Feature Articles

Should the Internet Be Censored

Introduction

The question of censorship has been raised throughout all forms of media and speech. Time has proven that censorship has been one of the most controversial topics that can ever be discussed or reviewed. Without the issue of censorship in terms of religious views, the Pilgrims may not have founded the colonies so many years ago. And with any controversial topic there will always be two opposing sides present. Recently, two terms have become synonymous with controversial—cyber-porn and hacking. In 1998, Dworkin and MacKinnon defined pornography as the "graphic sexually explicit subordination of women, men, children, or transsexuals through pictures and/or words…" and the fact that it is viewable on the Internet is where the 'cyber' prefix comes into play (p. 36). Hacking is an act in which computer users get unauthorized access to other computers possibly causing damage to the system.

Cyberporn

Some researchers have found that pornography is directly related to crime especially organized crime. In the Final Report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, the US Dept. of Justice concluded the direct correlation between crime and pornography by interviewing witnesses, law enforcement personnel, and consulting a variety of transcripts and sources. Despite the 1970's Commission on Pornography's view, this latest report suggests "that significant parts of the pornography industry are controlled by organized crime" (1986, p. 294). This could certainly indict negative viewpoints on cyber-porn, as certain members of the porn industry are currently online. The simple fact that the Internet is becoming more prevalent in our daily lives suggests that more people have access to this form of media.

The question of whether pornography is harmful is one main motivator for censorship of the Internet in regards to cyber-porn. In using the word 'harmful', it is understood that this is not necessarily physical damage but more of a mental harm to moral, religions, and ethical values. Easton in 1994 even goes so far as to say that "the case of regulation has principally relied on the claim that obscene or pornographic materials may cause anti-social or illegal acts including sexual offenses" (p. 11). Despite some researchers claims that pornography may cause the opposite reaction by giving potential sex crime offenders a 'healthy' alternative, Easton states that "there is no substantial evidence of any reduction in sexual crime where pornography circulation rates have increased" (p. 12).

The question on many people's minds is why wait until now to try to censor the Internet with regard to cyber-porn. According to recent studies, Downs (1989) says that:

The availability of sexually explicit material has grown substantially in recent decades and there are well-publicized cases of men using pornography to manipulate others and as a model for violent practice. (p. 145)

Still others question the legality of pornography when it used in defamation of character. This can be attributed to Internet sites whose prime purpose is to have nude or sexually explicit images or videos of prominent women or men available to consumers. Dworkin and MacKinnon (1988) write that "this practice is particularly common in the case of prominent movie stars, many of whom had to do nude modeling" (p. 51). Despite all this research and opinion on the subject, many people still support cyber-porn.

One of the main arguments supporting pornography as a whole is that it is a useful tool for sex education. The Medical Institute for Sexual Health discussed in their brochure "Abstinence Vs. Safer Sex: Sexuality Education: A Comparison" the moral values that come into place with the use of sexually explicit teaching materials. The consensus is that the use of sexually explicit teaching materials should be age appropriated and that parents should sign a waiver form. This prevents the government from having to mandate anything that may be deemed inappropriate due to religious, ethical, and moral values.

Another defense of cyber-porn is that there are already measures that have been taken to prevent a majority of under-aged web surfers from viewing pornographic materials. Specifically cyber-sex or porn Internet sites have adult checks where a guest must enter their credit card number in order to assure that the user is indeed 18 or older. In visiting approximately a dozen cyber-porn Internet sites, I personally found that over 95% had some age verification system installed. Many people view the Internet as all accessible but in truth it is not. In 1994, Wark stated:

It is not possible to accidentally access pornography on the Internet; you choose to visit an Internet site. It is not like flicking on the remote and suddenly seeing an image in your living room. This is why it is not appropriate to treat the Internet as if it were a broadcast medium. The Internet has properties that make it like several media, but broadcasting is not one of them. (p. 1)

This alludes to the fact that perhaps censorship lies in the hands of the parents. In spite of oppositions claims of links between violence even Easton admits that despite a commission of the impact of pornography which was undertaken by Howitt and Cumberbatch (1990) there was "no compelling evidence in the materials surveyed of a casual link between pornography and sexual violence" (p. 11). Evidence such as the aforementioned has led me to wonder about the validity of censorship of the Internet.

I have always felt that the United States was built upon statutes and ideals that tried to escape persecution and censorship as a whole is a persecution against a form of speech or media. In conducting research into the arena of pornography I was able to interview someone who was actually in the field. Barrett Moore who has starred in pornographic films for Zane Entertainment talked to me over the phone quite extensively about her active participation in the porn industry. Her comments on the subject and the restrictions that have placed make me wonder why the porn industry is constantly under fire. She of course like the majority of pornographic film stars has the utmost control over their bodies and their roles in movies. Barrett Moore (personal communication, Nov. 10, 1999) believes America's viewpoint on pornography "is changing with our generation and it's becoming more and more mainstream" and went on to say that "now-a-days you can even see porn stars on the E channel". When she was asked about Internet sex sites she said (personal communication, Nov. 10, 1999) that it allows for men to get their fantasies fulfilled in a safe environment.

After reviewing research on the subject I could find no conclusive evidence that cyber-porn was dangerous to anyone whether physical or psychological. Even the claims of defamation of character due to Internet sites who show nude or sexually explicit photographs of celebrities is not a matter of censorship but rather an issue of copyright infringement. This leads me to wonder why the question of Internet censorship has even been brought up. The Internet is a worldwide multimedia conglomerate and therefore cannot be regulated by one particular entity such as the United States or any such nation. In keeping this in mind, there would be no feasible strategy for censoring the Internet since it's so ubiquitous.

Developing moral, religious, and ethical values and viewpoints should be up to the parents of children. If the parents do not wish their children to view cyber-porn or cyber-sex on the Internet then the parents should not allow their children to be on the Internet unsupervised. Internet sites such as Altavista.com offer a 'Family Filter' in which a password is required to view or even search for other Internet sites that are related to cyber-sex and/or cyber-porn. This leaves regulation or censorship up to the parents and families of children.

While opposition decries harmful damage and even defamation of character, supporters discuss the legality of censorship of the Internet. There has been no conclusive evidence that pornography can be directly correlated towards acts of sexual offense. The data that has been collected is too ambiguous to be conclusive. Many supporters of porn are not necessarily interested or accepting of the act or presentation itself but the foundation that censorship of the Internet may lay for other forms of media or speech. Parents have always had the choice of leading their children in the direction that they would like them to be raised ethically, morally, and religiously. This may include not allowing them to view pornographic material especially on the Internet.

Hacking

At the same time that cyber-porn is being discussed in regards to censorship, web sites that offer information with regards to hacking has also come under question. Most of the debate stems from institutions citing the lack of real value to the information that may be offered and the fact that said information can bring disastrous results if used incorrectly. The hacking community has always decried that they are not responsible for the use of their information and do not recommend its use it in a destructive manner. The information that is often available at hacking web sites ranges from security flaws in different operating systems and software to programs like Back Orifice that allow hackers to have full access on other people's computers. Many people feel that this sort of information can only be used for malicious practices. Several organizations feel that the web sites that contain hacking data or files should be shut down permanently. This brings about questions about censorship again.

Those that are pro-censorship of the Internet in regard to hacking site that the resources are available to anyone that has access to the Internet. Organizations such as AntiOnline.com provide information about pretending your network or computer to being hacked. The question that this brings to mind is that if sites that contain information about hacking are to be censored, who is to be affected? Such sites as AntiOnline.com can be found by simply searching for hacking on the Internet. Many supporters of censorship feel that hacking web sites are completely without value. They believe that by not having the information in the public domain that it would help protect systems from damage.

One example that tends to arise upon discussion of Internet censorship is the Crash of January 15th. On this day in 1990, AT&T's long-distance telephone switching system crashed. The crash was due to hackers exploiting a flaw in the AT&T software. Obviously this made communication virtually impossible and millions of calls went unanswered. According to Bruce Sterling, "sixty thousand people lost their telephone service completely…and some seventy million telephone calls went uncompleted" (1994). Without doubt this act was criminal and was destructive as well as intrusive. This is the argument that is used to typically support censorship of the hacking sites.

Opponents of censoring the hacking community off of the Internet, cite that the information instead of being without value is in fact feasible solutions to the dilemmas of testing for security flaws. System operators can see what security flaws that hackers have found and find solutions to those problems. In a personal interview I talked with a former system administrator at TDEC, Inc. named Tom Williams extensively about the issue of security in a network situation (personal communication, December 2, 1999). He went on to say that he uses the Internet at great length for information relating to security flaws with a considerable amount of time at web sites that would be deemed material that should be censored by factions against hacking.

Mr. Williams made mention that these type of sites offer him quick solutions to security flaws that he might not have been aware of before (personal communication, December 2, 1999). These web sites can be a form of up-to-date information whereas with computing support it may take days or even months to offer solutions or find bugs in their respective software or hardware. Consequently this saves him and TDEC, Inc. time and money as well as protecting them from the same people that provide the information in the first place. When AT&T experienced their crash in January of '90, it forced the company to take steps to improve not only their security but their response time to disasters such as that one.

I believe that information should always be free and should be allowed to transpire. Information can be harmful only if used in the wrong manner but its benefits to those that may be affected is immense and far outweighs the potential threat that may present itself due to its Internet presence. This debate can be stretched across many platforms and indeed is a very ambiguous argument. However, the majority of Internet users would not have the knowledge to comprehend most of the hacking texts distributed on the Internet. These texts can not only help weary network administrators to detract security abuses but can also be beneficial to a person who wishes to know more about the inner workings of anything from a Unix box to Java security and even telephone switching software. Although most of the information does indeed pinpoint security holes, there are usually not step-by-step instructions and quick tools for the common user are not readily available either. To fully exploit the information available, potential hackers not only need an extensive background in computer science but also engineering as well as patience and time. This puts huge constraints on the typical Internet user and therefore eliminates the majority of potential hackers.

Hackers in turn help out many companies and institutions by providing details about the security flaws found in code and hardware. Not only does this force those companies to make changes to their security, which in turn makes their systems that much more secure, but also it pushes the envelope of technology that much farther. People have a tendency to be lackadaisical when it comes to technology abiding by the familiar cliché of "don't fix what isn't broken". However, with hacking information being so pervasive technology as far as security is increased and researched to provide better protection.

Conclusion

With this in mind, it should not be a question of government censorship of cyber-porn but rather of more observant and active parenting. The U.S. government is not in a position to support any particular religious, moral, or ethical value so by censoring the Internet this may inadvertently occur. The Internet is a worldwide media resource and therefore the U.S. or any one government can totally censor what is available on the Internet. Censorship of such things as hacking would only be possible if each individual Internet provider was legally forced to filter or block out selected web sites with the offending material. Not only would this be a costly venture but one that would have to be constantly monitored with the influx of web sites. In the United States we are protected by the First Amendment in which freedom of speech is protected. Censoring the Internet in regards to cyber-porn and hacking would be revoking this staple of our country. This nation was founded on the freedom of choice and consequently if the Internet is censored then that ethos will come crashing down.

References

Downs, D. (1989). The new politics of pornography. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Dworkin, A. and MacKinnon, C. (1988). Pornography and civil rights.

Easton, M. Susan (1994). The problem of pornography: Regulation and the right to free speech. London: Routledge.

Medical Institute for Sexual Health. (1999). Abstinence Vs. Safer Sex : Sexuality Education : A Comparison. [Brochure]. Austin, TX: Author.

Moore, B. (1999). Personal Communication.

Sterling, B. (1994). The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. [On-line]. Available: http://cec.wustl.edu/~cs142/books/hacker_crackdown/

U.S. Department of Justice. (1986). Attorney General's commission on pornography. Washington, DC: Author.

Wark, M. (1996). No place for a cyber-censorship in free society. [On-line]. Available: http://rene.efa.org.au/liberty/odocs/wark0404.html

Williams, T. (1999). Personal Communication.