Thesis: Government Censorship would damage the atmosphere of the freedom to
express ideas on the Internet; therefore, government should not encourage
censorship. Introduction I. In the Internet community, there is a large volume
of technical terms. For this reason, it is first necessary to examine the
terminology specific to Internet. 1.The internet is a world wide computer
network. 1.Electronic mail (email), which is one component of the Internet,
approximates person to person letters, memoranda, notes and even phone calls.
2.Another term that is often used is electronic news (enews/Usenet), enews is a
broadcast, free to the Internet medium. 3.The term FTP is also frequently used.
File transfer protocol (FTP) started as an Internet archival and retrieval
medium, somewhat analogous to traditional libraries. 4.The world-wide web (WWW),
which is another component of the Net, can be used to publish material that
would traditionally appear in journals, magazines, posters, books, television
and even on film. 2.It is also essential to give a brief history on the
internet. 3.The U.S. government is now trying to pass bills to prevent misuse of
the Net. II. In order to understand the need for the ever-growing body of
legislation, it is important to explore the controversy, and the current
problems involved with the Net as it exists must be introduced. 1.The problem
that concerns most people is offensive materials such as pornography. 2.Another
crucial internet crime is the stealing of credit card numbers. III. One reaction
to this inapplicability has been the Censor the Net approach (the censorship
bill), we are now to compare its advantages and disadvantages. 1.First, the
meaning of Censoring the Net must be explained. 2.However, many experts have
pointed out that government censorship is not possible. 1.First, it is not fair
to exclude the freedom and damage the atmosphere of freely expressing ideas just
for the safety of children. 2.Most internet users are enjoying their freedom of
speech on the Net, which is supposed to be protected by our First Amendment.
3.Additionally, only a very small portion of the Net contains offensive
material, most people do not use the Net for pornography. 4.It must be
understood that censoring the Net is technically impossible. 5.While people are
concerned about Internet pornography, it should be recognized that pornography
is sometimes legal; for example, pornography is legal in video and magazines.
IV. There are many alternative measures to government censorship which would
prevent misuse of the Net and would have the same effects as censorship. 1.It is
very important for parents to provide moral guidance for their children, and
parents should have this responsibility. 2.However, at the same time as we carry
out moral guidance, we have to come out with some short term approaches to solve
the problem in a more efficient way as well. 3.An alternative to government
censorship is the technological fix, which would prevent misuse of the Net and
would have the same effects as government censorship. 1.One example of
technological fix is the SurfWatch software. 2.Also, commercial Internet service
providers, such as America Online, allow parents to control what Internet relay
chat (IRC) sessions are available to their children. 3.Another technological fix
is for parents and guardians to have a separate proxy server for their
children's web browser. 4.There are no computer programs to automatically and
reliably classify material; only people can do it. As a result, while practicing
technological fixes, the classification of the contents of the material when
posting is very important. 5.Nowadays, most internet users classify their
postings with standard categories, and leave signatures at the end of postings.
6.The combination of the installation of censoring software and the
classification of materials is a much better solution than government
censorship. Conclusion
The Internet is a wonderful place of entertainment and education but like all
places used by millions of people, it has some murky corners people would prefer
children not to explore. In the physical world society as a whole conspires to
protect children, but there are no social or physical constraints to Internet
surfing. The Internet Censorship Bill of 1995, also known as the Exon/Coats
Communications Decency Act, has been introduced in the U.S. Congress. It would
make it a criminal offense to make available to children anything that is
indecent, or to send anything indecent with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or
harass (Stop the Communications ... n.p.). The goal of this bill as written
(though not as stated by its proponents) is to try to make all public discourse
on the Internet suitable for young children. The issue of whether is it
necessary to have censorship on the Internet is being argued all over the world.
There are numerous homepages on the World Wide Web discussing this issue, or
asking people to sign the petition to stop government censorship. The Internet
was originally a place for people to freely express their ideas worldwide. It is
also one of America's most valuable types of technology; scientists use email
for quick and easy communication. They post their current scientific discoveries
on the Usenet newsgroups so other scientists in the same field of study all over
the world can know in minutes. Ordinary people use the Net for communication,
expressing their opinions in the newsgroups, obtaining up-to-date information
from the WWW, acquiring files by using FTP, etc. Censorship would damage the
atmosphere of the freedom to express ideas on the Internet; therefore,
government should not encourage censorship. In the Internet community, there is
a large volume of technical terms. For this reason, it is first necessary to
examine the terminology specific to Internet. The Internet is a world wide
computer network. The Net is frequently used in place of Internet. In the words
of Allison and Baxter, two experts on Internet Censorship at the Monash
University, the Internet is comprised of various digital media subsuming many of
the distinct roles of traditional media (Allison and Baxter 3). Electronic mail
(email), which is one component of the Internet, approximates person to person
letters, memoranda, notes and even phone calls. Sound and pictures are sometimes
sent along with text. Email is mainly for private communication. Electronic
mailing lists are rather like club newsletters and readers have to contract-in
or subscribe to a list. Another term that is often used is electronic news (enews/Usenet),
enews is a broadcast, free to the Internet medium. It has some properties of
radio or television, particularly talk-back radio or television, in that the
destination is indiscriminate. The term FTP is also frequently used. File
transfer protocol (FTP) started as an Internet archival and retrieval medium,
somewhat analogous to traditional libraries. Files can be retrieved from distant
computers using a traditional text-based interface.
