Essay/Term paper: Save the internet

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Technology

Save The Internet


Did you know that 83.5% of the images available on the Internet were
pornographic (Kershaw)? Did you know that pornography on the Internet is readily
available to curious little children who happen to bump into them?
Today, the Internet which has only become popular several years ago, is
unequivocally one of the most revolutionary innovations in the computer world.
The information superhighway has changed peoples' lives dramatically and have
created many new exciting opportunities as well as markets to be exploited. But,
unfortunately, the Internet also has created a haven for the depravity of
pornography and hate literature. Therefore, this has called for immediate action
and the only solution up to today is censorship. The Internet must be censored
to the utmost. Many people complain that censorship is the violation of the
first amendment and the suppression of freedom of speech but there is a point
where freedom of speech becomes corrupt; freedom of speech only creates an
excuse for the vile pornographers to poison our nation let alone our children.
Pornography is regarded as immoral and downright filthy by the people.
It denies human dignity and often stimulates the user to violent acts (Beahm
295). Therefore, pornography and violence are correlated. It trivializes the
human beauty and converts it into commercialized slime (Beahm 295). Moreover,
the consumption of pornography can lead to a detrimental addiction and the
consumer can become a slave to it (Beahm 297). In short, pornography is a very
addictive drug; which has an equal or more potency to hard-core drugs like
heroin and cocaine. Can you imagine a ten year-old innocently surfing the
Internet and suddenly bumps into a pornographic site depicting explicit images
of naked women and becoming addicted to it? The damage is long-term and when the
time comes, we will have a nation of perverts. Galbraith says, "The U.S.
constitution does not forbid the protection of children from a pornographer's
freedom of speech. That must be inferred through the First Amendment." These are
our children and we have the right to protect them. The fact that pornography is
damaging mentally is further aggravated as the availability of pornography to
all Internet users is a major problem as well.
The ridiculously easy accessibility to all types pornography; by anyone
who logs into the Internet has raised a major concern from both the government
and the public. The Internet, being the biggest interactive library ever existed,
has no owner, President, chief operating officer or pope (Montoya). "Inevitably,
being an uncontrolled system, means that the Internet will be subjected to
subversive applications of some unscrupulous users." (Kershaw) Internet users
can publish pornography and hate literature that information is literally made
available to millions of Internet users worldwide (Kershaw).
A five year-old can easily obtain pornography on the Internet by just
typing the word "sex" in the search engine and literally hundreds of thousands
of listing will appear on-screen, each leading to a smut page. This type of easy
accessibility have people calling for censorship (Kershaw).
"Most popular images available were of hardcore scenes featuring such acts
as paedophilia, defection, bestiality and bondage." (Kershaw) According to
Chidley, "In 1994, more than 450,000 pornographic images and text files were
available to the Internet users around the world; that information had been
accessed more than 6 million times." (58) This shocking figure is further
agitated by the fact that pornography would be very harmful to the young
unsuspecting child who happens to stumble on it while roaming about cyberspace
(Kershaw). Remember, our children is our most important resource in the future;
we have to refrain them from negative influences so that they could be good
citizens of tomorrow.
"Regulating the Internet might be the only way to protect Internet users
including our children from accessing obscene pages." (Montoya) Singapore has
taken an encouraging step to establish a "neighborhood police post" on the
Internet to monitor and receive complaints of criminal activity-including the
distribution of pornography (Chidley 58). They have also implemented proxy
servers to partially filter our pornographic sites such as "Playboy" and
"Penthouse" from access. An anonymous author quotes, "When such material is
discovered, access providers could be alerted, and required to deny entry to the
sites concerned." (Only) This is an ideal approach to censorship and should be
exercised in every country. Parents at home can also be more responsible over
what information is retrieved by their young ones by installing programs like
SurfWatch that will block pornography from access (Quitter 45). In addition to
this problem, child pornography also prevails over the Internet.
Another distressing issue about the Internet is the presence of child
pornography; "Digitally scanned images of … naked boys and girls-populate
cyberspace." (Chidley 58) Innocent-looking little boys and girls were forced to
undress and they pictures are published on the Internet. How degrading of us as
human beings! Furthermore, possession of child pornography is an offense and the
"police are concerned that a shadowy pedophiles' ring, offering child
pornography and information on where and how to indulge in their fetish, is
operating on an international scale." (Chidley 58) By censoring the Internet,
not only you'll keep the public save from the wickedness of pornography, but
you'll also help enforcing the law. Pornography is not the only problem on the
Internet; as there are many others; some of which I will describe next.
Another issue that concerns me is that publications such as bomb making
manuals are easily available online (Kershaw 2). According to Kershaw, "…the
wrong people can now get their hands on this information without having to leave
the secrecy of their home." (2) This easy availability of such material promotes
terrorism-the information obtained to make the bomb found in Centennial park in
Atlanta during the Olympics is available on the Internet. The bomb had created a
big chaos but fortunately, there were no fatal casualties. However, not all
terrorists' attempts were unsuccessful, thousands of innocent people and
children have been killed in the Oklahoma bombing and the subway massacre in
Tokyo. Moreover, many curious children have lost their fingers and even their
lives by experimenting with bomb making. This must stop immediately! Another
non-pornographic problem about the Internet is the availability of hate
literature.
The Internet has also been a place where people express their hatred and
anger toward other people. Kershaw says, "…newsgroups on the Internet contain
messages which could incite violence against members of various racial, ethnic
or religious groups or messages which deny the Holocaust." This sort of
information advocates racism and other types of sensitive discrimination. In
many countries, the problem of racism is almost unheard of today, but the
problem will surface up if we let the racists minorities influence public.
Racism will then tear our nation apart and trigger many wars from trivial
matters. Kershaw also says that groups such as the neo-Nazi of America are not
uncommon and have many people worry that the Net gives these types of groups a
meeting place and a source of empowerment (2). Kershaw also stresses, "One
particularly disturbing message found on the Net one week after the Oklahoma
bombing that read, 'I want to make bombs and kill evil Zionist people in the
government. Teach me. Give me text files.'" The Internet is meant to be a
medium that promotes healthy qualities; not a place of hate and evil. "There is
a difference between free speech and teaching others how to kill." (Kershaw)
Overall, the Internet has many useful applications which are educational
and a fresh source of entertainment when television gets too boring. However, we
shall not feel too complacent and ignore the deleterious face of the Internet.
We will not rest on our laurels until the Internet is completely free from
pornography and other unhealthy elements. Otherwise, the Internet will slowly
but surely end up to be sleazy slums operated and dominated by notorious gangs
and secret societies. While now it seems difficult to censor the Internet;
however, we shall attempt our very best to do so to keep our children away from
the dark side of the Internet; our children remains our highest priority. Let's
attack this problem at its source by censoring the Internet as that is to only
rational solution up to today. We do not want our world to be ravaged by the
present situation of Internet!

Works Cited

Beahm, George. War of Words-The Censorship Debate. Kansas City : Andrew and
McMeel, 1993.

Chidley, Joe. "Red-Light District." Maclean's 22 May 1995.

Galbraith, John Kenneth. "The Page That Formerly Occupied This Site Has Been
Taken Down in Disgust!" http://user.holli.com/~kathh/anti.htm

Kershaw, Dave. "Censorship and the Internet." http://cmns-
web.comm.sfu.ca/cmns353/96-1/dkershaw 2 Apr. 1996

Montoya, Drake. "The Internet and Censorship."
http://esoptron.umd.edu/FUSFOLDER/dmontoya.html 1995

"Only disconnect." The Economist 1 July 1995.

Quittner, Joshua. "How Parents Can Filter Out the Naughty Bits." Time 13 July
1995.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beahm, George. War of Words-The Censorship Debate. Kansas City : Andrew and
McMeel, 1993.

Chidley, Joe. "Red-Light District." Maclean's 22 May 1995.

Galbraith, John Kenneth. "The Page That Formerly Occupied This Site Has Been
Taken Down in Disgust!" http://user.holli.com/~kathh/anti.htm

Jensen, Carl. Censored: The News That Didn't Make the News-AND WHY. New
York : Four Walls Eight Windows, 1994.

Kershaw, Dave. "Censorship and the Internet." http://cmns-
web.comm.sfu.ca/cmns353/96-1/dkershaw 2 Apr. 1996

Montoya, Drake. "The Internet and Censorship."
http://esoptron.umd.edu/FUSFOLDER/dmontoya.html 1995

"Only disconnect." The Economist 1 July 1995.

"Pulling the Plug on Porn." Time 8 January 1996.

Quittner, Joshua. "How Parents Can Filter Out the Naughty Bits." Time 13 July
1995.