While I definitely understand your concerns with anonymity, I don't feel like it's the main problem with the internet. Maybe I'm a little bit paranoid, but after reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, I wouldn't want the government regulating anonymity. While I agree they should have some way to track and stop criminal activities like child pornography and such, I don't really want the government watching my every move. I don't feel like it is the right of the government to read my emails just because their worried I might be a terrorist. I don't want the government using its extensive powers to pry into the lives of everyday people. We have a constitution and a bill of rights for a reason.
Just for a little context, Little Brother takes place in the not to distant future after a terrorist attack significantly worse than 9/11 takes place in San Fransico. The government essentially declares martial law and 4 children who stayed on the surface rather than going into the subways and bomb shelters get picked up as suspected terrorists and are treated as such. Although, It's hopefully something that won't ever happen, there are a lot of things that seem like they could be just around the corner. People freak when the subject of terrorists comes up and they are willing to let the government take more power than we've ever let it take before. Take the patriot act, for example.
While the entirely lawless internet you describe would definitely be a bad thing, I completely disagree that that is the direction anonymity will take us. There are so many thriving businesses online, there is no chance that they would let anonymity stop them. First of all, you can't be anonymous if you want to use an online business because you need a credit card, and the credit card company actually checks if your name is wrong. Secondly, there are still many havens of culture and decency on the internet, and If the internet were to spiral into chaos, I feel like decent people would start creating more such places rather than just abandoning the internet.
What we really need is a change in the way the internet is viewed. The problem is there is currently no accepted social code, or limitations on what people should do. Another problem is that people tend to take everything on the internet personally or take it as fact if their a third party. People should have realized by now, that the great and terrible thing about the internet is that it allows people to say whatever they want, but it is very unlikely that all of it is true, and none of it should be taken personally. People still have expectations that don't mesh with the online community. If people had realized that the autoadmit boards were just havens for people flaming and harassing others, maybe Heller and Iravani, wouldn't have been haunted by this random group of people over which they had no control, and the whole thing wouldn't have been an issue.
Also, there are many sites where content is regulated and offensive comments are removed or at least marked as such. This is a viable alternative against your wild west. If people choose to enter a site with a sheriff its because their tired of dealing with what comes from complete freedom, so their choosing to find a place where someone actually regulates content. If the internet were to suddenly go insane as a result of anonymity (which I highly doubt) people could simply flock to more regulated sites. As to the potential surge in criminal activity, law enforcement can be just as anonymous as anyone else. If people were willing to communicate criminal content with anyone they would have no guarantee that the person on the other end wasn't law enforcement and you can find out a lot about people by what they will just tell people freely. Also in child pornography cases, I doubt their would be a huge surge in a way that would be more dangerous to children then it is now, because kidnapping children is still a traceable crime. It's true it's definitely not the easiest thing to find, but anonymity on the internet won't lead to a surge in that sort of criminal behavior.
I agree that some regulation of the internet to control what businesses can do with your information is definitely a good thing, but I'm definitely worried about what the government might do if they had exercised too much control over the internet. I understand your worries about Google's growing collection of data and it's ability to sort out what one person does. A little bit of government regulation is probably the right way to go with that issue, but at the same time the reason that Google is doing so well is because their products are better, more useful, and there isn't anything that's as good competing with them. If people are really worried about Google's domination of the internet, they can switch to different companies. Data storage is just another feature of the product, so if you don't want Google to store all your searches, use Yahoo! or Bing. By using Google, people are saying I want better service, and I'm willing to give up a little bit of privacy for it. At the same time, Google should definitely realize that people don't really want all this information stored about them, and for a company whose motto is “Don't Be Evil,” they could work a little harder to make sure that impression remains.
I'm not saying that the internet shouldn't be regulated at all, I just think we should be very careful about what we let the government regulate. There is a vibrant and positive culture that exists on the internet, and letting the government destroy that is just as bad as letting criminals get away.
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