Internet Censorship

The Internet distributes more information than any other medium in the world. There are several problems that have emerged along with the Internet, “As soon as the public began to use the Internet, people began to express concern about its use” (Clark 1). Some groups feel that the World Wide Web is dangerous because of it’s open accessibility, whereas other groups see that the Internet is something that can be used to share knowledge globally. The Internet should not be censored because censorship would restrict Americans’ first amendment rights; regulations have been tried and have failed in the past, and there are better methods of education and protection than censorship.

The rights put forth by the first amendment protect the Internet. The first amendment states “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 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (Wallace). In layman’s terms, this means that the government does not have the right to take away freedoms that involve speech or the press of the American people. The Internet’s lack of censorship encompasses Americans’ freedom because of the first amendment.

The World Wide Web started as an idea that focused around the government’s need to communicate if there was a real war. In 1964 the Cold War was at its peak, the Advanced Researched Projects Agency, or ARPA began researching and developing a way to get computers to “communicate with each other,” this is how it all started (The Internet's History and Development). The government scientists who were, “developing networking technology in the 1960's knew that what they were building would be far bigger than themselves; nobody, however, could have predicted the explosion in Internet access and interest in the past several years” (The Internet’s History and Development).

The government’s idea of an easier way to communicate during wartime became a reality slowly but steadily when “On January 2, 1969, designers began working on an experiment to determine whether computers at different universities could communicate with each other without a central system.” The first places to have access to the new “network” were some of the most prestigious colleges in the United...

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...n America and in the world as well. If the United States government puts any constraints on the Internet, then the First Amendment will be broken. Due to the freedoms granted to the citizens of the United States by the First Amendment, the Internet should never be censored in America.

Works Cited

ACLU in the Courts: Reno v. ACLU Supreme Court Brief. 19 Sept. 2002 .

ACLU Press Release: 07-18-02—ACLU Challenges Arizona Law That Censors Anti-Death Penalty Web. 18 July 2002. 19 Sept. 2002 .

ACLU Press Release: 07-25-02 – In Legal First, ACLU Sues Over New Copyright Law; Says Blocking. 25 July 2002. 19 Sept. 2002 .

ACLU v. Reno II. 22 May 2002. 17 Sept. 2002 .

Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition. 18 Sept. 2002 .

Clark, David. Student’s Guide to the Internet. Indianapolis: MacMillan Publishing, 1995.

COPA Commission. 19 Sept. 2002 .

Day, Nancy. CENSORSHIP or Freedom of Expression?. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 2001.

Edelman. 25 July 2002. 6 Oct. 2002 .

History of the Internet. 6 Oct. 2002 .

The Internet's History and Development. 31 Mar. 2002. 6 Oct. 2002 .

Wallace, Jonathon. The Internet Censorship FAQ. 18 Sept. 2002 .