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... possible to visit web sites which seem relatively unoffensive and by following links to other subjects accidentally stumble upon something that might be found offensive. Another question of censorship can be raised too, what about subjects that people feel are a waste of valuable Internet resources- "should these be censored as a waste?" The question is raised: why should a university provide the platform to discuss morning cartoons or your favorite movie star? By looking at these questions once again you must ask if it is possible to agree on what should be censored and can we agree that censorship should be exercised at all? The actions of Towson State and other universities can be explained as a conformity with local legislation, shifting the responsibility for censorship to the state, which introduces various laws which limit what we can see and read or say and write. Censorship may be applied to material which governments judge as damaging to some or all of society (e.
g. , pornography) or to preserve state security. One of the Internet's most popular and visited sites is Yahoo, a huge index of Internet sites that 1. 4 million people use per week as a reference center to guide them around the vast Internet. Yahoo tracks and categorizes about 50, 000 different sites around the Internet, ranging from home pages of computer companies to on-line catalogs to news sources. 217 of those 50, 000 sites are listed under the category of sex which is 0. 4 percent of the total. Many of the sites under the heading relate to the discussion of health issues. Many others are commercial sites like Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler magazines. Yahoo's co-founder acknowledges that the sites his index tracks are a fraction of the "millions" of places people can travel on the Internet but he said it is a good representative sample (O'Conner, 1995).
Who should censor the Internet and how? Due to the lack of a controlling body and the Internet's anarchic nature, who could act as a censor of the material stored and distributed over the Internet? This is an extremely important issue because the censor or censors would have an enormous amount of power. Right now, it is unlikely that any group exists that could take this role and, it is most likely going to fall on individual organizations, like Towson State, to limit what can be received, as in the alt. groups. Also, who could be held responsible for what is distributed over the various sections of the Internet, there are many divisions, such as: private email, public databases and bulletin boards, plus sites maintained in both the public and private sector.
Is the moderator of an email discussion list to be held responsible for the contributions of subscribers? Most likely. The President of the Internet Society has indicated that the ISOC has drafted guidelines for behavior on the net but this will probably not deter anti-Semitic and racist groups because it is a form of free speech. As the Internet becomes even more commercial there will probably be less forms of offensive material because these large corporations will censor anything that may offend. The best way to think about the Internet is to think of it as a huge river. If you think of it that way, preventing access to newsgroups is easy because all that is required is to cut out the link coming into an organization, thought this could have the effect of cutting off other organizations further down the so-called river, unless secondary feeds, or tributaries, can be arranged.
That is not a complete solution, though, because it is possible to obtain newsgroup feeds from other sources. Material from the Internet is much more difficult to control because of the nature of the net. It is largely for this reason that governments will have to fall back on legislation over possession, rather than distribution. The only other solution, right now, is for organizations to licences sites and then have the servers use their power to exert control over the content or the space and then licences would be withdrawn as a means of punishment or censorship. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has spoken out against a proposed government ban on sexually explicit material on the Internet, calling it "clearly a violation of free speech and... a violation of the rights of adults to communicate with each other. " Even with Gingrich's support for free speech there was an overwhelming vote in early June, the Senate amended a telecommunications bill to make it a criminal offense to place "indecent" material on-line anywhere children might view it.
After the Oklahoma City bombing, a prominent Jewish group called for the monitoring of hate groups on the Internet (O'Connor, 1995). Currently, such a move is strongly opposed by most of the Internet users because that would ruin the whole anarchic nature of the net where information is exchanged freely and without undue obstacles. A major consideration should be the balance of control and freedom of expression and information. Solutions Currently, there are not any absolute solutions because of the nature of the Internet. There are some suggestions: - Parents can teach children safe behavior on the Internet just as they teach them to deal with the dangers present in the real world. - Schools should develop acceptable use policies which establish clear guidelines for acceptable and unacceptable behavior. - We should teach all new users to use common courtesy whenever they participate in networking activities. - All concerned networkers need to act responsibly and encourage their peers to do likewise. - Inappropriate activities should be dealt with in a manner which respects the privacy, intellectual freedom and human rights of all concerned. - Concerned parents should purchase and use blocking software to control sites and material they don't want their children to access. There is also various types of Internet control software like Surf watch and Cyber Sitter which are available by email from Classroom Connect (Voicenet, 1995).
The best idea is to strengthen the freedom of information which it offers and accept the consequence that some material will be distributed which individuals will find offensive. Then, our responsibility is to ensure that the content of such material is made clear, to prevent anyone from wandering into it innocently. Bibliography Cockerill, M. Urban myths: telling some home truths. The Gaurdian Online, August 18, 1994. p 19 Cornwall, H.
Pornography: do we protest too much? The Gaurdian Online, June 23, 1994. p 8 Interpersonal Computing and Technology (1994). Censorship.
Interpersonal Computing and Technology [Online]. Available email: CPSR- O'Connor, R. Debate continues to heat up over sex on the net. Mercury News, September 24, 1995. p 6 - 10 Phillips, G. (1994). Censorship.
Interpersonal Computing and Technology List [Online]. Available email: N These, W. (1994). Censorship in cyberspace. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility-Global. [Online]. Available email: CPSR- Voicenet (1995). Censorship.
Freedom of Speech. Child Safety on the Internet [Online]. Available email:
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Research essay sample on Freedom Of Speech Censorship On The Internet
