Internet Censorship

The battle over the internet has been going on for a long time.. People have debated whether the internet is a domain controlled by the government, or a free land populated by memes and emails. Before you choose, know this. The internet was invented to share information; specifically research and development for science and the military. Now it has grown into a tool which allows social networking, information transfer, business, shopping, and so much more, all which has contributed to globalization. However, the government plans to stop that. The government is censoring content on the internet that they find inappropriate. This would effectively remove the content from the internet, with no way to access them. The internet might have been made to trade off military documents, but it is now the people’s domain with over 2.2 billion global internet users today. First of all, censoring the internet violates the first amendment, our freedom of speech and press. It would also prevent a free flow of ideas. The internet is a place where you are free to express yourself and interact through social networking, e-mails, and more. A child browsing the internet will find something inappropriate; parents should block it and try to avoid children’s minds from being corrupted in the future. However, it depends what someone decides is inappropriate. Somebody might be offended by a racist joke, but another person might find it hilarious. Censoring the internet would also interrupt ideas that people might have wanted to put on the internet. It would affect social networking sites by censoring comments and posts that may be controversial. Censoring the internet would prevent people from enjoying crude comedy, no matter how harmless or dangerous they seem. Also, censoring the internet would oppose creativity and globalization. There are many sites on the internet that allow creativity and globalization, one of them being Youtube. Many videos on Youtube can be considered inappropriate due to dangerous stunts. Some people would think that kids would imitate what they see and hear on the internet. With that same logic, we can say that kids would imitate everything they see and hear. Television and movies can be blamed equally for kids’ behavior, as well as bad influences in reality. It is also better for children to identify bad behavior earlier than later to give them more experience in responding to certain scenarios. While a child on the internet can come across bizarre content, there is also a chance that dangerous technology could come into the wrong hands. Along with dangerous technology, secret government information and rumors could possibly be seen on the internet. Censoring the internet could prevent this, but a better solution would be to not post any secret or dangerous information at all. It is understandable that someone may find out these secrets outside of the government, and then proceed to post it. By that time, the government should be responsible for finding out and stopping it from being posted. Also, people have a right to know what the government posts on the internet. Posting something on the internet says that you are allowing billions of other people to see it. In the end, it’s always important to remember how to know what to expect on the internet. The government would be taking away freedom of speech if they censor the internet, and so it is up to us to control what we see and hear on the internet. We have to keep our young from seeing inappropriate material, and keep our secrets to ourselves.We should use the internet as a place for communication, or just to simply enjoy ourselves.