Last week we asked our listeners
about online free speech. Here's what some of you
thought about where to draw the line between
democracy and decency.
Chris McGoldrick
There should be absolutely NO controls or
censorship of the Internet at all, under any
circumstances. Who is going to do it? The
Internet is a trans-national entity and the laws of
one country do not apply to the rest.
We are experiencing the clash/mixture of
cultures as more people come on-line and no one
society can understand the positions of all the
others, let alone dictate what the content or norms
should be. Should one language, religion, or
nationality, and its associated tenets, hold sway
over the rest? What if *you* are not in the
majority?
Any attempt to censor or control the Internet by
one group will be seen as oppression by another.
There are good and bad things on the Net but that's
merely a reflection of reality. Let the voices for
peace, harmony, and common sense speak louder than
those of hate and destruction. Let freedom reign.
Steve Hiner
I believe the government should enforce some
form of content control. A lot of people suggest
that it should be the domain of the parent to
control their children's use of the Internet but we
don't question the control of pay cable channels.
Since the Internet is not regulating itself though
it has had plenty of time to do so I think the
government should impose penalties for not rating a
web site or ftp site.
The rating could be a simple as forcing
pornographic sites to use addresses with xxx.
rather than www. or use .xxx rather than .com but
something needs to be done. We do have freedom of
speech here in the US but we don't sell
pornographic magazines to kids, there are
regulations to prevent them from being available to
kids plus there is a lot of social convention that
has not developed on the Internet yet. I am well
aware that kids still get access to the magazines
(just like they would get access to the web sites)
but that doesn't mean we shouldn't discourage the
access.
Ruben Garcia
There should be no governmental control over
what shouldn't be on the internet, the government
shouldn't be a babysitter for our children; control
over what children see should be a family function
and not a government one.
Laury Ashin
Any new technology is quickly used for
pornography and other such 'subversive' uses. The
beauty of the internet is that it is so difficult
to control. Witness the farce of the late
Communications Decency Act. Governments will
continue to try to control, but in the long run,
self-regulation along with a healthy scepticism
will work best. Also, it's useful to remember that
stuff on the net is not necessarily true or of any
value. What an exciting frontier!
Earl Scott
Keep the internet free. Lose freedom of speech
and you lose it all.
D Moore
As long as the pornmeisters don't invade my
cyberspace with unsolicited offers, I could care
less about them. I feel the same about advocates
of one religous point of view or another.
That there should be firewalls to prevent
kiddyporn from being disseminated goes without
saying. The same goes for children accessing porn.
Discussing issues from many points of view is good, and even though
you want to say "Duh" about some points of view,
people have a human right to say them.
Joel Peterson
Freedom of speech is a concept which evolved in
order to prevent political suppression of
reasonable opposition. It does not protect
pornographers,neo-Nazis, pedophiles, etc. There are
millions of children using the internet. Let's have
a little common sense and clean up the WWW just a
bit.
Deb Poarch
I support freedom of speech. That means all
speech, full freedom. We cannot compromise on this
issue, not even for the worthy effort of reducing
smutt. Besides, it will always be there whether
you try and keep a lid on it or not. Let 'em go
crazy. I think that's the best way to reduce the
demand for it anyway. People always want more that
which they are told they cannot have.
Trina Joy
In the home. If a parent feels strongly about
what is 'decent', they should be able to to convey
this conviction to their children. They should be
strong enough to teach their children to pity those
people who think 'pornography' is natural and
decent. If they are not sure of their own
convictions and/or do not have the respect of their
children, no outside agency is going to be able to
'police' what those children have access to. They
will simply do what children have done all through
the ages - go out and find another source.
Jim Williams
There should be absolutely no offline control of
online speech. The Internet is and should be
considered a separate world from the geographic one
containing nations, and all regulation of online
speech should come from democratic processes
occuring online within the Internet.
Margaret Tarbet
I _really_ dislike sex spam and porn. It
wouldn't bother me a bit if it all vanished at
midnight tonite. Except if it vanished with
government "help".
We need _more_ freedom, not less. I consider
it to be the pit of hypocrisy that the same
govenment that turns its back on human need in the
name of promoting "personal responsibility"
nevertheless wants to control our behavior in
minute detail. Fascism anyone?
