Should the Government Ban Porn on the Internet?
In this day and age it is very common to see images of sex to sell products. Although is it too easily available to adults, even worse children? The problem that we face is violating people’s rights to view pornography. If a person is of age, and looking at legal pornography, as in not pictures of children, why should we take this right away? There is a difference between what is sane and of course consensual and what is not legal and plain disgusting.
Should the Government Ban Cyber-Porn on the Internet?
In my reply to if the government should ban porn on the Internet, my answer is no. If we begin taking this away we will be opening a can of worms that will never close. The reason I say this is because history has a way of repeating itself. For instance during prohibition, people still found a way to fill their need for alcohol. Sex is a part of our society, love it or leave it, sex and porn are here to stay.
I am of course not condoning anything that is related to children or animals or anything else that may be considered illegal. What I am trying to say is that the government already has enough on its plate let alone to worry about censoring or banning pornography. I think the real concern at hand is who really is monitoring the activities of Internet users.
It’s not the government we should be worried about, its places like DoubleClick. DoubleClick is an online advertising agency that monitors people, their preferences and any information that they can get from that person. When a person is visiting a particular site or linked sites such as Lycos, or About .com, an adult server, it uses web bugs to track where you go and when. The truth is that it is primarily geared towards people using medical sites as well as pornography sites.
We are already under the magnifying glass so to speak, without our choice or even consent for that matter. The government has investigated this with the help of the FTC, (Federal Trade Commission) making it known that the company was in violation of consumer privacy laws. It is of course also in violation of the first amendment right because people will fear viewing these sensitive sites. It will be causing people to be fearful that if they log on to these sites to find out about how to spice up their love life, or check a health condition they will have their information taken without their consent.
This is enraging to think that we would have to fight for our rights to view what interests us, and of course what is within the limits of the law. The government is primarily interested in pursuing people who use the Internet to attract children to harm them, and of course pedophiles. The government is not looking to ban porn from the average man or woman who looks at it for their personal enjoyment. For those people who choose to look at it from the comfort of their homes, why punish them for looking at something that is perfectly legal?
References:
Boal, M. (2000, June 30) DoubleClick tracks content from Brills content. Retrieved June 14, 2004 from: http://www.politechbot.com/p-01250.html
