Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Cyberbullying causes and effects
Effect of cyberbullying
Freedom of speech and why it's important to guarantee
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Cyberbullying causes and effects
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” - George Washington. Freedom of speech is one of the universal declarations of human right, created on the 10th of December 1948. It is the complete opposite of what censorship of the internet entails. “This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by a public authority and regardless of frontiers.” Censorship of the internet not only goes directly against this, but it prevents a free flow of information, our ability to communicate as a society and places governments in control of our rights of expression. There are many different opinions backing and opposing regulations of the web. People argue that because it can be freely accessed by anyone, there is a high possibility that their children will be exposed too explicit websites, for example pop up websites containing pornography. This threats their innocence and damages their views on the world around them. Other issues parents have is with cyber bulling, as 43% of kids have been bullied online at one point in their lives. Online, people have the ability to write anonymously, encouraging them to be more explicit in their opinions, as they feel there will be no repercussions. This makes the internet an unhealthy medium, as these views can show prejudice and insult others. 'Stranger danger' is another dilemma, especially when there are children exploring the internet, and revealing too much information to the wrong people, because of false pretence. In 2006, 14% of adolescence posted their names, addresses, numbers or schools. The web is a quick way to spread information which, if false, can have di... ... middle of paper ... ...tranger danger. In relation to the spread of information, it is far better to have a few miscalculated facts than a lock down on all worldly happenings. Our society is advancing through the internet, not digressing from it. We are learning to be more understanding and stand up for each other because of it, as it creates links around the globe. We are able to remain in contact with old friends, keeping relationships going, and making contact with people we would never meet in our lives away from the computer screen. It exposes us to so much, and opens are minds to the world, providing an opportunity for expression, and a chance to have an impact on the world and each other. To censor the internet would not only be a great injustice to all the advancements we have made through this immense mass of networks, but a crime against humanity and its freedoms themselves.
"Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself." The basic rights guaranteed to Americans in the Bill of Rights is what holds the United States together. When Salman Rushdie wrote Guardian, he knew this. Unfortunately, the majority of congress and the President himself have forgotten the basic rights of Americans. When President William J. Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act that was proposed but the 104th Congress, he severely limited the rights of Americans on the Internet. The internet, just like books, magazines, artwork, and newspapers, should not be censored.
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.
place. It should be left up to the users to decide what is broadcast. Most
On 16th of December 1949, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed. Although we want governments and regimes to abide with the articles not all do. Our government is formed to protect us and to provide every citizen, infrastructure in order to make the person able to live. However our governments also care for themselves as well. They want to stay in power thus they have to protect their reputation. This is where internet censorship steps in. Although censoring some sites is reasonable, some are not. If a site on the internet criticizes the government and if this happens in a country where the government is somewhat oppressive, the site is blocked to access. I believe the level of tolerance towards criticism of a government can be found by the internet censorship in that country. We can categorize these types of governments into five: No or few censorship, normal amounts of censorship, above normal, high amount of censorship and extreme amounts of censorship. I am going to focus about the last three levels. For these levels Republic of Turkey, People’s Republic of China and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are examples I am going to talk about. These examples would be coinciding with the levels respectively.
What reasons or needs would there be to censor the internet? As with written or oral language, all of its information is created in fact by a human, which can lead towards being corrupted, destructive or mis-interupted by another. Since the internet is a world wide access of information that is available by all nations having the resources for it, rules and laws in one country are not the same in another. Another commonly known use of the internet is for commerce. It allows a person to sell goods from any country to another. This in return could be things such as illegal weapons, plants, and even pictorial art, to that neighboring or distant country or nation that might be prohibited...
The Internet is impossible to censor, right? Not if you are a despotic regime throwing all your resources into it. You won't stop everyone and everything, but if the aim is to prevent enough citizens from getting free speech to topple your regime, then you can succeed.
Censoring the Internet The internet offers a huge wealth of information both good and bad, unfortunately the vary nature of the internet makes policing this new domain practically impossible. The internet began as a small university network in the United States and has blossomed into a vast telecommunications network spanning the globe. Today the internet is ruled by no governing body and it is an open society for ideas to be developed and shared in. Unfortunately every society has its seedy underside and the internet is no exception. To fully understand the many layers to this problem, an understanding of net history is required. Some thirty years ago the RAND corporation, Americas first and foremost Cold War think-tank faced a strange strategic problem. The cold war had spawned technologies that allowed countries with nuclear capability to target multiple cities with one missile fired from the other side of the world. Post-nuclear America would need a command and control network, linked from city to city, state to state and base to base. No matter how thoroughly that network was armored or protected, its switches and wiring would always be vulnerable to the impact of atomic bombs. A nuclear bombardment would reduce any network to tatters. Any central authority would be an obvious and immediate target for enemy missiles. The center of a network would be the first place to go. So RAND mulled over this puzzle in deep military secrecy and arrived at their solution. In 1964 their proposed ideas became public. Their network would have no central authority, and it would be designed from the beginning to operate while in tatters. All the nodes in the network would be equal in status to all other nodes, each node having its own authority to originate, pass and receive messages. The messages themselves would be divided into packets, each packet separately addressed.
According to Amnesty International (2014), internet censorship is the control and suppression of online information or services by government or other stakeholder institutions. It is enforced by monitoring chat rooms and forums, deleting blogs, blocking websites and re-routing search results. Throughout the world, discussion on the issue has been heightening in recent times, fuelled by arguments claiming its worth and infringement of liberty. In some circumstances, censorship can work to the advantage of the individual, protecting them against online theft, cyberbullying, and stalking, while ensuring dangerous or offensive content cannot be accessed. Further to these, in dangerous political circumstances censorship can help mitigate against terrorism and foreign aggression. It can also help business and the artistic community, assisting with the protection of copyright and intellectual property. However, these security advantages do come at the cost of civil liberty and can be abused to make censorship a detriment to society. Censorship can limit basic human rights, create ignorant and intellectually starved societies, and in some instances give governments absolute political control.
Do you want our future generations being exposed to violence, hate, sex, illegal substances, and false information, and then one day think it would be cool or alright to try these things? The internet is filled with dangerous information, that children should never have the freedom to access. Children learn from example, and if they search, watch, or read something on the web that could be potentially dangerous, they could be influenced or curious and think that it would be alright to imitate one day. If our children now are viewing these things, it could mean that are future generations can grow to be more violent and our world could become more dangerous than it already is today. Censorship is necessary if we plan on having our kids grow up in the safest environment possible.
There are multiple sides to the debate over the amount of censorship the United States' internet should have, two extremes have been chosen in order to form a mutual agreement of them. Having no censorship or filtration is the first extreme; nothing on the internet, including apps, articles, and social media sites, are monitored, filtered, or blacklisted. These people who are against complete, or absolute, censorship argue strongly that internet regulations will take away the first amendment. Cornell Law School defines the first amendment as the following: "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
Internet is a powerful tool that allows users to collaborate and interact with others all over the world conveniently and relatively safely. It has allowed education and trade to be accessed easily and quickly, but all these benefits do not come without very taxing costs. This is especially true when dealing with the likes of the Internet. Countries in the European Union and Asia have realized this and have taken action against the threat of net neutrality to protect their citizens, even at the cost of online privacy. Internet censorship is required to protect us from our opinions and vices. Every country should adopt Internet censorship and regulation since it improves society by reducing pornography, racism/prejudice, and online identity theft.
The purpose of this report was to prove that Internet censorship has a detrimental effect on society. The governments and groups practicing censorship say they can justify the use for certain purposes, but use censorship frequently for many more personal reasons. Censorship has many different implementations and can be used in several different facets of the Internet, but instilling the fear of being censored is the most effective censorship tool governments can use. The public has grown accustomed to the Internet as a resource and tool and has fought tirelessly against its restriction and limitation. Censoring the Internet is not very morally sound, as it harms the users of the Internet far more than it may help them. Censorship restricts the knowledge - and therefore the potential - of its victims.
As the First Amendment states, we as Americans are given numerous freedoms. These freedoms become a constitutional right which no one can take away from us. Among these rights are the freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Many people feel that with these two freedoms combined they can post on the Internet whatever they want. However, the First Amendment does have limitations. Contrary to what some people may believe, our freedom of speech is not protected when it comes to indecency. This fact, along with several other reasons, is why cyberpornography should no longer be present on 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.
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.