English 305
Prefessor Cross
5/9/01
What webs we weave: The evil side of the Internet
In my present employment at the moment, the usage of the Internet is not that important. The only times that I use the Internet is when I have to do a search for a research paper for school or in need of directions to a new location. I have always found the Internet to be a positive tool that helps with the spread of information in order to educate a large population. It is cheap and easily accessable by All. The internet was and is a new invention compared to the wheel and fire that has changed the way we view the world and has brought convenience to our finger tips. Information from across the world can be inter-changed within seconds that can help in the field of politics,medicine and personal relationships. However, there is a darker side to the internet. This side is one that I would like to focus on in my paper. This negative side of the internet is one that is being abused by regular folks everytime they copy articles and pictures and never give credit to the publisher or their actual authors. The dirty evil side of the internet has become a magnet for pedophiles and hate crime activists. The problem is that due to freedom of speech there is not much control that I know about in regards to items being posted on the internet. This device is so easily usable that even kids in middle and high school are posting web sites and chat lines in order to say what ever they like and send information to all corners of the world in a second, practically for free. There are some issues that have always concerned me in regards to the legal censorships over the internet that I would like to explore in my paper.
The reason for my curiosity began a few weeks ago when my 8 year old cousin was playing on my computer. I left him alone for approximately 15 minutes while he was playing some games on Yahoo. He was instructed not to go into any of my personal files, to which he agreed. After I returned into the room, immediately he jumped over to another screen and looked up at me and gave a mona lisa smile. He thanked me for letting him use the computer and then said somehting which I thought was kind of out of place. "You don't have any blocks on your computer." So out of curiosity, I checked back and visited the different sites that he had been traveling through, even though he was just supposed to play games on Yahoo. He had visited some sites that were not age appropriate and other sites that advocated anti-semitism. I did not question him immediately because some of the materials on the sites were very disgusting and frightening and I could not bring myself to question him in a logical way. Plus I had given his older sister the talk about birds and the bees when a similar situation came up a few years ago and the parents were not very appreciative. So I just reported to his parents what happened over the phone and asked that they speak to him.
This situation lead me to think about the easy accessability on the net. Because the Internet is so large and branched, it would be close to impossible to impose any type of strict government control and regulation on it. Specially with new web pages being created by the second every day, in all parts of the world. I started thinking about the positive and negative aspects of the internet and how much it has changed our life. Then due to a show on Sally, I decided to gear my essay towards the different types of social corruption that is being motivated and cultivated on the internet. Different topics came to mind such as, hate crimes, cyber sex, child pornography cults and many more items. In this essay, I would like to find related laws in regards to illegality of information on the web. Specifically I would like to learn about the role of the government in putting an end to the widespread increase in child pornography sites. For example, if child porn is made in Russia and imported to the United States and later put on the world wide web, would it be the responsibility of the FBI or Police or a special sub commitee from the United Nations to go after the owners of the site to prosecute and punish them. Other related questions that run through my mind are: What is the fine, or punishment? Are there any international laws regarding child pornography? What can the general public do in order to block the sites and help enforcement agencies prosecute criminals such as pedophiles who use the internet as a source to catch their victims? I hope that this essay will be useful for parents and educators who deal with kids and the internet.
The search and conclusion section of this paper was " double-bleble the fun" because I had to go through the whole procedure again, due to the loss of my disc which contained Everything. This experience was a search on its own however, the results were not pleasant. At this point I was so depressed, angry and emotionally and physically exhausted that I decided to change my whole topic. Luckily, I came to this article in NewsweekTime Magazine which contained a very heart aching article about child pornography and virtual child pornography. Later in this essay I will explain what "virtual" child porn is but to summarize the article, some sick people and I mean mentally and behaviorally sick people are using computer technology in order to surpass different laws and restrictions and still get their evil projects accomlished. The article also spoke about the importance of parents involvement in the activities of their children specially on the computer and different blocks or filters that parents can install in order to censor the items viewed by their children.
It was very hard to narrow my research to one particular subject and search related materials because many of the themes are so closely woven together. Each different web site that I visited took an average of 20 minutes to read over the materials and check out the different link attached to it. After reading the article in the magazine and viewing several sites, I decided to continue my paper on child pornography and how it has increased or decreased. I used several key terms to Re-start my search. The terms included: Porn, Pornography, Child porn, Kids pornography, Porn on the Internet, Pedophiles, Girl lover and Boy lover. I must admit some of the sites that I visited took a little longer than others and I was under great pressure to get this project done in time and before anyone came home and saw that I am viewing these sites.
I was suprised to see that all the sites that were listed immediately were all anti-porn sites specially aimed at child pornography which contained links to sites that help to find missing and abducted children. I usually use Yahoo as a search engine and it has been pretty satisfactory. I did my intial site browsing on Yahoo and then decide to use other search engines in order to increase the chances of finding new and better sites. After an additional four hours in front of the computer at late hours of the night, while searching through Alta Vista, Lycos and Infoseek, I realized that Yahoo ws still the best. Plus I understood the benefits of printing up your material of saving it on another disc, specially long English essays so in case of an emergency or temporarily cognitive breakdown, there is something to fall back on. In my case technology did not enhance the quality of my life and actually created great misery.
Going back to the search, there were many thought provoking sites that I came across. One which is not included in my annotated bibliography contained a listing of sites dedicated to boy love. These sites contained picturesof boys between the ages of five and twelve, movies, poetries written by boy or about boys and contained testimonies of people that love boys. Many of this sites contained chat rooms and all is fair game withing these chat rooms. Many are not monitored and illegal information gets sent to different corners of the world under a "innocent" site such as boy lovers! If anyone is interested this site can be reached at: http://www.boylink.net/personal.html. Even though I would not consider any of these pictures pronographical, the site gave me the creeps. This site wanted to promote boys, their beautiful physique and playfulness. Okay! Now pedophiles have a easy corner to go and check out new victims. Many of the boys shown on this site were movie or television stars and many might not even know that their picture is posted on the net. Another interesting site that I came across was of a father who made a small web page and put a few pictures of his young children while coming out of the tub. His divorced wife contacted the state authorities and requested to have him be put in jail for child pornography. After a long court trial, he was not punished but had to alter his site. Now he is writing about free speech nd the importance of finding a correct definition for child pornography. I decided that as part of my search I shall devote some time to find the most appropriate definition for child pornography. As President Clinton illustrated a few months ago, defining a term is very crucial and more important than the act itself. After all, oral Sex is not sex. The definition that I found the most useful came from the child pornography prevention act of 1996, which defines child porn as: " Any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, drawing or computer-generated image or picture, which is produced by electronic, mechanical or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where: (1) its production involved the use of minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, or: (2) such visual depiction is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; (3) such visual depiction has been created, adapted or modified to appear that an "identifiable minor" is engaging is sexually explicit conduct; or (4) it is advertised, distributed, promoted or presented in such a manner to convey the impression that it is a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct." Prior to the child pornography act of 1996, which I believe has clearly served its purpose and its main targets are internet users, there were several state and federal legislations that dealt with child pornography. For those interested: see 18 USC 2252 which makes it a federal offence to knowingly receive child pornography. Going by the definition established in 1973, child pornography is defined as: " any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct" involving children (not minors). Also see 18 USC 2251 is also closely related which makes it illegal to advertise child pornography. During this search I reviewed over 30 cases and found two cases to be extremly helpful in the war against child porn. New York v. Ferber: Gave a great deal of power to government in the censorship of pornography. The results have been summarized as follows: " The stare are entitled to greater leeway in the regulationof pornographic depiction's of children for the following reasons: (1) Use of children as subjects of pornographic materials is harmful to the physiological, emotional, and mental health of a child (2) The standard resulting from the case Miller v. California, for determining what is legally obscene is not a satisfactory solution to the child pornography problem; (3) the advertising and selling of child pornography provide an economic motive for, and are thus an integral part of the prodution of such materials, an activity illegal throughout the nation; (4) The value of permitting live performances and photographic reproductions of children engaged in lewd exhibitions is exceedingly modest, if not de minimes; and (5) Recognizing and classifying child pornography as a category of material outside the First Amendment's protection is not incompatible with this court's decisions dealing with what speech is unprotected. Osborne v. Ohio: The court upheld a statue making it illegal to posses child pornography in any location. The new 18 U.S.C. 2252 A legislation which is part of the 1996 Act sets mandatory prison sentences of at least 15 years for the production and distribution of child pornography. The act also includes and makes subject to the same provision, the receivers of child pornography. 5 years for posession offences and life imprisonment for repeat offenders convicted of sexual abuse of a minor. However, I should mention that there are just as many court cases against the governmental restrictions and definitions of child pornography as there are those who favor such laws. The Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression had an incredible site in regards to the government reducing the people's right of freedom of speecha nd press on the internet. At one point the author states that if a child has reached sexual maturity and is below the age of 18, it should not be a crime to have pictures or videos of them during various sexual activities andd posting it on the internet. Because sex is a beautiful and enjoyable activity that should not be confined by age. Also section 2 of the 1996 Act includes important findings related to psudoedo-photographs and explains why it should be illegal as: " Computer-generated child pornography results in many of the same types of harm and poses the same danger to the well being of children, as photographic child pronography, and provide a compelling governmental interest for prohibiting the production, distribution, possessing, sale or viewing of all forms of child pornography, including computer-generated depictions which are, or appear to be, of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct." Through further research I found out why some would find this act to be unconstitutional. A free-speech advocate filed a fedralel appeals-court brief in an effort to overturn the 1996 Act, arguing that "sexually explicit, non-obscene speech is protected by the First Amendment." Then US District Court Judge Samuel Conti responds to Attorney Turner by saying, " Even if no children are involved in the production of sexually explicit materials, the devasting... effect that such materials have on society and well-being of children merits the regultionof such images". To which Turner responds, " The secondary effects reationale is extremly hazardous to free speech, because it has no limits and can justify any kind of speech restriction. The government and others who wish to suppress or restrict certain speech can always think up undesirable 'secondary effects' believed to follow form the content of speech at issue." Yes there will always be those who use the laws inorder to conduct their own dirty work. One more act that is well worth mentioning which has caused a great decrease in the interchange of pornography illegally on the internet is the Communications Decency Act which states that Internet Providers such as America On line or Netscape will be held liable if customers gain access to obscene or indescent material. That is the reason why you have to register before being able to see the full picture on sexually graphic sites. Not that a little star covers anything, and does not give you the whole picture, but all these laws and regulations are based on a play of words and there will always be those who will have their own translations. This reminds me of President Clinton again when asked if he ever used marijuna he supposedly said, " I didn't inhale."
Finally the government has stepped in and is trying to reduce the amount of pornography on the net and getting rid of child pornography as a whole. Local, state and federal agencies are working together with the police, FBI, US customs and volunteer organizations to find those who are putting child porn on the net and exploiting innocent children or virtual victims. Due to recent legislation, the FBI has been able to open 2856 cases against child porn trafficers compared to only 700 cases back in 1998. England, France, Italy, Belgium, Israel and Canada have similar laws against child porn and work with American agencies in order to put an end to international rings that smuggle videos and pictures. Russia which is one of the greatest importers of child porn as well as many of the South American countries will also prosecute offenders however, the laws are not as clear and there have been many cases where money has greater power than law and justice. Well, how can we protect kids online? Always be aware as to what sites kids are viewing and what sites have they viewed by checking the computer's bookmarks, cache or history to see what sites they have been accessing. Do not allow your children to scan their pictures and put it on web pages. Tell children never to give their real name, phone number, address or email address without the permission of parents or teacher. Also, internet providers such as AOL and Earthlink have different services such as parental-and custom- control features that let you block age-inappropriate content. There are also softwares that you can install which will block out certain sites and keywords. Those recommended by Newsweek Magazine were: Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny and Cybersitter. It is important to understand that Internet crimes should be dealt with just like real-world crimes. If you believe that your child or other children are being exploited or know of someone who is using child pornography in any way, notify the Police, the FBI or the local Customs Service Office. Many times there might even be an award awaiting you.
Nordland,Rod.,Bartholet,Jeffrey. "The Darkest Corner of the Internet." Newsweek. March 19,2001. 44-51
http://www.cyber-rights.org/reports/
http://www.ci.keene.nh.us./police/task_force.htm
http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/BCFE/limit2.html
http://www.condemned.org/
http://missingkids.com/cybertip/
http://www.boylink.net/personal.html