Internet Censorship
The internet has become one of the most widely used means of media in the world today. It provides people with everything from getting directions from one place to another, to downloading entire books that can be read on the computer without ever having to visit a library or bookstore. However, the internet is also host to significant amounts of sexually explicit material-as many as 28,000 hard-and soft-core pornography sites (Warren 52). The World Wide Web is open to anyone with a computer and a connection to the internet, which is one of the main reasons why it is under such scrutiny. Someone can post anything from fixing a car, to building a bomb, from pictures of their family, to pictures of little children performing unspeakable sexual acts. All anyone has to do to access anything on the web is to just click on their web browser and type in the html address or, an even easier way, type in a keyword on a search engine and then be will automatically linked to sites that pertain to their search. There is, however, software out on the market that prevents children and others, who should not be visiting such sites, from accessing obscene and inappropriate web sites. These softwares are called filt
Warren, Sarah E. "Filtering sexual material on the Internet: Public libraries surf the legal morass." The Florida Bar Journal 73.9 (Oct. 1999) : 52-7 That decision, Mainstream Loudoun v Board of Trustees of the Loudoun County Library, 24 F. Supp. 2d 552 (E.D. Va. 1998), is the only case to date that applies First Amendment principles to internet access at public libraries. It leaves libraries across the country wondering about what they are supposed to do, leave all of the internet open to everyone and risk material offending passersby, or restrict the internet and infringe on what the court decided to be a First Amendment right. More than half of all public libraries now offer Internet access, and approximately 15 percent, about 1,700 libraries, were using filters as of the summer of 1998. Of these, almost 900 libraries had filters on all their computer workstations (Warren 53). "Can and should the Internet be censored by filtering is a question bedeviling thousands of public librarians who have rushed to embrace this seemingly limitless and economical information source only to find that it includes a distinctly dark and dirty side," wrote librarian Jeanette Allis Bastian, in an article published in the Internet journal, First Monday (Bastian).
Some common words found in the essay are:
Wide Web, ED Va, Intellectual Freedom, Playboy Magazine, Allis Bastian, Exploited Children, Internet Censorship, Internet Amendment, PG Warren, Internet Internet, public libraries, mainstream loudoun, sexually explicit, filtering sexual material, library 24 supp, county library, board trustees, loudoun board, loudoun decision, supp 2d 552, loudoun county, 24 supp 2d, trustees loudoun, newsletter intellectual freedom, free speech,
Approximate Word count = 1405
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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