Should The Government Be Able To Regulate The Internet

"In this Technological Age, the role of the government in regulating the internet and its content has increasingly been coming into question. The issue is often between how much the government can be involved for the safety of its citizens while still maintaining their privacy. Federal, state, and local governments should have the ability to monitor internet content for the safety and protection of its citizens, but governments should not be able to interfere and limit the spread of information.

The internet should remain a free resource to access information from a variety of sources and points of view. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently voted to repeal Net Neutrality which could not only slow down internet connections for the general public, but also control what kinds information are accessible to internet users. This is dangerous because it creates a

generally biased news source since big businesses can essentially manipulate available content or location of the source. This means that if a person with a specific data plan were to make a call or web search, he or she could have a worse connection than usual since a big business is competing against the desired company is paying extra money to the internet or phone company to make the connection slower and weaker. Open access to a wide variety of information is necessary for informing the general public and educating future generations. Substantially educating the general population on current events is especially important because there are very few voting restrictions in the United States, so it is necessary for the safety of the nation that the voting population is well informed.

On the other hand, schools across the country are already limiting the content that students have access to for the safety of the students.

For example, the Children’s Internet Protection Act is meant to prohibit inappropriate content from being seen or discovered by minors on school property or on school-owned technology. This does not limit students' first amendment right to freedom of speech; it simply protects them from dangerous internet content. It is the interpretation of this act and others like it that causes schools to overly limit the internet activity of students. Schools that interpret this act strictly will further limit the internet access of students in order to prevent them from accidentally coming across inappropriate internet content from other sources that can be vital learning tools, such as YouTube. While media platforms such as YouTube can contain content that is supposed to withheld from students, there are also invaluable educational resources. Instead of extensively limiting internet access at schools, children should be properly educated on how to use the

internet.

Schools and even workplaces have been known to monitor students' and employees' social media activity. While this may seem like a violation of their privacy, it is actually a positive practice as long as it does not overstep boundaries, such as taking extra measures to view a person’s social media profile if he or she has privacy settings on. This form of monitoring actually promotes the safety the public by protecting the privacy of others. In schools, this monitoring has led to suspensions and even expulsions of students due to inappropriate and discriminatory social media postings. Citizens are able to post about their lives, interests, and opinions, but there are consequences for posting disrespectful content. These repercussions are meant to discourage the posting of ill-purposed content online. This form of monitoring done by local governments can be quite controversial because in some lights can be seen to violate the first amendment, but it is promoting peace by attempting to prevent discrimination.

As long as governments do not control the media and data available to internet users, it is perfectly reasonable that internet content is monitored by the government. Users must retain their rights to privacy, while still having the freedom to read and browse from any legal online material that is desired."