FREE ESSAY ON INTERNET REGULATION: POLICING CYBERSPACE

INTERNET REGULATION: POLICING CYBERSPACE

INTERNET REGULATION: POLICING CYBERSPACE 
The Internet is a method of communication and a source 
of information that is becoming more popular among those who 
are interested in, and have the time to surf the information 
superhighway. The problem with this much information being 
accessible to this many people is that some of it is deemed 
inappropriate for minors. The government wants censorship, 
but a segment of the population does not. Legislative 
regulation of the Internet would be an appropriate function 
of the government. 
The Communications Decency Act is an amendment which 
prevents the information superhighway from becoming a 
computer red light district. On June 14, 1995, by a vote 
of 84-16, the United States Senate passed the amendment. It 
is now being brought through the House of Representatives.1 
The Internet is owned and operated by the government, 
which gives them the obligation to restrict the materials 
available through it. Though it appears to have sprung up 
overnight, the inspiration of free-spirited hackers, it in 
fact was born in Defense Department Cold War projects of the 
1950s.2 The United States Government owns the Internet and 
has the responsibility to determine who uses it and how it 
is used. 
The government must control what information is 
accessible from its agencies. 
This material is not lawfully available through 
the mail or over the telephone, there is no valid 
reason these perverts should be allowed unimpeded 
on the Internet. Since our initiative, the 
industry has commendably advanced some blocking 
devices, but they are not a substitute for 
well-reasoned law.4 
Because the Internet has become one of the biggest sources 
of information in this world, legislative safeguards are 
imperative. 
The government gives citizens the privilege of using 
the Internet, but it has never given them the right to use 
it. 
They seem to rationalize that the framers of the 
constitution planned & plotted at great length to 
make certain that above all else, the profiteering 
pornographer, the pervert and the pedophile must 
be free to practice their pursuits in the presence 
of children on a taxpayer created and subsidized 
computer network.3 
People like this are the ones in the wrong. Taxpayer's 
dollars are being spent bringing obscene text and graphics 
into the homes of people all over the world. 
The government must take control to prevent 
pornographers from using the Internet however they see fit 
because they are breaking laws that have existed for years. 
Cyberpunks, those most popularly associated with the 
Internet, are members of a rebellious society that are 
polluting these networks with information containing 
pornography, racism, and other forms of explicit 
information. 
When they start rooting around for a crime, new 
cybercops are entering a pretty unfriendly 
environment. Cyberspace, especially the Internet, 
is full of those who embrace a frontier culture 
that is hostile to authority and fearful that any 
intrusions of police or government will destroy 
their self-regulating world.5 
The self-regulating environment desired by the cyberpunks is 
an opportunity to do whatever they want. The Communications 
Decency Act is an attempt on part of the government to 
control their free attitude displayed in homepages such as 
Sex, Adult Pictures, X-Rated Porn, Hot Sleazy Pictures 
(Cum again + again) and sex, sex, sex. heck, it's better 
even better than real sex6. What we are doing is simply 
making the same laws, held constitutional time and time 
again by the courts with regard to obscenity and indecency 
through the mail and telephones, applicable to the 
Internet.7 To keep these kinds of pictures off home 
computers, the government must control information on the 
Internet, just as it controls obscenity through the mail or 
on the phone. 
Legislative regulations must be made to control 
information on the Internet because the displaying or 
distribution of obscene material is illegal. 
The courts have generally held that obscenity is 
illegal under all circumstances for all ages, 
while indecency is generally allowable to 
adults, but that laws protecting children from 
this lesser form are acceptable. It's called 
protecting those among us who are children from 
the vagrancies of adults.8 
The constitution of the United States has set regulations to 
determine what is categorized as obscenity and what is not. 
In Miller vs. California, 413 U.S. at 24-25, the 
court announced its Miller Test and held, at 29, 
that its three part test constituted concrete 
guidelines to isolate 'hard core' pornography from 
expression protected by the First Amendment.9 
By laws previously set by the government, obscene 
pornography should not be accessible on the Internet. 
The government must police the Internet because people 
are breaking laws. Right now, cyberspace is like a 
neighborhood without a police department.10 Currently 
anyone can put anything he wants on the Internet with no 
penalties. The Communications Decency Act gives law 
enforcement new tools to prosecute those who would use a 
computer to make the equivalent of obscene telephone calls, 
to prosecute 'electronic stalkers' who terrorize their 
victims, to clamp down on electronic distributors of obscene 
materials, and to enhance the chances of prosecution of 
those who would provide pornography to children via a 
computer. 
The government must regulate the flow of information on 
the Internet because some of the commercial blocking devices 
used to filter this information are insufficient. 
Cybercops especially worry that outlaws are now able to use 
powerful cryptography to send and receive uncrackable secret 
communications and are also aided by anonymous 
re-mailers.11 By using features like these it is 
impossible to use blocking devices to stop children from 
accessing this information. Devices set up to detect 
specified strings of characters will not filter those that 
it cannot read. 
The government has to stop obscene materials from being 
transferred via the Internet because it violates laws 
dealing with interstate commerce. 
It is not a valid argument that consenting 
adults should be allowed to use the computer BBS 
and Internet systems to receive whatever they 
want. If the materials are obscene, the law can 
forbid the use of means and facilities of 
interstate commerce and common carriers to ship or 
disseminate the obscenity.12 
When supplies and information are passed over state or 
national boundaries, they are subject to the laws governing 
interstate and intrastate commerce. When information is 
passed between two computers, it is subjected to the same 
standards. 
The government having the power to regulate the 
information being put on the Internet is a proper extension 
of its powers. With an information based system such as the 
Internet there is bound to be material that is not 
appropriate for minors to see. In passing of an amendment 
like the Communications Decency Act, the government would be 
given the power to regulate that material. 
Bibliography
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