The Kingdom has announced a series of new laws that aim to punish the online harassment and blackmailing of women and men; the emotional, verbal and physical abuse of women, and hackers of sites on the Internet. These new laws are excellent deterrent and punishment tools that can both dissuade people from committing these crimes in the first place and also punish them after the crimes have been committed. That so many such laws have come into force in the past few months just shows how much our local laws needed to be expanded to increase their scope of jurisdiction and protection.

Twenty-years ago we did not have the Internet, so with the advent of the world wide web locally in 2000 we came upon a whole new digital world where crimes such as hacking into sensitive sites and blackmailing people after befriending them online and gaining their confidence, have all become the new crimes of the 21st Century.

While the abuse of women usually occurs mostly offline, the rise of the Internet and its ease in spreading news and awareness has had a direct impact on Saudi society, whether we want to admit it or not. So while many more conservative Saudis may curse the Internet for spreading pornography and helping young Saudis have illicit online relationships, in the balance the effects of the Internet have been more positive than negative.

Hopefully the Internet will be able to spark much-needed national dialogues on the state of Saudi society and the relationships within it. I just read recently an opinion piece by a Saudi writer who was complaining that many Saudi men were feeling neglected by the government because of the perceived advantages that Saudi women were being given in professional training opportunities and jobs. This might strike outsiders as unbelievable coming from a male-dominated society where women still cannot drive and need a male guardian to do many important things. But the truth is that there are some Saudi men who are stuck in low-paying jobs, probably because of their lack of adequate skills and education. Are they being neglected? Who knows, but it would be nice to have an open public debate about this.

The recent announcement that a Saudi government body wants to start regulating the Saudi-produced content on YouTube was received with alarm by Saudi filmmakers. From what I have seen online, the shows filmed and put online by Saudis are not subversive and pose no threat to the country. In fact, the freedom to produce whatever you want online has given many creative Saudis an outlet for their talents in film, comedy and music. They have all turned to YouTube because Saudi state TV is viewed as a closed behemoth that does not encourage new talent or give them opportunities to break into the TV market. Comedians also don’t have comedy clubs in Saudi cities in which to perform their stand-up routines, so they too have turned to the Internet to capture an audience that only keeps growing. Their success is evident in the hundreds of thousands of viewings that they garner on YouTube.

Instead of stifling local talent we should be promoting them and helping them achieve their goals. Saudi Arabia is full of incredible talent such as musician Alaa Wardi and filmmaker Mohamed Makki and it would be sad if these talented Saudis, men and women, were forced abroad because our government wanted to control them.

I am all in favor of punishing those who blackmail and defame people online. But we should be careful that in our zeal to protect citizens we don’t go too far and kill the freedom and creativity that are so crucial for talented Saudis to thrive and produce in.

- The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.