With such a large number of people connected to the Internet, concerns for the safety of viewers have arisen, especially in the area of adult pornography. Many of the people who oppose adult pornography have advocated a law requiring Internet filters that restrict access to all pornographic material on the Internet. However, a law that requires Internet filters for all citizens are not the best solutions because there is insufficient justification to implement them and that many problems would occur from their implementation.
The filtering of adult pornography on the Internet is not justifiable for a myriad of different reasons. First, children can be protected from accidentally viewing pornography
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As the numbers of pornographic websites continue to grow and grow, protection is indeed needed. However, this protection could be provided through more convenient and less restrictive methods, rather than through a law requiring Internet filters. The easiest solution would be for parents to monitor younger children while on the Internet. Parental supervision would be able to direct children away from pornography websites and protect them from any potential harm (Hacker). This guidance would also educate the children so that when they become older, they would learn what to avoid on the Internet and how to protect themselves from accidentally viewing pornography in case parents are not available to supervise. A second solution to prevent children from accidentally viewing pornography would be to install filtering software on private computers. Filtering software is currently available on the market and can easily restrict all unwanted websites (Wade). Many different filtering programs, such …show more content…
Studies performed by Donnerstein and Linz (1989) and Krafka et al. (1999) resulted in no direct link between pornography and increased sexual aggression. (Hunter). Not only is there no proof that pornography and increased sexual violence are related, but a 1983 study by the Metropolitan Toronto Task Force on Violence Against Women found that pornography may have a cathartic effect and can therefore reduce incidences of sexual violence ("Pornography" McElroy). With a lack of scientific evidence, it is incorrect to associate adult pornography with increased sexual violence. Therefore, a law requiring Internet filters to block Internet pornography based on the fear of increased sexual violence is unjustified.
Although there is a belief that adult pornography portrays women as sex objects and that women are coerced into the pornographic business because of the patriarchal society, this, however, does not warrant a law that filters all adult pornography on the Internet. This belief lacks scientific evidence that proves pornography is harmful to the image of women and is based upon ideology (Hunter). Wendy McElroy, former president of Feminists for Free Expression/Canada and author
Imagine a place where you have access to anything and everything one could want. Some would say that is only existent in a utopia, and some would say that describes the Internet. Many adults go on to the net and access pornographic material that would be unsuitable for children. This is called cyberporn. The controversy lies in the fact that children are accessing these materials also. Government, activist groups, and concerned parents are fighting to regulate obscene material found over the Internet to protect children. The first amendment is the only thing protecting adults from losing their rights to obtain pornographic or indecent material on the net. Under the first amendment the government must not regulate cyberporn. Online sex has been around since the first bulletin boards were available over the computer in the early 1980's. People would pay to down load pornographic pictures and talk dirty to each other. Usenet groups took control of porn after the Internet came about. They did not charge people to down load picture and to interact with others. In result, Internet porn grew (Rosen 16). Things have changed drastically since then with over a million different sites available to access porn. Now it is not just for adults. Children are accessing the obscene materials. This brings rise to issues of how to protect them from problems that can arise. The materials they view, could influence children. They could also be subjected to cybersex in a chat room full of people that could be three times their age. Worst of all pedophilias could influence children to meet with them outside of the computer. The government and the United States citizens must now figure out how to protect our children from the effects of cyberporn, and y...
Since their founding, computers and the Internet have become a tool that nearly every man, woman, and child in the World have been able to use. E-mail has become one of the Worlds fastest growing ways of communication and the Internet has become one, if not the largest source of information available today. You can find just about everything you wanted to know about anything with the stroke of a few keys on the keyboard. However, along with these positive aspects of the Internet, there lies much negativity surrounding the internet and its use. Access to teenage pornography, bestiality, brutal murder pictures, XXX stories, and other un-ethical sites is extremely easy. In fact, the pornography industry has grown 63% since the Internet was first available for use.(Bishop 91) It is one of the leading industries on the Internet and has become quite a controversy in the United States. Censorship of such sites has done very little due to the fact that most parents feel that these sites are not accessed by their children. We have currently found no solution that has worked and many government officials see the problem only getting worse. Pornography on the Internet though should not be banned, but rather better controlled and censored due to its availability and graphic nature.
Tears begin to fall down a child’s face. Her body goes into shock out of fear. Her mother warned her about watching inappropriate content, and there it was, right on her computer screen. This could not have happened though. All she was doing was casually browsing the internet before a pop-up appeared. Although it may seem hard to believe, the major cause of events such as this is the lack of censorship on the internet. Internet censorship relates to the removal of offensive, inappropriate, or controversial content published online. The current problem with the internet is that there are few restrictions on what can be published or viewed. Several sites on the internet only offer a warning about inappropriate content that can easily be bypassed by agreeing to the terms. Other websites provide access to private or military information. More dreadfully, however, are websites that use their explicit content as a promotion. These factors bring the conclusion that anybody of any given age can view and publish inappropriate or dangerous content. The current problems with the internet serve for clarification as to why the United States should create a nonpartisan assembly to censor the internet in order to protect its citizens from the mental, emotional, and physical harms the internet creates.
When deliberating over whether access to pornography should be prohibited, four areas of contention must be elaborated upon and evaluated critically to provide a sensible basis on which a judgement can be made. Firstly, it must be concluded whether pornography can be classed as a form of speech, and whether it enjoys the same protections as art and literature under the principle. Secondly, works such as those of Catherine MacKinnon can be drawn upon to offer a feminist perspective of the effects of pornography on the treatment of women within modern democratic society. Moreover, the principles of Devlin and Feinberg offer relevant acumen regarding the criminalisation of pornographic media. Overall, this essay will argue that whilst access to pornography should not be entirely prohibited; publications that depict ‘extreme’ situations should be subject to regulation and restriction.
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 potentially harmful to some. For libraries serving the public, there has been controversy on the issue of providing the internet, free of censorship or filtering, to users. While some librarians and their professional associations align with ideals of free and unfiltered access to all information provided by the internet, some feel that filtering internet content to exclude possibly objectionable materials is a reasonable measure to prevent potential harm to minors.
For many people, using the Internet has become practically a new way of life, especially for college students and the like. Various types of information can be accessed at the touch of a button: anything from encyclopedias, to surveys and essays, to articles from magazines, and adult sites. Anyone who pays for their Internet service is usually offered space for his or her own web page, and even many free services provide space for personal web pages. All of this available space can be used for any number of reasons: posting newsletters for community groups, advertising for businesses, or just voicing one’s opinion. For those of us who know how to use this information, or at least how to find what we need out of it, it’s a very good thing. But what about children? If adults can access this information with such ease, what’s stopping kids from checking it out too? Who decides what’s appropriate for kids and what’s not when their parents aren’t constantly leaning over their shoulders? And what about posting things that may be offensive to other people, no matter what age they might be?
You just finished a day's work, have arrived home, unlocked the door, step inside, and just as you are about to yell, "anyone home," you hear hooting and hollering coming from the family room. As you enter the room you see your children and their friends glued to the computer screen, which is covered with explicit images not intended for the eyes of children. According to an article written by P.J.Huffstutter, "Yahoo, MSN Criticized for Offering Easy Access to Pornography," (C1) these two large Internet companies, have made it possible for everyone of all ages to access these adult communities. They require no proof of age, making it far too easy for under-age children to freely view the pornographic pictures and videos of their choice While adults may find leaving a site easy if they are uncomfortable, trying to restrict children from accessing these sites is a different issue. To watch your kids every moment is unrealistic and would not please anyone. According to Net Nanny, "Kids need to learn Internet safety practices and differentiate between right and wrong, because their parents won't always be there." There must be some sort of compromise. We, being responsible adults, need to take charge of what our children are doing when online, since little effort is required to gain entry to pornography sites. I used Microsoft's MSN search facility to look for "porn," and the only warning I received was that I had entered a search term that was likely to return adult content. While that may be more warning than in the past, it still isn't enough to keep children away. Then I was directed to a related link entitled NightSurf, and within two minutes I was presented with images of nudity...
McCarthy, M. (2005). THE CONTINUING SAGA OF INTERNET CENSORSHIP: THE CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION ACT. Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, (2), 83-101.
There are certain areas of a person's life that should be kept private. One of those is the internet. The people of America should be able to keep their internet use to themselves. The government should not regulate citizens internet use because it takes away peoples freedom of speech, it would cost the government more money, and it is an invasion of citizens privacy. The government regulates many situations in citizens life and this should not be one of them.
The proposed internet filter is not only a flawed concept, but an expensive one. If implemented, it will do little to nothing to prevent online crime. The cost of the filter far outweighs any benefit and the potential for abuse in the future is frightening. Viruses will still exist, phishing scams will continue, illegal downloading of movies will still exist and paedophiles will still get their child porn.
Pornography on the Internet creates many unwanted vices in today's society. Internet pornography should have stricter laws and regulations or even better, pornography should be banned from the Internet.
Free speech on the Internet is a very controversial subject and has been the key problem surrounding the Internet today. The attempt to regulate and govern the Internet is still pursued by government officials. This subject has been intensified due to terrorist attacks against the United States and around world within the past years. The government believes that by regulating the Internet, it will protect the general public from criminal actions and eliminate the exposure of children to pornography or vulgar language. Senator Jim Exon of ...
The Internet is an extremely educational and communicative tool. Everyone can access a tremendous amount of information and connect with people on the other end of the planet; it is capable of doing everything. Nowadays, the society is facing a variety of challenges and controversies which are mostly related to religion, morality, the economic crisis, etc., and the most talked-about issue in today’s world is “Internet censorship”. Although the Internet is very useful, many people are suggesting the idea of censoring the Internet; however, the government should not censor the Internet because a free and open Internet usage has many positive impacts on people’s lives.
The Internet as we know it is based upon the principles of being “free and open”. No single government, company, person, or entity known to man has complete and absolute control over the web (Google - Take Action). However, as with any medium of knowledge, there will always be those who wish to censor it, for better or worse. Censorship can be defined in many ways. In the context of the Internet, censorship may be defined as the act of suppressing or controlling the access and flow of information to achieve a means. This is a deeply ethical issue because the unrestricted flow of information can be a dangerous thing. However, it is also a philosophical issue pertaining to the concept of free speech.
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.