The Internet is a worldwide network of computers and databases that has evolved rapidly in recent years. Tremendous amounts of information are transmitted and are fairly easy to obtain. Although in the past the information available was for the most part educational and business oriented, in recent years it has become much more diverse and questions have been raised as to the appropriateness of the content being viewed and consumed. Another issue is whether or not the government should take an active role in censoring it, especially when it comes to pornography, or cyberporn, as it is more commonly referred to when it is displayed on the Internet. Should cyberporn be censored? If so, who is responsible, parents or the government? Is Internet censorship the solution, or a violation of the first amendment? The citizens of a democracy must make these kinds of decisions while simultaneously maintaining freedom and responsibility on the Internet. BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM Pornography on the Internet and the ease at which it can be accessed has been a very controversial issue, especially in the last ten years. The Internet was largely unregulated until 1996 when the Communication Decency Act, a portion of the Telecommunications act, was proposed. The Communication Decency Act, or the CDA, made it illegal to make or solicit any image or message that was “obscene” or “indecent”. (Wekesser 106), But how do we define terms with an ambiguity such as these. The Court in Miller-constructed the modern definition of “obscene”: The basic guidelines of the trier of fact must be must be: (a) whether “the average person, applying contemporary community standards” would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient... ... middle of paper ... ... a democracy must achieve a happy medium. I agree that much of the cyberporn that is attainable is inappropriate, especially when it involves children in even a remotely sexual manner. However, censorship is not the answer. We must find a way to practice freedom of expression while maintaining decency and assuming responsibility, as individuals, for our children. Bibliography: Works Cited Elmer-Dewitt, Philip (1995) “On A Screen Near You: Cyberporn.” Time, July 1995 Ford, Marrin, Esposito, Witmeyer & Gleser, Can Congress Censor The Internet? L.L.P., 1996 Simon, Glenn E. (1998), “Cyberporn and censorship: constitutional barriers to preventing access to Internet pornography by minors.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, v88 n3 p1015-1048. Wekesser, Carol. (1997). Pornography: opposing viewpoints. California: Greenhaven Press, Inc.
Pornography is considered by many to be an unwelcome and distasteful part of our society. However, I argue that it is necessary to voice the unpopular viewpoints, under the Constitution. This paper is a defense of pornography as a constitutional right of free expression, under the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. In illustrating this argument, I will first define pornography as a concept, and then address central arguments in favor of pornography remaining legal and relatively unregulated – such as the development of the pornography debate throughout modern US law, and how activist groups address the censorship of adult entertainment.
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...
When the car industry comes to mind, you think of Detroit. When oranges come to mind, you think of Florida. When pornography comes to mind, you think of the Internet. Almost everything in today’s society has its place, and the place for the pornography industry is the Internet. Being almost inevitable, pornography has become part of everyone’s Internet experience. Whether its junk e-mail or a nasty pop-up for $3.99 a month subscriptions, its hard to say that there isn’t anyone out there who hasn’t been exposed to Internet pornography in one way or another. One reason for this is the overwhelming size the pornography industry has grown to become. For some, the easy access to the industry has allowed for millions of dollars to be made. For others, this has caused serious problems. Parents who have children know what troubles Internet pornography can bring. Not only do actual pictures and services provide a venue for profits to be made, but software preventing the easy access has became more popular as well.
...e. "Internet Pornography Should Be Restricted." Free Speech. Ed. Scott Barbour. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Porn on the Internet: Is It Free Speech?" Family Voice (Mar. 1997). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
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.
Feinberg, Joel. "Obscenity as Pornography." Philosophical Problems in the Law. . Reprint. Boston: Clark Baxter, 2013. Print.
Ashcroft vs. ACLU, 00-1293, deals with a challenge to the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which Congress passed in 1998. The law, which is the subject of this essay, attempts to protect minors from exposure to Internet pornography by requiring that commercial adult websites containing "indecent" material that is "harmful to minors" use age-verification mechanisms such as credit cards or adult identification numbers.(Child)
Maybe a good place to start with this question is to define the terms “pornography” and “obscenity”. According to the text Communications Law: Liberties, Restraints, and the Modern Media, “pornography is a broad term used to describe all material that is sexually explicit and intended for the purpose of sexual arousal”. (Zelezny, p. 448). The term “obscenity”, according to the same text, “has taken on a narrower legal meaning, indicating a class of sexual material so offensive that it is deemed by the Supreme Court to have virtually no First Amendment protection” (Zelezny, p. 448).
Regulation is an issue that has formulated mostly because of how easily any child can access the internet. The thought is that if adult related material is easily accessible, then our children can view it also. People want to protect their children from items such as pornography, hate speech, violence, and gambling. All of which can be reached at the click of a button. So is regulating the internet the correct way of protecting our children?
Protecting children from sexual exploration is a modern concept. “As late as the 1880s in the United States, the age of consent for girls was just 10 years.” (Pg4Ln2-3) From 1977-88 only two states had legislation specifically outlawed the use of children in obscene material, the first federal law was passed, and a law that specified to child pornography. From a federal stand point a child is anyone under the age of eighteen. The definitions of both child and pornography differ amo...
...e are matters that should never occur in a child’s life. While some people claim that censorship completely solves these issues, this is not the case. It is the parents’ job to make sure that their kid is not exposed to these kinds of websites. Besides, it is possible for them to use browsers that will edit out offensive and inappropriate material for young users. This is why cyberspace surveillance should start and end at home. Extensive censorship will not directly help stopping the acts; it will not help find the criminals. As a matter of fact, it makes it even harder for them to get caught. Indeed, often data contained in the content such as the IP address is crucial for establishing the identity of the offender. Blocking the content removes the possibility to use such information. Therefore, censorship makes the problem less visible but in no way less real.
The Internet provides a gateway for an individual to speak freely and anonymously without being targeted to what he or she said. With this said, one of the biggest issues concerning the Internet today is freedom of speech. The issue of free speech on the Internet has been a topic of discussion around the world within the past years. It is a unique communication medium and is powerful than the traditional media[2]. Because the Internet can not be compared equally to other mediums of communication, it deserves the utmost freedom of speech protection from the government. The restriction of speech on the Internet takes away from individual's rights and freedom from experiencing the Internet's benefits and uses. Information found on the Internet is endless and boundless and this poses the question, "should the government be allowed to regulate the information and content being transmitted or posted online?"
Fee, John. "Obscenity and the World Wide Web." Brigham Young University Law Review 2007.6 (2007): 1691-1720. Business Source Complete. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
It just became apparent that pornography on the net not only encompasses controversies about pornography itself, but also all the other controversies and problems the internet already has. Sex has always been something which has intrigued people, and that is probably in essence how pornography became to be. As society developed in the 21st Century red-light districts flourished which centralized anything which had to do with sex in one geographic location. As sex and pornography became a more and more pertinent issue, the supreme court ruled in 1976 that cities could use their zoning powers to keep out sex-oriented businesses, and that more or less was the end of red-light districts in America. Nowadays with the Internet coming along as a more widespread medium the issue of pornography resurfaces and along with it, it carries many other disputes.
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.