Internet Censorship Essays -- essays research papers fc

Censorship of the Internet   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "We should demand that all public schools and libraries install and configure Internet Filters." This statement shows how Jeffery Pollock, a candidate for the 3rd Congressional District seat in Oregon, views the Internet. Unfortunately for him, the one thing that he ranted and raved about was the one thing that gave him an unfair disadvantage in the in the upcoming elections. (Blind Ballots) Cyber Patrol, One of the leading Internet censoring companies and is used in over 17,000 schools in the Untied States, actually blocked his website from potential voters. Needless to say, when Mr. Pollock discovered this injustice, some of his views about Internet censorship changed. But Mr. Pollock isn’t the only candidate whose chances of winning are diminished because of Internet censoring software. In Fact, The two leading school censoring products Cyber Patrol and N2H2 Bess, used in over 40,000 schools and school districts across the nation, also blocked millions o f people from viewing Pat Casey’s website, Mark Greene’s website, and over 37 other candidates’ campaign homepages. Most of the millions of people blocked from these campaign pages are also blocked from many pages dealing with gynecology, sex education, racism, gambling, ethics, teen parenting, and the list continues. (Blind Ballots)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Certainly in some situations, censorship of some material can be justified. For example, A first grade teacher takes her students to the computer lab for a day, the teacher wouldn’t want the kids getting hounded by hundreds of porn sites, but would it really make a difference if a six year old kid was using a censored internet or uncensored internet? A kid is not going to be looking for anything that has to do with porn or anything remotely close to getting blocked. If a child goes to Yahoo and searches for cartoons or the mighty morphin’ power rangers, they will not get pummeled by so called â€Å"bad† internet sites, so there will not be anything to censor anyway.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Middle School and High School students across the nation are often required to do research papers and the Internet is a logical source because it contains so much useful information. It would be much harder for a senior in high school to find information about sex education or sexually transmitted diseases on a censored internet because the current software simply ca... ...th 6 person has a greater advantage using a computer with a complete database of information. Works Cited Bennett (2000) Blocking Software FAQ. Retrieved November 28, 2000 from the World Wide Web. http://www.peacefire.com/info/blocking-software-faq.html Bobby Ross (2000) What is Memorial Day?. Retrieved November 25, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://members.aol.com/ceharger/what_is_memorial_day.htm Greg Lindsay (1997) Cybersitter Decides To Take A Time Out. Retrieved November 28, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.time.com/time/digital/daily/0,2822,12392,00.html Hazelton, Bennett and Mcarthy, Jamie (2000) Blind Ballots. Retrieved November 26, 2000 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  the World Wide Web: http://www.peacefire.org/blind-ballots/ Linthicum, David S. (1999) â€Å"Site Building.† Computer Shopper Nov. 1999: 246. Unknown (1999). Censorship of the Internet. Retrieved November 26, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.epic.com/censhp Unknown (1999). How a Bill Becomes a Law. Retrieved November 25, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.expage.com/amonroe4993 Weckert, John and Adeney, Douglas (1997) Computer and Information Ethics Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.