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(written by iearn@iearn.org, 03/22/1996)
/* Written 5:54 AM Mar 15, 1996 by coldspring in igc:iearn.tc */ mackay iearn.tc 6:29 PM Mar 13, 1996 (at pangea.org) (From News system) Welcome to Internet. Here you will found any information you want, make friends anywhere you want, get as many files as your hard disk can allow... It's perefect, just connect your modem and do and get anything, all the information is free... Or not? It was too good to be true. This could be the start of the advertisement of a Internet server. "Just connect". People think "It sounds good. I don't know why, but I'll connect. Anyway, I MUST connect because our neighbours have". (ok, you're right, maybe you are really interested in it; after all, you're reading this, aren't you?). It means that lots of people turn on their modems and become part of a piece of a web (don't you find the metaphore original? Neither do I, but I couldn't find a better one :-) We are speaking about an incredible mass of people. I hope you've heard about a kind of human being that work in something called press. They say their contribution to society is giving information, but the fact is that when news don't tell anything about blood the only exit they have is annoy the rest of humans. And it works better when those humans are part of a big mass of people... Sex in Internet!!! Be careful: as soon as you turn on your computer, your screen will be saturated with porn images! Maybe you haven't seen them yet, but it's what it says in the newspapers. We must thank somebody called Martin Rimm his dedication to warn people about sex: "TIME" published an article based on his study about pornography in the net and adult BBS (see 3rd of July, 1995). This is a litte resume about it: - He put together the data got from Internet and over-18 BBS. He says it is the first study about porn in Internet, but the 68% of the data came from the BBSs. - According to the article, there is a lot of pornography online, but he only found offensive material in nine of the 11.576 www pages (0.07%) he examined. - "83.5% of the images are porn". He doesn't says which groups he analysed (but you can imagine; I've been using Internet for three months Internet, and the most offensive thing I've seen is a picture of Kurt Cobain). Anyway, this is only the 0.4% of the total traffic in Internet. I think I only missed the fact that Rimm published a book called "The Pornographer's Handbook", where he adviced adult BBS SysOps how to market their systems effectively. "Have you hear about Internet? It's the place the depraved use to satisfy their needs. I think there are real death pictures too. Those who build bombs get the instructions from there" "But it's a real danger! Can't the government do anything about it?". Of course they can. The first precedent was in Germany last year. A German law prohibites the difussion of porn material, and their goverment complained to Compuserve (you know what it is, don`t you?) about this. The solution Compuserve gave was to close the access to the pornographic groups and pages in all the world. Do you think it's normal? A law only established in ONE COUNTRY affecting ALL THE WORLD. It means all the Homo Sapiens Sapiens in the Universe! Fortunately, Compuserve corrected its mistake limiting the access only to German users. When we thought that the worst was done, Mr. Bill Clinton surprised us with his 1996 present to all the Netizens: the Communications Decency Act, a part of the Telecomm bill. S.652, prohibited the difussion in USA of "indecent" material. And they still have not corrected it. I hope most people have understood what I mean here, anyway I'll explain it, for those who think that, thanks to this, their existence in the net is saved. DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS????? What I have said means that some governments want to control the contents of Internet. Why should a censorship organization from Zaire decide what Japaneese people can read and what they cannot? Why can't I see a photograph of a naked cow or a chicken (it's only an example, of course)? And the most ridiculous of all, who in the US can decide what is indecent? Will everybody find the same things indecent? AND why must somebody tell me what is decent FOR ME? I know what you are thinking. I am not depraved. Or maybe I am. But it is not the problem. The problem is that we are not talking about control, we are talking about CENSORSHIP. Maybe it's a good idea to censore pornography (I don't think so), but imagine that the next step are swear words. Maybe you will need to use a word that begins with f (regards to CBS guys about Grammy's ceremony!) in your e-mail and somebody will erase it from your letter. And the next one? The information about your religion or society can be erased by a bishop (or equivalent) from another group. Your government will not allow you to speak about the problems in your country, the company you work for will read your mail to use it against you whenever they want. Nowadays it is only a nightmare, but it will be real if we continue the way we are going. And why is everybody afraid of becoming a nasty person? You don't have to use the services you don't want, so if you use them don't put the blame on Internet: if you enter in a sex shop, will you report its owners because showing you hot material? I know some of you have children. I know you must control their Internet use, I'm agree with it (if they are under 18, of course). The solution is not to prohibit non-adults to have an Internet account, It would be worse. Some companies, like Netscape Communications, Microsoft and Progressive Networks, are working on a project called Highway Parental Empowerment Group to prohibit access to some selected groups. Until then, you can get Surfwatch (http://www.surfwatch.com/), it has the same function. Take it if you need it. It's better if parents take care of what their children do than to censore 30 milion people because of their carelessness. I hope I have made you think before you go to bed this night. Daniel Aguayo ...Or am I wrong?