ACLU: Is Cyberspace Burning?
News Item (cadieux@librarybook.com)
Wed, 1 Oct 1997 23:00:02 -0400
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 23:00:02 -0400
Message-Id: <3.0.32.19971001230349.007bf7d0@librarybook.com>
From: News Item <cadieux@librarybook.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <conntech>
Subject: ACLU: Is Cyberspace Burning?
When It Comes to the Web, the ACLU is Clueless
By Jake Kirchner (from PC Magazine -- October 7, 1997)
The recent American Civil Liberties Union paper on free speech on the
Internet is a must read for anyone interested in the Web.
It's a perfect example of how wrong-headed some people are--and how the
knee-jerk anti-censorship crowd is making it harder to limit children's
access to harmful information online. Limiting such access, they fear, will
hinder the development of the Internet and pave the way for overzealous
government regulators.
You can find the document at:
http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/burning.html
First off, I hate the incendiary tone of this paper, entitled "Fahrenheit
451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning?", which immediately equates any effort to
restrict access to the Web (or filter out any Web-based information) to
book burning.
Parents trying to keep from their children some of the degrading, biased,
and inaccurate information that exists on the Web are not Nazis, and
casting them in that light is counter to reasoned argument on an important
topic.
The ACLU maintains that voluntary Web-site rating methods or automated
filtering programs are harmful because they make getting "valuable speech"
online more difficult. Rot! Since when have all forms of information had
equal public access? Why must that hitherto unnecessary standard be
preserved on the Internet?
The ACLU fears that blocking programs and rating schemes will make finding
what it calls "controversial" material difficult. So what? Yes, you may
have to work a wee bit harder to find that material, but no harder than you
would now to find it in other media.
If that makes the Web a blander medium than it would be otherwise--a
primary fear of the ACLU--so be it. At least then it will be a safe medium
to have in our homes.
Copyright 1997 Ziff-Davis Inc.
Edited for ConnTech to reduce length. Full text at:
http://www8.zdnet.com:80/pcmag/issues/1617/pcmg0051.htm