Why Censoring The Internet Won’t Work

At the moment, it’s a moot issue. But I wrote – and then proceeded to lose – an earlier tract on the subject of the failed Communications Decency Act that was overturned this year, and thought I’d go back and remember as much of it as I could. Plus I’ll add some insights that have arrived on my mental doorstep since then. Be warned, this is intentionally one of my more incendiary pieces, deliberately written to evoke responses by shocking you. Shocking you into thinking about it real hard.
Simply put – who the hell thought of the CDA? And were they just nuts, or actually making some pretense at being serious?
The CDA started with, so its creators tell us, impressionable youth accessing such things as adult web sites, adult phone services and so on. (This is not actually where it all started. But you’ll have to read on to find the real reason.) Now, I’ve always felt that the finger of blame can often more accurately be pointed inward, to the home itself. Hormonal adolescents get into this trouble anyway, whether it’s a triple-X web site or stepdad’s stack of old Penthouse magazines. But, oh my! Little Billy’s been surfing the web with one hand on the keyboard and one hand below the keyboard, and he’s been going to very bad places. Very, very bad places! Poor little Billy! Our innocent little boy! Boo hoo!
I have this to say to these people. It also applies to the parents who try to blame their kids’ behavior on violent television. If you’d been doing your duty to your children and supervising them in the first place, not to mention opening the occasional frank dialogue on such subjects as sex, violence, dating and so forth, then maybe the kids wouldn’t have felt a need to look elsewhere for the answers. But I’m straying far and wide of the path. Before I leave this point, however, I want you to savor it for a moment and think. Teach your children well. It’s a line from one of the very few songs that really has something important to say. Values and morals should begin in the home. The frightening thing is that for the longest time, no one really worried about value lessons and moral teachings until the 1992 campaign.
And now little Billy’s folks want that terrible Internet fiercely regulated! And suddenly, so does Congress! (Little Billy’s folks are their constituents, you see.) And the next thing you know, that darn smut is under heavy fire. But so are a lot of other things. The groundwork is being laid, like little Billy wishes to be as he accesses all of these evil web sites. The groundwork will allow further subjects to be declared taboo on a legislative whim. At first, sex was the target of the embryonic CDA, but then certain articles of profanity and other subject matter were forbidden as well. Your local librarian could, in theory, be jailed under the Communications Decency Act for making available online any “questionable” passages of a book that is available on the library shelves.
Okay, time out. Let me get something out of the way. I really had to avail myself of the “laid” pun, it was too good to pass up. And I’m not advocating letting your children loose with a truckload of adult material. But as puberty sets in and increases young people’s awareness and curiosity about their emerging sexuality, it seems like more and more parents are afraid to have The Talk with their kids. I know my parents never had The Talk with me, and I just had to find these things out for myself. The aforementioned adult material usually does cater to the basest possible denominators, and really offers no information of any value whatsoever on the subject of sexuality, especially to those who have no experience with the topic in question. But American society pushes sex so far into the closet that it’s almost funny. Outmoded Puritanical views make it easier for us to depict brutal violence on television than to delve very far into sexual matters. Given the option of getting my groin kicked or kissed, I know which I would choose. I think the solution here is for we Americans to practice what we preach. That’s right! Make that repression of all sexual thoughts and deeds a day-to-day reality. If we can’t talk about sex, we shouldn’t have sex, for it’s obvious that such a hypocritical society is far too stupid to be allowed to reproduce. Parents shudder at the secrets in their children’s lives. Perhaps if those very parents hadn’t shuddered at their own secrets, their kids would’ve turned out more to their satisfaction. Just as abusive homes turn out abusive children, I’m convinced that parents embarassed about their own previous lack of education regarding sex tend to unleash dangerously uneducated young people onto the world. These days that could mean signing your child’s death sentence.
Sex education should also be treated much more seriously in schools. I’ve also read in the news about parents railing against the thought of public school sex ed. Well, what the hell would they suggest? They’re not doing the job, so somebody has to! It should be a required subject with written tests and the whole works. And it should be a prerequisite for graduation. No joke! Kids are graduating who can read and understand English, perform routine mathematical equations, and they comprehend basic science. And then they’re going and catching AIDS and getting themselves killed. Make the successful completion of sex education a requirement for getting that diploma, and you’ll be doing kids a favor. Drum some basic common sense into their heads – abstinence at best, if not that then monogamy, and always use a condom – and they’ll actually learn something that could literally contribute to their survival. The distribution of birth control in schools has also raised people’s eyebrows, though I don’t think distribution is the problem. I think the distribution of these items was actually a really keen idea. Again getting back to the repression of all matters sexual in our country, the fear of being seen taking the school up on its free birth control, and the subsequent fear of peer harrassment or ridicule, probably prevented a lot of teens from obtaining the necessary birth control. And I would charge that these byproducts of society’s sexual repression contributed significantly to the rising statistic of school-age mothers. What examples are we setting for our kids? That we’d rather risk teen pregnancy than risk being branded “slutty” or somesuch?
Anyway, we’re back to little Billy cruising a web just full of porn, as the parties responsible for drafting the CDA would have us believe. Soon, they tell us, the Internet will be policed more vigorously and this will end the problem.
BZZZZZZZT! Thank you for playing, Senator! Guess what? You’re full of it. That won’t take care of the problem, and you know it. A little earlier, I mentioned that even though I defend its protection under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I consider “adult” material to be of very little actual value. I still stand by this. Pornography is no substitute for comprehensive and honest sex education. My dismissal of adult material does not include books on sex technique or therapy, since those actually attempt to impart some kind of information. But one thing that you may have noticed about pornography of all kinds is that there’s just so much of it. And that alone makes the goals of the Communications Indecency Act ridiculously impossible. It’s like the old staple sci-fi storyline that one man is going to take over the world. How? He can only be in one place, and wherever he isn’t, things are pretty much left to their own devices.
Pornography shares something in common with alcohol and tobacco. Not only do all three fit some people’s definitions of vice, but they all began as cottage industries and quickly entered the world of mass production. And that is probably why we’ll never be rid of any of the three. People still roll their own cigarettes and brew their own beer, and in much the same way, there are still guys who take naughty pictures of their girlfriends. As long as people remember how to produce these items on their own, as long as the necessary information is there to learn how to produce them, it’s truly a pointless exercise to even conceive of completely eliminating such habits from society. I’ve got a brighter idea. Why don’t we just educate people on the dangers and/or benefits (if any) of the aforementioned vices, and hope that some will take the hint?
If every adult publisher, every adult moviemaker, and every adult web site were brought to a halt tomorrow, someone somewhere would still have the means to resurrect those activities the following day, and before long, they would be mass-produced once more. So what was the point in hunting them all down in the first place? Mass production doesn’t succeed without mass demand. They’re attempting to wipe out the symptoms and not the actual problem.
More disturbing is the possibility that other items could be added to the list. When judges in Philadelphia overturned the CDA, news reports appeared nationally that the Pentagon had been the target of numerous attempts to “hack into” classified information, and that the best solution anyone could think of would be to – hang on tight for the drum roll here – increase security on the Internet!
(Funny. I’d just increase security on the Pentagon computer systems. What in the hell is the Pentagon doing on the Internet anyway? Shouldn’t that kind of secure information be…well…secure?!?)
So now you’re asking me, “If Congress is trying so hard to abolish the Internet, what’s it all about? Are they trying to rob us of our First Amendment rights? Are we looking at the first generation of Thought Police?”
Nope. We’re seeing something we’ve seen time and again in the past, only the issue is clouded by the First Amendment angle. Not that the First Amendment rights that we stand to lose are unimportant – far from it. But the simple fact is, the pressure that is being exerted by Capitol Hill to cripple the Internet is more likely a result of lobbyists and corporate special interests than any attempts to control the public’s minds. It’s very simple. The Internet allows a user who’s already paid a flat rate for a subscription the ability to access real-time video, real-time audio, and a wealth of information (buried beneath a sea of useless crap). And now it’s been discovered that a live telephone conversation can be conducted via the net. Don’t think for a moment that the phone company wouldn’t like to quash that ability in favor of expensive international phone calls. Don’t think for a moment that television broadcast, cable and commercial video interests wouldn’t like to see Quicktime movies wiped from the face of the Earth. In some small ways, their fears are justified. Someone could be pirating movies or music or software via the Internet. But the majority are most likely not doing anything quite so underhanded. These large corporate entities lobby with their friends in Congress. And their friends in Congress have a go at the Internet.
It’s not some huge, dark conspiracy to silence the voice of the people. It’s a huge but obvious conspiracy to make sure money keeps flowing to the “proper” channels – the established industries want to keep getting richer off of their existing infrastructures. Naturally they’re opposed to innovative experimenters who are finding ways to do the same things cheaper and more efficiently. And along come the issues of impressionable kids accessing porn and irrepressible hackers accessing the Pengtagon. It’s love at first sight. Our self-centered lawmakers couldn’t have arranged for better smokescreens if they’d tried – they cloak their lobbying interests in the self-explanatory, surefire crusades of protecting innocent minds and preserving national security. Surely no one would argue with those aims?
Only a lot of intelligent people who know an encroachment on their rights when they see one. Big business and bloated legislators are trying to line their own pockets and avoid the perils of dealing with honest competition. And if they should happen to eliminate a few liberties along the way, who’ll notice?
I will. And, with any luck, you will too. Now go get little Billy away from that evil, terrible computer!