The internet is one of the biggest innovations of the 21st century. It is a library full of information that would be difficult to find before its creation, as well as a hub for communication with chat rooms and social media sites. For those interested in the news, fashion, or trivia, a simple search becomes a goldmine of their interests. Unfortunately, the same is also true for sexual content. Because of the internet’s accessibility, minors can find themselves exposed to inappropriate material, whether it is their intended purpose or not. Regulations of pornographic websites are still too unrefined to keep children away, as it does not ask for actual proof of one’s adulthood. While some people are opposed to internet regulation, the …show more content…
While one can argue that no one can really determine what is suitable for a child’s eye, most groups believe sexual material is harmful to a child’s mental state. In their book, “Youth, Pornography, and the Internet”, Dick Thornburgh and Herbert Lin note, “content that is permissive of sexual violence or other negative sexual encounters could help to construct sexual schemas that are not beneficial for—or may even be harmful to—the young person” (148). From this information one can assume that the portrayal of sexual media on the web can change a child’s perception on sex and sexual situations, leading to imitations of bad behavior. After all, a child learns and mimics behavior from what they see from parents and school; the same may well occur with what they learn from television, music videos, and especially the internet.
Not only could a child learn to imitate sexual content they have seen on the internet, but they may also become desensitized to unhealthy activities by such imagery as well. Most pornography is violent, and if they only see the abusive parts, a child could develop the idea that sexual encounters are inherently violent. As book authors Dick Thornburgh and Herbert Lin observe, “Research has shown that desensitization to media violence can result in reduced arousal and emotional disturbance while witnessing actual violence, greater hesitancy to call an adult to intervene in a witnessed physical altercation, and less sympathy for
Cleaver mentions that although parents could monitor and restrict adult websites, there are still ways around them; this scares parents. Children may have the access to other computers, like the library or a friend’s house. The government has regulations that manages most mediums like, television, radio, video, but not the internet; this provides an idea for parents to argue about. Cleaver points out that searching tools should stop advertising ads to pornographic websites and chat websites for children should be monitored in case of child molestors. All the statements Cleaver provides are obviously seeking a reaction from parents to protect their child.
Ashcroft vs. ACLU, 00-1293, deals with a challenge to the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which Congress passed in 1998. The law, which is the subject of this essay, attempts to protect minors from exposure to Internet pornography by requiring that commercial adult websites containing "indecent" material that is "harmful to minors" use age-verification mechanisms such as credit cards or adult identification numbers.(Child)
Television largely remains the same when it comes to displaying adult oriented content today. Postman’s claim with television is relevant with contemporary society today because of the amount of exposure that children have with adult media. The Internet today is an even greater gateway into the adult media for children because of the amount of websites that display such content like pornography, online predators, and the exposure to the uses of drugs and alcohol. Studies show that the exposure of such content is mentally scarring to some children, which can lead to trouble in later life. The exposure of such material is exactly what Postman claims to be the corrupter of childhood and
The average American teenager watches three hours of television a day. Scientist Rebecca Collins conducted a study to see if watching sexual behavior on TV influenced teenagers’ own behavior. In her results, she found that watching shows with sexual content has a considerable
The Internet has incurred a tremendous amount of growth and opportunity for the country as well as the world; elevating communication, information, and commerce to a new level. With all this unprecedented innovation, the Internet has also brought controversy that challenges the very foundation of rights that countries like the United States were founded on. With countless websites containing unregulated and objectively offensive content, and the public having an ease of access to this content will result in severe damages to the development of the youth if no censorship is put in place for them to view this content. Additionally, markets are being exploited by piracy which has resulted in billions of dollars being lost by the domestic economy
Technologies evolve, but sex and violence have always been and remain hot button issues in the media. The pace of the new technological change can be so great that we can no longer wait on formal media effects research to guide our personal decisions. There have been many changes that have been taken place with media sex and violence today since I was a child. I believe that the media technologies have increased the negative effects of sex and violence on children and adults today. This paper will discuss why and provide examples of how it has an effect on adults and children because it’s not only an adult issue. This paper will also discuss recommendations
Due to the technology available today children of all ages have access to the internet. In the 1960’s the internet became a major source of marketing, sales, and distribution of both products and services. Unfortunately many of these services were used by children under the age of 13 years old (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 2011).
In United States, sexual media imagery is widely available for the adolescents. It ranges from television shows, commercials, magazines, web sites and lyrics of the latest popular song. This is extremely disturbing when majority of the adolescents are not emotionally prepared to handle any sexual related experiences.
Since the internet has been available in schools and libraries in this country, there has been a debate about what should be accessible to users, especially minors. The amount of information disseminated on the world wide web is vast, with some sources valuable for scholarly and personal research and entertainment, and some sources that contain material that is objectionable to some (ie. pornography, gambling, hate groups sites, violent materials). Some information potentially accessible on the internet such as child pornography and obscenity is strictly illegal and is not protected under the First Amendment. Some information available on the internet that may be valuable to some is at the same time perceived to be worthless or
The Internet is a global network of vast information. With a few clicks, an individual can have access to up to 200 million web-sites filled with educational and recreational information. The Internet is not regulated in anyway (Carnegie Library 1). It is accessible throughout the entire world from the North to the South, to the early morning sunrise and dark sunsets. Different ethnicity and backgrounds come together linked upon this network resembling a connection of one body in unity. Sadly, issues arise creating concern for users, focusing particularly on minors. Pornography is one of the inappropriate materials on the Internet for minors. This material is harmful to young impressionable minds. Pornography is tearing and
In recent years, pornography has established itself as perhaps the most controversial topic arising out of the use of the Internet. The easy availability of this type of sexually explicit material has caused a panic among government officials, family groups, religious groups and law enforcement bodies and this panic has been perpetuated in the media.
Mr. Collins reports that he first viewed pornography when he was in sixth grade. He states that he became curious about women and sex and “Googled boobs” on the Internet. After his initial query, he states that he viewed digital images of nude women about once or twice a month. Mr. Collins reports that his pornography consumption increased when he was in the 8th and 9th grade. Mr. Collins reports that he discovered Internet websites dedicated to pornographic content, videos, images, and erotic stories, from conversations with his peers at school. Being curious about sex and women already, he states that he began to make Google queries to dedicated pornography websites and his consumption of pornography increased. Mr.
The prevalence of violent and sexual content on the internet makes it an unsafe environment for the children of today, therefore it must be censored to protect the future generations from being psychologically damaged. The early years of a person are by far the most important when establishing morals and emotions, if one was to be exposed to unsavory content in this time it could cause irreparable damage to the individual’s psyche. A damaged individual is not only dangerous to themselves but dangerous to those around them. Violent and sexual content on the internet should be censored to protect the fragile developing minds of children and keep them emotionally and morally stable.
Since birth human behaviour is influenced by what the individual sees and there surroundings, this influence is greatest at a young age and fades as the individual grows in age, but never completely goes away. In today’s society where sex is something that is openly broadcasted in order to promote everything from products to television shows, sex is something that the youth of today are exposed to from an early age. But what effects can this exposure at such a vulnerable stage in life cause? Early exposure to sexual content can increase the likeliness of youth participating in sexual activity by the large amount that they are exposed too, the glorification of sex, the lack of regulation of sexual content in the media by the government, and
“Never before in history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions” (qtd in “Pornography and Child Sexual Abuse”). The problem addressed in the quote by the U.S. Department of Justice is pornography, a 10 billion dollar industry, has made its way from discreet taboo to something that is today considered acceptable and even common. With the internet being such a common tool, it is no surprise that there is easy access to sexually explicit material. The widespread accessibility and usage of pornography has changed people’s outlook on the normality of watching such sexually explicit material, and