Improving Cyberspace

Improving Cyberspace
by
Jason Crandall
Honors English III
Research Paper
26 February 1996



Improving Cyberspace

Thesis: Though governments cannot physically regulate the
Internet, cyberspace needs regulations to prevent
illegal activity, the destruction of morals, and child
access to pornography.

I. Introduction.

II. Illegal activity online costs America millions and hurts
our economy.
A. It is impossible for our government to physically
regulate cyberspace.
1. One government cannot regulate the Internet by
itself.
2. The basic design of the Internet prohibits
censorship.
B. It is possible for America to censor the Internet.
1. All sites in America receive their address from
the government.
2. The government could destroy the address for
inappropriate material.
3. Existing federal laws regulate BBS's from
inappropriate material.

III. Censoring the Internet would establish moral standards.
A. Pornography online is more harsh than any other
media.
1. The material out there is highly perverse and
sickening.
2. Some is not only illegal, but focuses on
children.
B. Many industries face problems from illegal activity
online.
1. Floods of copyrighted material are illegally
published online.
2. Innocent fans face problems for being good fans.

IV. Online pornography is easily and illegally accessible
to minors.
A. In Michigan, anyone can access anything in
cyberspace for free.
1. Mich-Net offers most of Michigan access with a
local call.
2. The new Communications Decency Act could
terminate Mich-net.
B. BBS's offer callers access to adult material
illegally.
1. Most BBS operators don't require proof of age.
2. Calls to BBS's are undetectable to a child's
parents.

V. Conclusion.






Improving Cyberspace

"People don't inadvertently tune into alt.sex.pedophile
while driving to a Sunday picnic with Aunt Gwendolyn" (Huber).
For some reason, many people believe this philosophy and
therefore think the Internet and other online areas should not be
subject to censorship. The truth is, however, that computerized
networks like the Internet are in desperate need of regulations.
People can say, do, or create anything they wish, and as America
has proved in the past, this type of situation just doesn't work.
Though governments cannot physically regulate the Internet,
cyberspace needs regulations to prevent illegal activity, the
destruction of morals, and child access to pornography.
First, censoring the online community would ease the tension
on the computer software industry. Since the creation of the
first computer networks, people have been exchanging data back
and forth, but eventually people stopped transferring text, and
started sending binaries, otherwise known as computer programs.
Users like the idea; why would someone buy two software packages
when they could buy one and trade for a copy of another with a
friend? This philosophy has cost the computer industry millions,
and companies like Microsoft have simply given up. Laws exist
against exchanging computer software; violators face up to a
$200,000 fine and/or five years imprisonment, but these laws are
simply unenforced. Most businesses are violators as well.
Software companies require that every computer that uses one of
their packages has a separate license for that software
purchased, yet companies rarely purchase their required minimum.
All these illegal copies cost computer companies millions in
profits, hurting the company, and eventually hurting the American
economy.
On the other hand, many people believe that the government
cannot censor the Internet. They argue that the Internet is an
international network and that one government should not have the
power to censor another nation's telecommunications. For
example, American censors can block violence on American
television, but they cannot touch Japanese television. The
Internet is open to all nations, and one nation cannot appoint
itself police of the Internet. Others argue that the design of
the Internet prohibits censorship. A different site runs every
page on the Internet, and usually the location of the site is
undetectable. If censors cannot find the site, they can't shut
it down. Most critics believe that America cannot possibly
censor the Internet.
Indeed, the American government can censor the Internet.
Currently, the National Science Federation administers all
internet addresses, such as web addresses. The organization
could employ censors, who would check every American site
monthly. Any site the censors find with illegal material could
immediately lose their address, thus shutting down the site.
Some might complain about cost, but if the government raised the
annual price to hold an address from a modest $50 to say $500,
they could easily afford to pay for the censors. This would not
present a problem, because mostly businesses own addresses; it
would not effect use by normal people. For example,
microsoft.com is the address for Microsoft, but addresses like
crandall.com just do not exist. Bulletin Board Systems (BBS's)
are another computer media in need of censorship. Like the
Internet, some spots contain hard core pornography, yet some have
good content. Operators usually orient their BBS's for the local
community, but some operators open their system to users across
the world. The government can shut down a BBS if it transfers
illegal material across a state border according to federal law.
As a postal worker in Tennessee showed, shutting down a BBS with
illegal pornography is an easy process. When he called a BBS in
California and found illegal child pornography, he called his
local police. Two days later the police had closed the BBS and
Robert Thomas was awaiting prosecuting in a Tennessee jail
(Elmer-Dewitt). If the government were to employ censors like
that postal worker, thousands of BBS's transmitting illegal
material across state borders could be shut down immediately.
Secondly, censoring cyberspace would help establish moral
standards. According to a local survey, 83% of adults online
have downloaded pornographic material from a BBS. 47% of minors
online have downloaded pornographic material from a local BBS
(Crandall). In another world wide survey, only 22% of 571
responders thought the Internet needed regulation to prevent
minors from obtaining adult material (C|Net). Obviously,
something is wrong with America's morals. A child cannot walk
into a video store and walk out with X-rated movies. A minor
cannot walk out of a bookstore with a copy of Playboy. Why can
children sit in the privacy of their home and look at
pornographic material and we do nothing about it? It is time
America does something to establish moral standards.
Certainly, people accepted the fact that pornography exists
many years ago. In addition, however, they set limits as to how
far pornography could go, yet cyberspace somehow snuck past these
limits. Just after the vote on the Exon bill, Senator Exon said
"I knew it was bad, but when I got out of there, it made Playboy
and Hustler look like Sunday-School stuff" (Elmer-Dewitt). He
was talking about the folder of images from the Internet he
received to show the Senate just before the vote. An hour later,
the vote had passed 84 to 16. Demand drives the market, it
focuses on images people can't find in a magazine or video.
Images of "pedophilia (nude photos of children), hebephilia
(youths) and what experts call paraphilia -- a grab bag of
'deviant' material that includes images of bondage,
sadomasochism, urination, defecation, and sex acts with a
barnyard full of animals" (Elmer-Dewitt) floods cyberspace. Some
wonder how much of this is available, a Carnegie Mellon study
released last June showed that the Internet transmitted 917,410
sexually explicit pictures, films, or short stories over the 18
months of the study. Over 83% of all pictures posted on USENET,
the public message center of the Internet, were pornographic
(Elmer-Dewitt). What happened to our Information Superhighway,
is this what we are fighting to put into our schools?
Furthermore, illegal material other than pornography is
making its way online. When companies such as Paramount and FOX
realized they were loosing money because they were not online,
they took action. They realized that people make money online
just like they do on television. Several people make fan pages
with sound and video clips of their favorite television programs.
When companies heard of this, they wanted to do it themselves,
and sell advertising positions on their pages like with
television. Now these companies are pushing for court orders to
shut down these fan pages due to copyright infringement
(Heyman 78). If someone censored these pages for copyrighted
material in the first place, neither the company nor the owner of
the page would waste time and money in these legal matters. Now,
the company can sue the owner of the page for copyright
infringement. All this because some Star Trek fan wanted to
share some sound clips with other fans.
Most important, online pornography is easily accessible to
minors. What are parents to do, usually it is the child in the
family who is computer literate. If the child was accessing
pornographic material with computers, odds are the parents would
never know. Even if the parents are computer literate, children
can find it, even without looking for it. When 10 year old
Anders Urmachen of New York City hangs out with other kids in
America On Line's Treehouse chat room, he has good clean fun.
One day, however, when he received a message in e-mail with a
file and instructions on how to download it, he did. When he
opened the file, 10 clips of couples engaged in heterosexual
intercourse appeared on the screen. He called his mother who
said, "I was not aware this stuff was online, children should not
be subject to these images" (Elmer-Dewitt). Poor Anders Urmachen
didn't go looking for pornography, it snuck up on him, and as
long as America allows it to happen, parents are going to have to
accept the chance that their children may run into that stuff.
In addition, for several years the people of Michigan have
enjoyed access to the Internet through the state funded program
called Mich-Net. The program offers the public free access to
the Internet, along with schools throughout the state. On the
other hand, the Mich-Net program has one flaw. The program gives
anonymity, allowing anyone, of any age, to access anything on the
Internet. According to the new Communications Decency Act, which
Clinton signed into law February 8, 1996, the government could
terminate the entire Mich-Net program because a minor can access
pornography through it. This would be a huge loss to the state
of Michigan and it's schools. If we were to censor the Internet,
minors wouldn't be able to access the material, and the program
would have no problems.
Furthermore, BBS's offer minors adult material at no cost.
While some BBS's that only offer adult material to adults, others
make access very simple. Some simply say "Type YES if you are
over 18." This is simply unexplainable and unacceptable. Others
require a photo copy of a driver license showing the user is over
18, and other operators even require meeting their users. If all
it takes to access adult material is hitting three keys, what is
stopping children from it. Most young children do not have the
ability to decide where they should go and where they should not.
If it is available, they are going to want to see what it is. To
extend the problem further, these BBS's are usually undetectable
to a child's parents. Most BBS's are local phone calls, and are
free; the parents will never know if the child is accessing it.
For example, the Muskegon area has about 15 BBS's running 24
hours daily. Of these 15, about five operators devote their BBS
to adult material. Of these five, only one BBS requires that the
user meet the operator before receiving access, while three of
the boards simply ask for a photo copy of a drivers license. But
that last one has no security whatsoever, and anyone can access
anything. None of the five boards charge for access. This is
simply unacceptable, we cannot let children access adult material
in this manner.
Every day thousands of children tune into sex in cyberspace.
We do not subject our children to sex on television or other
medias, and even if we do, parents have ways to block it. Yet we
allowed computers to slip through the grips of parents.
Censoring the online community will also strengthen the computer
industry and eventually our economy. The longer we wait, the
more we hurt ourselves; let's regulate cyberspace before it is
too late.


Works Cited

C|Net. Survey Internet: 29 July 1995.
Crandall, Jason. Survey Muskegon, Michigan: 29 Jan. 1996.
Elmer-Dewitt, Philip. "On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn." Time
3 July 1995: Proquest.
Heyman, Karen. "War on the Web." Net Guide Feb. 1996: 76-80.
Huber, Peter. "Electronic Smut." Forbes 31 July 1995: 110.