Essay About First Amendment And Free Speech

Regulation of the Internet
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Child pornography, hackers reading how to hack into your web site or personal computer and children reading explicit details in the Starr Report; these are all examples of harmful information available on the Internet that should be regulated by the government. Government should regulate information on the Internet. Obscene and harmful material on the Internet, such as child pornography should be obliterated. Other questionable material, such as the Starr Report, should be published on the Internet, but not within the reach of children. Hacking is a very controversial subject. Most aspects of hacking correspond to doing harm upon other peoples computers. There is material available on the Internet regarding the “how-tos” of hacking. These aspects of hacking should be extracted from the Internet. Now, we can easily say these things such as “child pornography, hacking, and objectionable material on the Internet are bad and should be taken off.” This is the easy way out. We have to realize that the Internet is an extremely complicated network of computers worldwide and that we cant just look around and find these “bad things” and get rid of them. We also need to realize that the problem doesnt just exist inside the United States. Sure, we can bust all the host computers containing these things in the United States, but the Internet is a worldwide network. So, the United States government cannot patrol the world or make laws making these things illegal. Coalitions need to be formed worldwide to help in the finding and annihilation of the harmful and obscene material. I think that the easiest way to help fight this problem would be to get the United Nations to form a council that would find these server computers and re-format them and sell them off at a profit and keep the money for the United Nations.Like any other form of communication, such as telephone or newspaper, the Internet should be treated in some respect. Although the first amendment gives Americans the right to free speech, it has to be considered that this amendment was written well before computers. The first amendment should be restated that we have freedom of speech, but not if it creates more harm than help. Do not get me wrong, the Internet is still a fine source of education and entertainment. Freedom of speech and involvement of government of the Internet is a controversial issue, but we must protect people from some obscene