The Internet
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The Internet has become an important conduit for information, with a strong role in business, education, and entertainment. More and more people are gaining the ability to access the Internet by means of a home computer and a modem. Increased access has also brought a number of concerns for parents, who often are not as computer-literate as their children and who have learned that the Internet provides access not only to huge databases of information, useful software, business applications, and games but also to some sites of a more adult nature, including sites where one can download pornographic images, bulletin boards of adults discussing sexual mattes, and even areas where pedophiles either meet on line or seek to meet children by means of the computer. This has produced calls for something to be done by the government, whether that be open censorship or something less draconian. One of the ways to address the issue of possible obscenity on the Internet and the fear that it would be harmful to children would be to impose a ratings system. While there are a number of limitations and problems with such a procedure, and while a ratings system is not a complete solution to the problem, it is an idea that would provide parents with more needed information while not infringing on the rights of adults to have access to whatever services they want. The Internet differs from on-line services such as Prodigy or CompuServe in a number of respects, though there are also simil
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e most aggressive effort by Capitol Hill lawmakers to combat smut in the electronic media in recent memory (Shivers, 1995, A-1).
Such efforts would prevent not only children from accessing many of these services but would ban the services altogether.
There are other ways of coping with these issues than outright censorship or the banning of certain modes of expression from the Internet. Magid (1995) cites several of the technological solutions, beginning with those used now by on-line services:
The commercial on line services all have parental control, or "blocking," features that allow parents to keep the children out of certain areas. You can, for example, block out all chat sessions or restrict your child from entering certain bulletin boards. The Internet currently doesn't have such controls, but there are now software packages designed to provide some of those functions (Magid, 1995, D-7).
One such package is Surfwatch Software, which has a Macintosh and Windows program that blocks Internet newsgroups, Web sites, file
libraries, and chat areas known to contain sexually explicit material:
The program knows of about 1,600 such sites and is also able to block other areas based on certain combinations of words that ar
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Internet Magid, Adults Parents, , Wide Web, Prodigy CompuServe, Macintosh Windows, Capitol Hill, D 7 Internet, CyberSitter Windows, President Americans, magid 1995, bulletin boards, ratings system, commercial on line, commercial on line services, on line services, on-line services, chat sessions, 1995 d-7, parents children, parents information, magid 1995 d-7, internet commercial on line, internet magid 1995, los angeles times,
Approximate Word count = 1514
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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