That we should ban anonymous online accounts

Remaining anonymous has been a corner stone of this country. Our voting habits, shopping habits, and yes, personal opinion have all been given some degree of privacy. The ability to express oneself without fear of retaliation enables the press to do its job, as well as a person's well being when expressing contrary positions to a majority. How is being anonymous online beneficial? Consider the following: what would happen if the press could no longer find their anonymous sources for pieces? What variety of potential oversight would be available if at all times a name must be attached to information. The fear of reprisal now becomes the issue, and one with much more gravity than a case of hurt feelings. No more can the whistle be blown when some one of power wields it to the disadvantage of many others, the protections that could be offered as a front line are now immediately taken down: there is a name, and with that name, can come consequences that become much more far reaching than just one source.The Worst? Is cyber bullying that prevalent? Sure, its a wide spread phenomenon, however its only as harmful as the "victim" wants it to be. As a high average, roughly 25% of teens will have experienced some variety of cyber bullying through their wireless devices, (1) However this in mind, exactly, what has been the result of such a large statistic? Wikipedia attributes 15 suicides to bullying. Not cyber bullying, bullying in general, from as early as the late 1800's. (2) I don't feel I need to quote how many suicides resulted from sexual abuse or rape for teens, however if your curiosity has a morbid bent, its safe to say, much more than 15 over the course of a century. Please see (3) for evidence on that if you feel like being horrified, however I have no problem calling cyber bullying far from "the worst" thing to happen to upcoming generations. At best, this is sensational hyperbole. At worst, its a slap in the face to those abused teens and children.The Real Solution.So, how does the current system prevent cyber bullying from happening? By putting the power to halt the cyber bully's attacks in the victim's hands. Block calls. Change numbers. Report to whatever social media group the "victim" is part of. An instant message is only as powerful as the strength you give it. Sure, human nature craves conflict, but that conflict can only turn real if the victim allows it to. The solution is not law enforcement. The solution is not halting anonymous online capability. The solution is better parenting. Teach your children fact from fiction, teach your children how to handle adversity, and teach your children to unplug some times. Social media is supposed to be for social causes, the best solution is simply the common sense realization that when its no longer about being social, and instead about being personal, its time to ignore the source.To what end?I can honestly think of no reason to want to know of my harasser's identity. My desire, usually in my teens was to ignore what I could and deal with what I couldn't. Well... hang on. In retrospect... in thinking back to my teen years, I did want to know whom made the prank phone calls, and who did what to me, and its not for a sense of justice or corrective action. Revenge. Retaliation. To do unto others. Righteous vindication. I submit that such a tool would not be used for "good", that being personal information immediately available to all online members. I submit that the flighty and capricious nature of teens might immediately exploit this to bad ends. Possibly even violent ones. Where does that leave this model now?In the next round, I will proceed to demonstrate how a) banning anonymous online accounts actually hurts "everyone"b) anonymous status isn't used to steal moneyc) offer closing remarks(1) http://www.iacpsocialmedia.org...(2) https://en.wikipedia.org...(3) http://www.suicide.org...