semicolon

[MadHorse]

"Watch out if someone online starts talking about hacking, or breaking into other people’s or companies’ computer systems; phreaking, the illegal use of long-distance services or cellular phones; or viruses, online programs that destroy or damage data when other people download these into their computers."

Would it be wrong if I use commas to replace semicolons above?

[Tdol]

In theory you could, but then it would be very difficult to tell which are the list items- for instance 'viruses' has a definition surrounded by commas. Semi-colons helpo with complex lists because they make the list items clearer