Misuse of electronic media - Problems and solutions

Internet is the biggest means of communication.  Contacting people living in different parts of the world, educating/instructing them, business on an international level, contact between banks and other financial institutions worldwide, all this is done through the internet.  An individual can sit in a corner of the house and go through the libraries of the world which are present on the internet.  Thus, there are many individual, social and economic advantages of the internet and it has become an international necessity.

There are many advantages of electronic media and similarly, and in fact more than this, are those harms which occur because of the misuse of electronic media.  Communications, telecasting, broadcasting, webcasting, etc. have become really fast.  These are those tools which are judged as per the way they are being used.  If they are used for good purposes, then their use is good.  If they are used for evil purposes, they become means of evil.

TV is a means of audiovisual communication.  Programs which have lewdness and indecency are also telecast through it and similarly, religious, educational and cultural programs are also telecast through it. If one absolutely avoids the indecent and lewd shows and only religious, educational and cultural programs are telecast on the television, then there is no harm in keeping a TV and watching it.  This aspect of watching TV is beneficial to all.  However, if it is used to watch movies, lewd and indecent programs then it is harmful from the worldly and spiritual point of view, impermissible and forbidden.

For this reason, the method Islam uses to stop corruption of the society is to close the very sources from where indecency spreads.

Watching TV is like using our eyes.  The way using eyes to see something permissible is permissible use of eyes and seeing something indecent and lewd is to use the eyes for wrong purposes and thus impermissible and forbidden, in the same way the Shariah ruling for TV, internet, etc. will also depend on its use.  If what they are being used for is permissible, then using them is permissible and if they are used for forbidden and indecent things, then their use is forbidden.