Anonymity and temptation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The young rioters in England wear hoods and masks to hide their identities.\u00a0 British authorities trying to tamp things down are pondering allowing police\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/08\/anonymity-and-temptation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anonymity and temptation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The young rioters in England wear hoods and masks to hide their identities.\u00a0 British authorities trying to tamp things down are pondering allowing police\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/08\/anonymity-and-temptation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-11T15:15:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/08\/anonymity-and-temptation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/08\/anonymity-and-temptation\/\",\"name\":\"Anonymity and temptation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-11T15:15:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-11T15:15:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"The young rioters in England wear hoods and masks to hide their identities.\u00a0 British authorities trying to tamp things down are pondering allowing police\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/08\/anonymity-and-temptation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/08\/anonymity-and-temptation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/08\/anonymity-and-temptation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Anonymity and temptation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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{"id":9180,"date":"2011-08-11T11:15:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T15:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=9180"},"modified":"2011-08-11T11:15:47","modified_gmt":"2011-08-11T15:15:47","slug":"anonymity-and-temptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2011\/08\/anonymity-and-temptation\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymity and temptation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Anonymity is indeed tied to bad behavior.\u00a0\u00a0 Shame is one of those first-use of the law phenomena that helps keep our sinful natures from breaking out.\u00a0 But when no one knows who we are, our inhibitions are released.\u00a0 We certainly see this in the internet, when people in blog wars and email flames can become much more vicious than they would be in actual person-to-person contact,where the online bomb thrower is often quite a nice guy.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, anonymity has its positive uses too, protecting legitimate privacy and shielding the individual from negative social pressures.<\/p>\n

Is there a way to balance all of this?<\/p>\n

Britain weighs personal freedoms against need to keep order \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"