Recent incidents of several people landing in hot soup when their comments were put on the Net have driven home the message that discretion is the better part of valour.
They also raise the need for "netiquette", or a proper code of conduct that Internet users should observe when interacting online.
One Internet user who learnt the hard way is Mr Gerald Poh, 21, a biology undergraduate.
His experience mirrored what many other have faced. Mr Poh posted an innocent comment on a schoolmate's blog, criticising her about a post she had put up on their former junior college schoolmates.
"Before I knew it, people were taking sides over my comment, escalating into a war between friends. Many of our friends still don't talk to each other because of that," Mr Poh told The Straits Times.
"Many people underestimate the power of such communication, until they get burnt."
Such online incidents are common and have the potential to erupt into national issues. A recent example concerns Second Lieutenant Li Hongyi, 20, the son of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
He was reprimanded by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) for broadcasting a complaint email letter about the misconduct of another officer, to other servicemen.
SAF had to publicly engage the matter after the e-mail found its way into blogs, online forums and the local and foreign press, whipping up a maelstrom of response.
Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Charles Chong also told The Straits Times that Singaporeans are using the Internet to broadcast complaints and musings "well beyond the relevant recipients".
"I get lots of e-mail from youth, which are cc'ed (carbon-copied) to the President, PM and all the MPs," he said. "I'm not sure they are well thought through."
Dr Cherian George, a journalism lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, summing up the issue, said that people nowadays are "posting faster than they can process", because of the ease and speed at which technology has afforded them.
"To persuade others when you blog, you have to step into their shoes and be mindful of social norms. All this requires reflection, and unfortunately reflection isn't a practice that's encouraged by today's Internet tools," he said.
Another controversial case involved the daughter of Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Wee Siew Kim.
Miss Wee Shu Min, 19, posted a comment on her blog last year criticising the unemployment worries of a 35-year-old worker.
The backlash made her a symbol of elitism, and the debate even reached Parliament.
Mr Wee said that "it was a hard lesson" for him and his daughter. "I learnt that it is so easy for people to take phrases out of context and whip up a maelstrom out of it," he added.
Dr Lim Sun Sun, who teaches media literacy at National University of Singapore, said: "The Internet may allow a person to be more open or less inhibited, which is a good thing. But there must be a certain level of 'public self-awareness' as the Web is not a wholly private medium."
But while flaps over negative publicity may occur at times, parents should not be "paranoid or take a censorious approach", said Dr Lim.
