Internet Freedom

3 Pages 756 Words

Defining Our Rights

Freedom of speech is a fight that has been going on for as long as the people have had the right. The Internet is just a new forum for waging this war. While people do have the right to post and say what they want, there is something to be said for protecting the youth, as well as easily impressionable minds. At this time the Internet is an ideal medium for the population to express what it wants at any time. This however may change soon, as international governments are discussing legislation and implementing censorship for the Internet. I think that we as a people need to address this issue now and fight to keep a right that has been a foundation for our culture. If we do nothing now, then laws will get passed that may very well infringe upon our right to freedom.
Everybody is essentially for free speech. The issue is the limits and boundaries to that speech, and how we should enforce them. There are two sides to this issue and they make it extremely hard to distinguish right action from wrong. On one side you have parents protecting their kids from obscene material, and government protecting its people from terrorism. On the other side are groups and agencies fighting for every last ounce of free speech. Trying to empower the people by keeping them overly and completely informed. Both of these groups are entitled to the feelings they have and neither one of them are in the wrong. So the goal is to create legislation and law that conforms to all walks of life, and is non-bias towards any of our people. Freedom of expression has already faced tremendous judicial attention, and now that the Internet is involved there are even more difficulties to deal with. At this time attempts are being made to control two aspects of expression. These aspects are obscene material such as pornography, and compelling government interest such as instructions on how to make a bomb. The Communication Decency Act is o...