What is the precautionary stance of a Muslim concerning photographic images, especially when they are published on the internet, and is the ruling on images of animate beings on the internet the same as their ruling on paper?

Contemporary scholars differ regarding the ruling on photographic images. It is safer to avoid them unless there is a necessity. The ruling on an image on the internet does not differ from its ruling on paper. The presence of images for someone who deems them unlawful might be without their knowledge, and there is no authoritative argument in the action of someone who is not infallible. There is no harm in benefiting from useful websites that contain images of animate beings, because their prohibition is a matter of scholarly disagreement, and because their widespread presence has become a common affliction (عمّت به البلوى). Preventing benefit from them would cause hardship, which is removed by Islamic law. It is obligatory to lower the gaze from images of unveiled women and anything else that is forbidden to look at.