Censorship and the Internet :: Free Essays Online

The foundations of America and of its citizens individuality were built over two hundred years ago with the creation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, formalise December 15th 1791, is probably the most important Amendment as comfortably as the most ticklish one to interpret. It states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people pacifically to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances (National Archive Constitution Ammentment1). Thus, this Amendment grants Americans particular(prenominal) inalienable rights and allows them to be at least somewhat separate from the government. Still, it is this Amendment that is beneath particular scrutiny in todays information age. It is through the interpretation of this assertion that we moldiness assess the rights of the Internet surfer, determine what responsibility the government has to blackball any or all explicit pages from innocent under elderly children and evaluate if that censorship violates our inalienable rights as American citizens. Yet, no military issue what censorship rulings the government passes, the responsibility of monitoring Internet use must ultimately fall in the hands of the parents. Just a workweek ago (April 5th 1999), The Justice Department appealed an Anti-Censorship ruling made by the Federal Judge, Lowell vibrating reed, of Pennsylvania. Reed had the opportunity to evaluate and rule upon the Childrens Online Protection arrange (COPA), Congress second attempt to regulate content on the Internet1. Judge Reed rejected this act on grounds that it was in direct impact of the first Amendment. He argued that the first Amendment was designed to prevent the majority, through acts of the Congress, from silencing those who would verbalise unpopular or unconventional views (speech1). Reed c ontinued to demonstrate that ahead the widespread use of the Internet the ability of a person to pull his or her views to a large group of people was limited by the costs of reaching the masses (Reed Text 1). Before the Internet, people who precious to express their ideas had to pay great amounts of money for advertisements and propaganda to promote their views. It was very difficult for an individual, especially one with tabu a lot of money, to get his or her ideas out to the public - the Internet allows the individual to do so in an chintzy way.