Policing the Internet. Giving Websites an Age-Restriction.
Jan21Written by:
2009/01/21 08:56 AM 
The UK government considering policing the Internet. They talk of trying to put a age-restriction rating on internet web pages and sites. Should we be considering a similar thing?
I just read an article in Sky news website about the UK government considering policing the Internet. They talk of trying to put a age-restriction rating on internet web pages and sites.
According to the Sky News website, websites could be given cinema-style age-ratings to limit access to "unacceptable" material. Children would be restricted from viewing content seen by the Government as harmful.
Now I can understand why this thought pattern has evolved. I myself am appalled at what you can freely find on the internet. Pornography, sex, paedophilia, violence, murder, rape, hate-speech, how to make bombs, how to kill someone, etc. The list goes on. In a perfect world we would not want our children, let alone ourselves to be subjected to material such as this.
How ever, it does fly in the face of free speech. Although, free speech does not mean absolute Carte Blanche. Free speech in itself has limitations. Free speech is not free when it involves harm towards others.
But trying to police the internet is a daunting task to say the least. The better approach would be education. The reason our children are watching porn on the internet or watching some be-heading, is because we as parents and guardians have allowed it to be so. We have neglected to teach and enforce morality and discipline in our children's lives as well as our own. Our standards have dropped, we don't care about right or wrong any more. In fact the line between right and wrong is so blurred, and we are so blind, that we can not distinguish the difference any more.
Yes the internet has some horrific stuff out there. But there is also a lot of good stuff, great material. The internet is a great source of education. But then how do you weed out the good from the bad. Well simple in theory, but difficult in practice. The age old saying of supply and demand. Cut off the demand and the supply will dwindle. If we teach ourselves and children the correct behaviour on the internet, morality, right and wrong. There will be no need to look up those sites. As the internet is mainly dependent on users and traffic, any particular site will dwindle into nothingness when traffic to it is limited or halted.
Easier said than done. But it is a good theory. The problem is, what else can be done? If some guy want to post a picture of his naked mother on the internet, what can you do about it. Absolutely nothing. Well you can, just don't go to his site.
What are your thoughts? Should we be policing the internet? Is there another way? Should we just leave things as they are?
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