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.
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