Internet Censorship
The Children's Online Protections Act defined "material harmful to minors" as material "appealing to purient interests under current community standards; as depicting or describing sex acts, or a lewd exhibition of genitals or a woman's breasts; and as lacking 'serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.' "(Thomas). Does this mean that it is fair for the government to decide which web sites are "harmful" and which are not? Whose community standards are they using? Pornographic and lewd sites have been on the high end of controversy for at least the past six years. There have been at least three government regulations since 1995 that have tackled the question of free speech on the Internet: The Children's Online Protection Act (1998), The Communications Decency Act (1996), and The Telecommunications Reform Act (1996). All of these have been scrutinized for possibly violating
In 1996, President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Reform Act, which tightened restrictions on Internet pornography (Matthews). While I do think that children do not need to be exposed to pornography, I also do not think that the government should decide what the standards of pornography are. That should also be a parent's decision. If a parent does not want their child exposed to these "harmful" sites, there are ways of regulating their exposure. I understand that government feels that it is their responsibility to "protect the young" of this country. What they do not realize, is that by so closely censoring the Internet, they may actually regulate sites that provide education: sites about AIDS, homosexuality, rape. etc. These sites deal with sex, but is the information really "harmful"? Speaking about the Children's Online Protection Act, ACLU attorney Ann Beeson said it best: Just like th
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Approximate Word count = 616
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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