Do you support censorship on the internet?

[White Israelite]

So the internet has made everything easier and it has it's positives and negatives. I've used the internet for 16 years now.

Over the years, numerous sites have popped up that we do not agree with that promote holocaust denial, neo nazi movements, islam, 9/11 conspiracy theories, pornography, pedophilia, gambling and violence.

In effect, do you believe that websites should be censored/removed from the web? Should internet service providers be allowed to block these sites? Should the government be involved? Vote and tell us your reasons.

You can read about censorship of internet in different countries, enjoy the freedoms you have here. North Korea and Cuba don't even allow their people to access the internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship

[Ari Ben-Canaan]

Unless criminal activity is going on, no censorship.  The internet is like any other place on earth, under law.To me, "gambling is a tax on fools", but it should not be illegal.  Someone who has studied the matter in greater detail may have a better educated view of this issue.

I have pretty libertarian views on what crime is, but I have very, very draconian views on punishment.  If one wants to end criminal behavior, increase the cost to a level no one would think of paying... and those that do find it affordable find themselves never able to harm another person again... no more opportunities. - IMO Crime, also, needs a victim to be a true crime. e/g, Someone smoking a joint may be doing a horrible thing to themselves in many ways, but they should not go to jail on top of making a mistake which only harms themselves... if someone gets in a car afterward and drives, this is a crime, which should land a heavier punishment than currently in place... if someone gets hurt, this is a far more serious crime, and deserves heavy draconian punishment than what currently exists even more so.  I think drug dealers should be prosecuted, if drugs are not legal [and regulated], because manipulating the black market economy is an act which constitutes criminal behavior and is an attack on everyone elses financial state of being.

[Rubystars]

The only sites I think should be censored are porn sites. There may be something else I'm not thinking of at the moment though.

[WestCoastJTF]

I have been on the Internet since most people knew it existed (I work in IT) - about 20 years.  In that time I've seen it degrade into its current gutter state.

You cannot turn on your computer without running constant pornography.  Even reading the news on the Internet - I was looking at Google News yesterday and there was a photo on the main page of some actress and the caption was that she was dressed in something see-through.  The photo was not something I'd want my kids to see.  That's so common that most of us don't even notice it any more.

Beyond that, it's just so easy to get to porn.  Right now, anyone can look at thousands or tens of thousands of hours of hardcore pornography on the Internet.  No age check, no credit card, just point your browser and go.

An environment like that is not right, and it certainly encourages people to get into porn.  When I was a kid, there were people who looked at dirty magazines and such, but we didn't have this concept of "pornography addiction".  Now there are thousands of people who every year seek treatment, whose families are destroyed by porn, etc.

Now add to that hate sites - how many American youth, already addled by drugs, have fallen into Nazi nonsense through the Internet?

Now add gambling and prostitution.

And let's not forget the biggest one - atheism.  Post on my sites as a religious person and you risk being labeled a rube or a sucker.  Criticize atheism and you are attacked as "insensitive".

Yes, something is needed.  Over-reaching censorship is surely preferable to all the social ills the Internet now provides.

[White Israelite]

I won't disagree that it's a problem but I don't think censoring it would ever work, not how the internet is structured (I worked as an IT for many years myself), there are always going to be ways around censorship.

I myself looked at pornography when I was younger (12 or 13) so that was 11 or 12 years ago around 1997 and 1998. My parents were upset about it and put filters on my computer and I would get around it and sneak it. I don't anymore but it's definitely a problem for many people.

I was reading about countries who use censorship as a method to get rid of pornography and what not, if you've ever visited paltalk, the majority of the adult rooms are actually inhabited by muslims because their countries block access to pornography so they know they are able to get it for free on there. Many are also using proxies and other ways to get around the censors/blocks and back in the mid 90's, we didn't have access to high definition video or video streaming services, simply pictures and maybe short 10 second clips through MMS streams. With broadband, a lot of that has changed.

I don't think this is really a problem government, corporations or any religious institute can fix or regulate just like we cannot censor or control what people say no matter how bad the content is. Many of us complain about youtube or google how they censor JTF videos and not neo nazi videos or some of the pornography hosted on there, but I truly believe that there is so much of that content out there that it's impossible to have complete control over it other than threatening bans and discouraging it.

[briann]

Illegal content and dangerous content should be censored. But people should be allowed to be stupid.

[Moshe92]

The only sites I think should be censored are porn sites. There may be something else I'm not thinking of at the moment though.

I agree. That can do a lot of harm to young people. A few years ago I was at a summer program, and there was a 10 or 11 year old boy who kept on making rude sexual comments to a group of 15 year old girls. He told me that he watches pornography on the internet a lot.

[Ari Ben-Canaan]

I just did a Google search for, "porn", and within one click I could see porn.  Nobody asked me how old I was, or even for an email address.  I think the responsibility for protecting kids lies 99% with the parents, but anyone who puts out porn where a kid could come across it as easily as my generic Google search should be dealt with in a legally constrictive, punishing fashion. 

Knowing what is out there, and allowing your kid to surf the net without one of those "net nanny" programs...  you might as well stop by an adult bookstore and bring home your kid a bunch of adult magazines.

[White Israelite]

I just did a Google search for, "porn", and within one click I could see porn.  Nobody asked me how old I was, or even for an email address.  I think the responsibility for protecting kids lies 99% with the parents, but anyone who puts out porn where a kid could come across it as easily as my generic Google search should be dealt with in a legally constrictive, punishing fashion. 

Knowing what is out there, and allowing your kid to surf the net without one of those "net nanny" programs...  you might as well stop by an adult bookstore and bring home your kid a bunch of adult magazines.

It's true, there are video sites like youtube with only adult videos and no age verification. This is a problem but kids are a lot smarter with computers today, they just ask their friends and find out where it is so it's probably best to keep them active in sports to discourage them from going on those websites or set punishments.

[Serbian Canadian]

If you are for censorship then the question becomes how do you choose what to censor? How do you define the criteria for what should be censored? The internet has expanded so much since it first emerged. There are literally millions of harmful sites out there and it seems impossible to be able to control all that content.

[arksis]

I have to say, I agree with BOTH of Ariel's comments. Porn should NOT be that easy to get to, but censorship is not the answer. Parents should always be aware of what their children are doing on the internet, there are way too many preditors out there.

[Rubystars]

The only sites I think should be censored are porn sites. There may be something else I'm not thinking of at the moment though.

I agree. That can do a lot of harm to young people. A few years ago I was at a summer program, and there was a 10 or 11 year old boy who kept on making rude sexual comments to a group of 15 year old girls. He told me that he watches pornography on the internet a lot.

I used to go to a Christian chat room a long time ago and pagan and atheist people would post images that were simply horrific in there to troll the room. To make the situation worse, they used an HTML code to force the image, which meant the regular option to turn images off didn't work and if you updated the room  at the wrong time, your screen would be full of smut.

It would have been bad enough if it was regular porn, but they chose the most vile, nasty, disturbing type of porn to post possible, such as scat scenes, animals, violence, etc. I ended up not being able to even go to that chat room for a while because the attacks were just relentless and I didn't want to be forced to see that stuff.

I felt what they were doing was criminal because at the time there were several children who were regular members of the room and they were forced to see that.

[Dr. Dan]

I said, "some sites"

But actually, what is taught in the Torah is free will from choosing right from wrong; good from evil...

Gd said to Adam and Eve not to eat from a certain tree.  But free will was chosen to do wrong.. Gd could have simply put a fence around the tree so that it would be impossible for them to eat it, but He didn't want to do that..He wanted to exercise a human's willingness to use free will. To test humans.


So i change my choice to "no".

Why?  Because it shows more merit for someone to choose free will to not go on porno sites and look at bad things.