Let American Consumer Counseling Help you Get Out of Debt!Regulation ofthe InternetChild pornography, hackers reading howto hack into your web site or personal computer and children reading explicitdetails in the Starr Report; these are all examples of harmful informationavailable on the Internet that should be regulated by the government. Governmentshould regulate information on the Internet. Obscene and harmful materialon the Internet, such as child pornography should be obliterated.
Otherquestionable material, such as the Starr Report, should be published onthe Internet, but not within the reach of children. Hacking is a very controversialsubject. Most aspects of hacking correspond to doing harm upon other people’scomputers. There is material available on the Internet regarding the “how-to’s”of hacking. These aspects of hacking should be extracted from the Internet.
Now, we can easily say these things such as “child pornography, hacking,and objectionable material on the Internet are bad and should be takenoff. ” This is the easy way out. We have to realize that the Internet isan extremely complicated network of computers worldwide and that we can’tjust look around and find these “bad things” and get rid of them. We alsoneed to realize that the problem doesn’t just exist inside the United States.
Sure, we can bust all the host computers containing these things in theUnited States, but the Internet is a worldwide network. So, the UnitedStates government cannot patrol the world or make laws making these thingsillegal. Coalitions need to be formed worldwide to help in the findingand annihilation of the harmful and obscene material. I think that theeasiest way to help fight this problem would be to get the United Nationsto form a council that would find these server computers and re-formatthem and sell them off at a profit and keep the money for the United Nations. Like any other form of communication, suchas telephone or newspaper, the Internet should be treated in some respect.
Although the first amendment gives Americans the right to free speech,it has to be considered that this amendment was written well before computers. The first amendment should be restated that we have freedom of speech,but not if it creates more harm than help. Do not get me wrong, the Internetis still a fine source of education and entertainment. Freedom of speechand involvement of government of the Internet is a controversial issue,but we must protect people from some obscene and harmful material thatcan be accessed through it.
