Freedom of speech, First Amendment Rights in Communications, these are all important, but it’s also important to protect society from the availability of inappropriate information.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.
So does this ‘freedom of speech’ mean that anybody can say exactly as they please, without fear of reprisal? No, absolutely not. These rules have sub-rules and clauses you know.
Freedom of Speech in Internet Communications
The internet has opened up global communications to a degree that could previously have only been dreamed about, but the vastness and ‘openness’ of the internet and electronic communications systems have unlocked a whole new problem for those who need to control and police it, in order to protect the young, the vulnerable and the unprepared.
Going on from the ‘freedom of speech’, ‘freedom of information’ has subsequently emerged as a response to the state sponsored monitoring, censorship and surveillance of the internet. This includes the control and suppression of the freedom to publish and access information on the internet. There is now a Global Internet Freedom Consortium which claims to strive to remove the blocks inhibiting “free flow of information” particularly to what they term “closed societies”. As an example, the widely publicized internet censorship of the people of China, known as the “Great Firewall of China” prevents certain IP addressed from being able to access or be accessed by being routed via a firewall and proxy servers.
First Amendment Rights in Internet Communications
In the US, of course, the citizens have much greater freedom to access information, although there still needs to be a certain amount of control exercised over the content permitted to be shared over the internet. Pornography needs, by design, to be regulated to a certain extent, as well as websites designed to promote and incite terrorism.
Keeping an eye on the internet is a truly mammoth task, after all, it is worldwide, and things can be accessible all over the world from a little back bedroom in some obscure suburb. The whole world’s a stage – well it certainly is now.
Protecting Children
There has been increased publicity and concern over the number of people, who prey on children via social networking sites, posing as teenagers of the same age and gaining the trust of these vulnerable kids. It is becoming all too common for children to be assaulted or even murdered, after meeting these so called ‘friends’. It is vital that some safety procedures are put into place, and law enforcement agencies from all over the world are co-operating (thank goodness) in order to try to come up with the answer to keeping these kids safe.