Addiction
2. Video Games
3. Downloading

The Internet today is a rapidly expanding media for a diverse and unique population. The Internet is a tool unlike any other, allowing people to express themselves on a world-wide public forum. Never in the history of mankind has such power been given to the individual to access the world, and to allow their voice to be heard across foreign lands. Of all the great, positive aspects of such a worldly tool, the Internet can house and create negative ideas and behavior.
     Ever since this new form of media has occurred, the issue of freedom of speech has arisen. With a newspaper, the issue of libel and slander has arisen. In the media of the telephone, again the First Amendment issue rose up. The same occurred with the radio and the television. Today, the Internet is the media, which has raised the question of freedom of speech. The United States government has deemed restrictions on certain kinds of speech, such as any incitements to crime or any "innocuous forms of utterance" (Rick Decker). Yet the U.S. government cannot make policy for a media that is worldwide.
     The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is, according to John Barry Barlow, a "local ordinance." How can nations control and enforce media that is coming in from all corners of the globe? The Internet is the quintessential example of a public forum. Anyone can create their own Web site, which allows anyone to express their own views. Because the Internet is so vast, with approximately one billion Web pages and 20 million Web sites, how is a government going to enforce such restrictions? Many sites, focused on hatred, violence, and incitements to crime, slip through the fingers of the government. The best site that has a link to most every hate site on the Internet is at The Hate Directory These are sites that focus on hate, but still remain on the Internet. Other sites have been found and brought to court, such as the "Nuremberg Files" Web site, which will be discussed later on. (See Violent Behavior on this Web site)
     The afore mentioned sites, as well as other sites that focus on negative behavior, only add to the problems of creating a positive environment in today's society. (See Children and the Net on this Web site.) The public forum of the Internet is hazardous, providing a positive environment for acting upon negative behavior.