Internet Censorship Essay - America Needs Censorship of Cyberspace

The United States Supreme Court has determined that the First Amendment does not provide protection to obscenity, child pornography, or speech that advocates "the use of force or of law violation."

In thinking about cases such as Jake Baker's, it truly would be too difficult to enforce United States standards and regulations on a global medium such as the Internet. There are probably millions of sites out there on the Web that contain such sexual content as did Baker's story. As one University of Michigan student mentions, "The Internet allows individuals access to a larger audience. This effectively gave Baker a larger audience for his stories, which otherwise would have never seen them....I definitely question the wisdom of allowing just anyone access to such publishing power...but I'm not sure that I even consider Usenet news as real media" (http://krusty.eecs.umich.edu/). The same student goes on to say that Baker's stories were reserved only for a section entitled "alt.sex.stories" -- a place filled with sexually explicit stories -- therefore, Baker had the right to publish his offensive sex stories, since it was contained within this separate Internet section. Usenet news may not be "real media," but I still think that the Internet would be too difficult to censor entirely,

For background information, one must, above all else, consider the rights in the Constitution that pertain to the issue. The First Amendment grants the freedom of speech, which directly relates to the broadcast of content on the Internet. Furthermore, the Fourth Amendment protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures into their effects. Therefore, the government cannot intrude on what is freely said online unless it has a valid reason to do so.

No one wants to be censored, but sometimes there has to be a limit for the greater good. What kids are able to view and read on the internet must be protected until they are old enough to handle the information that is available by the multitudes on the internet. Parents should have the right or the ability to censor the information that comes into their home.

Instead of censorship and regulation by the government, we as users of the Internet should be able to practice self-regulation. Censorship of the Internet violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, and thus robs us of our right to freedom of speech. Since cyberspace is a fairly new concept, any restrictions placed on the Internet by the CDA will determine the degree of freedom we will enjoy on the Internet in future years. Enforcement of the CDA will potentially rob us of a valuable source of information on subjects ranging from abortion and AIDS to birth control.

An organization called Green Garage, says that the censors of the internet disables the freedom of speech. Apparently, disabling the freedom of speech is not listening to the rule of the First Amendment, according to Green Garage. The internet helped people around the world to express their thoughts and opinion. Internet censorship only destroys your imagination. This may be true, but the internet could show images that most would find disturbing and inappropriate. The things that one might like to show to the world, should be kept to themselves, or somewhere else where kids and adults would not have to look, or deal with. Also, kids can find themselves on a website that could lure them into something dangerous. Censorship should be necessary to keep most people

Pornography goes much farther than this. Pedophiles use pornography on the Internet to abduct and exploit children. "The Washington Post reported on a case where a group of investigators signed on to a major computer service with false identifications and pretended to be children. They posted a few innocuous messages on teen bulletin boards and the next day they had 'solicitations for nude pictures, phone sex, and offers to meet in person for sex'"(Exon, 436). This kind of situation needs to be prevented and censorship would do just that.

     Many highly respectable organizations are completely against Internet censorship. One such organization is the American Library Association or ALA. The ALA is against any type of censoring software or programs in any of their affiliations across the nation. In Fact, a line in the ALA code of ethics specifically states, “We uphold the principles of intellectual Freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources.”(Weckert 44) There is no mistaking that the ALA is against censorship. Another highly regarded source is The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, In this Article 19 states “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and import information and ideas through any

     From music to television, censorship has played a major role in how the public is exposed to certain material. Now that our world is entering into a new technology era, the Internet is now in the middle of the censorship issue. Internet access is now one of the fastest ways to communicate with others, obtain information on virtually anything, and purchase items without having to leave your home. As more and more people get connected to this cyber superhighway, concern for the content of material has become a big issue. Since so many children are exposed to the Internet, some material should not be accessible with a simple click of a mouse. In order to protect our younger people from being exposed to

With Social Media being still a relatively young form of media, governments and corporations are still attempting to find a way to bring regulations to the internet. Many times, this comes in the form of Internet Censorship. According to IPLocation, internet censorship is when a government institution or organization restricts what is seen on the internet. Wikipedia elaborates on this, stating that many times websites will self-censor. There are several reasons that this practice may take place: to uphold societal norms, to lessen hate speech, to protect from the exploitation of children, to promote a set of religious beliefs, etc. However, this obviously raises ethical questions regarding censorship, and while the government or corporate institutions may argue that these are bans with good intentions, there is no doubt that it can be a detriment as well.

You are at work and the phone rings. It is the school principal from the high school your daughter attends. He politely tells you that your daughter is being suspended from school and asks that you please come pick her up. After digging a little deeper, you find out that she is being punished for posting to the internet, a book report based writings of James Joyce. The reason for the suspension is not because the material was plagiarized, but because the content of the material was considered "objectionable" or "indecent" according to new standards mandated by the government.

With the bountiful amount of unrestricted information available on the internet many people believe that some of this information should be censored by the United States Government. Who's to say what should be accessible and what should not? Where does it start and stop? Does internet censorship make a nation a safer place to live? There are many countries that don’t allow the use of the internet at all and some countries only censor what they don’t want their citizens to know. Daniel Calingaert said “The internet has provided greater space for free expression in countries where traditional broadcast and print media are restricted” (64). Free expression is a very guarded privilege to United States citizens. Private citizens and

First and foremost, the First Amendment protects free speech in the United States under any circumstance. Therefore speech cannot be restricted on the internet within the United States. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." As stated by the First Amendment, (Censorship) the government does not have the right to restrict any

The Internet has become a growing source of entertainment and information over the past years. As more and more people become familiar with the Internet, the potential of its contents grows rapidly, at an uncontrollable rate. With something such as the Internet, which contains virtually an infinite amount of space, more is being added than taken away. Therefore with the growing amount of users, the content grows as well. Different people use the Internet for different things with no worries, because they have the right to. Censorship is unnecessary, unethical, and unconstitutional, and would prove counterproductive to the continued evolution of the Internet.

Many people believe the Internet has become the World’s Emancipation Proclamation. They believe that this newfound cyber-freedom will free countless generations of people. These people will be of every race, creed and color, whose lives, up until now, have been restrained by the paradigm of governments. Whether it is the United States Government, or the government of a foreign nation, the Internet will be our new Underground Railroad of cyberspace.