[SF Examiner] "Why Censoring Cyberspace Is Futile"

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)


[By Howard Rheingold. Originally published in the San Francisco
Examiner, part of a weekly series of columns called "Tomorrow."
Reposted with permission.]


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vc.181: Howard Rheingold's "Tomorrow" Columns Online
vc.181.27: Howard Rheingold (hlr)  Tue 5 Apr 94 20:30
 This will appear in tomorrow's Examiner:




 Why Censoring Cyberspace Is Futile


 By Howard Rheingold




        For years, many Netheads had a recurring nightmare that a pedophile
 would use a computer bulletin board system to make contact with a child, and
 follow up with physical abuse offline. Now this nightmare has become a
 reality. (See the news pages of today's Examiner.)


        It is only a matter of time before law enforcement authorities use
 cases like this to crack down on the free-wheeling, everything-is-permitted
 culture of cyberspace. It's not hard to imagine Jesse Helms standing before
 the US Senate, holding up an X-rated image downloaded from the Internet,
 raging indignantly about "public funds for porno highways."


        As the public begins to realize that communications technology is
 exposing them to an unlimited array of words and images, including some they
 might find thoroughly repulsive, the clamor for censorship and government
 regulation of the electronic highway is sure to begin.


        But it would be a mistake to let traffic cops start pulling people
 over on the highway.


        Yes, we have to think about ways of protecting our children and our
 society from the easy availability of every kind of abhorrent information
 imaginable.  But the "censor the Net" approach is not just morally misguided.
 It's becoming technically impossible. As Net pioneer John Gilmore is often
 quoted: "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."


        The Net's technological foundation was built to withstand nuclear
 attack. The RAND Corporation designed the network to be a thoroughly
 decentralized command-and-control-and communications system, one that would
 be less vulnerable to intercontinental missiles than a system commanded by a
 centralized headquarters.


        This decentralization of control means that the delivery system for
 salacious materials is the same worldwide one that delivers economic
 opportunity, educational resources, civic forums, and health advice. If a
 hacker in Helsinki or Los Angeles connects to the Internet and provides access
 to his digital porno files, anybody anywhere else in the world, with the right
 kind of Internet connection, can download those steamy bits and bytes.


        This technological shock to our moral codes means that in the future,
 we are going to have to teach our children well. The locus of control is going
 to have to be in their heads and hearts, not in the laws or machines that make
 information so imperviously available. Before we let our kids loose on the
 Internet, they better have a solid moral grounding and some common sense.


        I bought an Internet account for my daughter when she was eight years
 old, so we could exchange e-mail when I was on the road. But I didn't turn her
 loose until I filled her in on some facts of online life. "Just because
 someone sends you mail, you don't have to answer unless you know them," I
 instructed her. "And if anybody asks if you are home alone, or says
 something to you that makes you feel funny about answering, then just don't
 answer until you speak to me."


        The worldwide virtual communities that provide  users with
 companionship, personal support, enlightenment, and entertainment can also
 contain imposters and worse. Your 14 year old might look like he is doing his
 homework, but is actually secretly joining a hot chat session with lecherous
 strangers. (The same dangers exist with the telephone -- ask parents who have
 had to pay hefty bills for their kids' 976 habits.)


        You should have the the right, and the ability, to restrict the
 massive information-flow into your home, to exclude subject matter that you
 don't want your children to see. But sooner or later, your children will be
 exposed to everything you have shielded them from, and then all they will have
 left to deal with these shocking sights and sounds is the moral fiber you
 helped them cultivate.


        Teach your children to be politely but firmly skeptical about anything
 they see or hear on the Net. Teach them to have no fear of rejecting images or
 communications that repel or frighten them. Teach them to have a strong sense
 of their own personal boundaries, of their right to defend those boundaries
 physically and socially. Teach them that people aren't always who they present
 themselves to be in e-mail and that predators exist. Teach them to keep
 personal information private. Teach them to trust you enough to confide in you
 if something doesn't seem right.


        Yes, pedophiles and pornographers use computer networks. They also use
 telephones and the mail, but nobody would argue that we need to censor or shut
 down these forms of communication. The most relevant question now is: how do
 we teach our children to live, in an uncensorable world?


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