Imagine yourself to be a typical parent in this century. With very little time on your hands, your schedule is jammed tight: meals to fix, kids to get ready to school, getting yourself ready, a job to go to, pick up the kids, bills to pay, food to buy, etc. On one particular day, one of your children notifies you that once again they are going to the library to finish a school paper. No harm in that right? However, perhaps you would think differently if you knew your child wasn’t going to the library to merely finish his report, but to also look at pornography he had been introduced to on the internet. This is not only a reality at your local libraries, but also the topic of a long time debate in this country over responsible information access and censorship which has centered around the electronic access of documents. Society has proven intolerant of anything that hints of censorship due to the history of those who have tried to impose forms of extreme censorship–like Mcarthism, Hitler, and the like. The age of the 1960's and 1970's brought forth an era of liberation from restrictions and limitations within our own country.
The library has always been a storehouse of free access information to all ages. It has always been a pretty safe place to send your children too. The library is a place filled with documents, books and papers to do book reports, research and engage the mind. What has changed now is this media has moved to a electronic medium. The internet has opened a new form of accessing electronic documents that allows anyone to access any kind of document anywhere in the world. This includes things pornography which is something no library has allowed in any form in it’s history. Paul Roberts,...
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...: Addison Wesley Longman Inc., 2003. 390-391.
“ALA Is A Big Contributor to Public Library Internet Pornography.” 2002. Family Friendly Libraries. <http://www.fflibraries.org/Speeches_Editorials_Papers/FFLResponseToALA_WT_3-26-99Letter.htm.>
“UNITED STATES et al. v. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, INC., et al. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA”. Legal Information Institute. <http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-361.ZS.html>
“Library Internet Filtering”. American Family Association. <http://www.afa.net/lif/>
“Summer Reading Assignment: Library Internet Pornography Filtering Case.” CFIF Posting. 2002. <http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legislative_issues/federal_issues/hot_issues_in_congress/technology/summer_reading.html>
In her essay “Let’s Put Pornography Back in the Closet,” Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist activist, argues that pornography should not be protected under the First Amendment (59). Her position is based on the belief that pornography is degrading and abusive towards women (Brownmiller 59). She introduces the reader to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, and explains how it relates to her beliefs on censoring pornographic material (Brownmiller 58). In addition, she provides examples of First Amendment controversies such as Miller v. California and James Joyce’s Ulysses to explain how the law created a system to define pornographic material (Brownmiller 58). She described the system that used a three-part test as confusing (Brownmiller 58). Regardless of whether or not the First Amendment was intended to protect obscenities, she and many others believe that the legislatures should have the final say in the decision of creating and publishing pornography (Brownmiller 60).
In the following literature review, scholarly and peer-reviewed journals, articles from popular news media, and surveys have been synthesized to contribute to the conversation pertaining to forensics in pop culture in the courtroom and the overall criminal justice system. This conversation has become a growing topic of interest over just the past few years since these crime shows started appearing on the air. The rising popularity of this genre makes this research even more relevant to study to try to bring back justice in the courtroom.
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.
Milk is the first food of mammals, providing all the necessary nutrients for survival and initial growth until weaning (Velten 10). It is only a small percentage of the world’s population that actually drinks milk. Most people prefer processed dairy products, such as butter, cheese and yogurt. Cow’s milk is probably the most controversial of foods. Its qualities and associated
This then leads to the question of whether or not the U.S. should consider abolishing the federal system and instead facilitate a more unified government to face the rising modern problems. In my opinion, I believe the U.S. should not abolish the federal system. Although our current system has quite a number of flaws, such as states’ rights versus national supremacy (as seen in Supreme Court cases like abortion and affirmative actions), I believe there are more benefits than dr...
Should public libraries allow children under the age of 18 to check out censored material? Censorship has and will always be a debatable topic in America and other countries. America in particular has always had a difficult time with the issue of censorship because of the extreme importance the constitution places on freedom of speech. A boundary must be drawn between freedom of speech and the well-being of the public, and that is where censorship must come into play. I feel that public libraries should not allow patrons under 18 to check out books, movies, or music that are considered unacceptable for the following reasons: They include sexually explicit material; display graphic violence; and lastly, they include the use of questionable language.
Stevens J, Opinion of the Court, Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997) [1]
Censorship in School Libraries The most debatable and controversial form of censorship today is the banning of books in school libraries. Banning books that educate students is wrong and selfish. Censorship of books in school libraries is neither uncommon nor an issue of the past. Books with artistic and cultural worth are still challenged constantly by those who want to control what others read. The roots of bigotry and illiteracy that fuel efforts to censor books and free expression are unacceptable and unconditional.
In conclusion the idea of Federalism is both very prevalent and very necessary to the way America functions. It was ratified in 1781 and is still used as the law of the land to date. Every facet of life is largely based on compromise, whether it is a relationship both friend, family, and lover, or on the job, or even with yourself. Sometimes you just have to meet in the middle, and sometime somebody needs to have more power so everything works out for the best. That’s what Federalism is all about, balancing the power between the federal government and the states. The United States is not a dictatorship or run by tyranny, everyone including the normal citizens of America have the freedom to have a say and speak out about what’s best, however leaders are necessary. All this is covered in the Constitution under the laws and regulations of Federalism.
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.
The Houston Chronicle, pp. C14. Retrieved December 2, 2002 from Lexis-Nexis/Academic database. This article emphasizes the point that censors go too far when they attempt to not only ban a book for their own children but want to remove it altogether from a school library, so that other students cannot read it.
Huffstutter, P.J.. "Yahoo, MSN Criticized for Offering Easy Access to Pornography." Los Angeles Times 23 Sept. 2001, sec. C: 1-2. Bruckman, Amy.
McCarthy, M. (2005). THE CONTINUING SAGA OF INTERNET CENSORSHIP: THE CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION ACT. Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, (2), 83-101.
Reitman, Rainey. " The Cost of Censorship in Libraries: 10 Years Under the Children’s Internet Protection Act." Electronic Frontier Foundation. Electronic Frontier Foundation, 4 Sept. 2013. Web.
...nt and Civil Liberties groups, no one seems to be making much headway in determining where the line should be drawn when it comes to pornography. The positive is that child pornography is being acknowledged as a real problem, but law enforcement officials are still having a great deal of difficulty fighting it. The United States is taking steps toward implementing a multi-layered approach to governance, which will allow adults their freedom and protect children at the same time, but as of right now we are a long way from a solution.