Can there be a line drawn determining what forms of censorship should be available on the Internet? Is it possible to have a clear cut-off without having any discrepancies or minor exclusions? The government doesn’t censor other types of information services like mail, what if all ground mail had to be read for appropriateness? If so, then what would be the means of appropriateness for each piece of mail? What would be suitable for different viewers? How do you determine the suitability of the context as it is related to the viewer?
The fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches, however the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has been researching a proposal set before them stating that Internet services would be provided to all Americans, however the content would be censored of any images or other content that could potentially be harmful to teens under 18 years of age.
For this proposal to be enforced, where would the line of censorship be drawn? What if a high school senior was assigned a research paper for an anatomy class and needed to find images? Or what if a human genetic student needed medical illustrations to help with case study work? Or what about history students researching disease and cultural practices in Africa? To properly enforce the FCC’s proposal while maintaining the safest standards for Internet use, the censors would need to leave out what could be deemed as useful content.
A highly debated topic within the argument centers around who has the right and therefore should be able to draw the line. On one hand, to ensure a level of fairness regarding censorship laws, some believe the government is the most fit for establishing a clear cut off point. In opposition, some believe parents should have the right to judge the content their children are freely viewing on the Internet.
Studies have shown that a higher number of sexual suggestions have come from teen’s peers rather than adult predators. Moreover, cases regarding teens and sexual predators have decreased significantly over the last ten years.
It is believed that in agreement with democratic ideology, information that is released in an unfiltered form increases public knowledge and with the Internet being the largest public information medium to date, the content within it should not be censored to such an extent that its truths couldn’t be revealed.
