Internet Filters Violate America's Free Speech Rights?

“Children start using the internet at the average age of three and most to spend twice as much time online as their parents” (Ward, 2013). Through the information age, the internet has become an invaluable tool. We have information at our fingertips in record time, but not everything on the internet is appropriate for everyone to see. Pornography, hate speech, and writings meant to incite violence are making their way to children’s computer screens every day. Scary, but we can change this. Internet filters can change this. Personal computer filters exist today and will help prevent children from accessing inappropriate material, but children also use the internet away from home. Libraries, schools, and community centers all offer internet services to children, but are they safe using these resources? The federal government should require by law that all public or government-funded computers have filters to block the access to material deemed inappropriate or objectionable for children. This would help protect children from exposure to inappropriate materials outside of their home.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) works diligently to overthrow every attempt at placing some sort of filter or censorship requirements on the internet. They believe that the things censored are protected by the constitution. The court case ALA v. Pataki (1997) held that internet users must be protected from, “inconsistent legislation that, taken to its most extreme, could paralyze development of the internet altogether” (ACLU, 2017). Our freedom of speech is not absolute, so restricting where people are able to get access to these materials does not affect one’s right to speak freely, rather where they speak