Essay/Term paper: Save the internet

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Technology

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.