Government Intervention and Internet Regulation Essay

G all overnment Intervention and meshing Regulation lucre is a global earnings that connects millions of computers together and allows tribe to communicate and shargon data with each other in an in mogul(p) and easy style. It has become the nigh widely put ond smasheds of communication theory of recent times. The number of U. S. homes with one or more personal computers change magnitude by 16% (in 1995) to about 38 million ho workholds, up from 33 million in 1994 and 25 million in 1993 (Fox 9). Along with that dumfounding stat, the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science has reported that 95% of the public has access to the lucre (Free Essay). Internet is fill with a slew of training on almost every effect in the world and anyone tail assembly access that tuition anytime he or she wants and most often that information is avail adapted for free. The very fact that everything is so easily available over the net income has become a bear of immens e concern beca recitation great deal toilette access information that they ar non supposed to ruling.This has inclined the rise to a great repugn over the use internet rule versus the concept of net disinterest. Internet mandate is basically restricting or pick upling access to indisputable aspects or information (Internet Regulation). The proponents of economy argue that or so form of judicature intervention is necessary to keep a tab on the information people access over the internet because that information might be a source of harm for the society in general.Whereas on the other hand, the proponents of concept of net neutrality state that if a person pays for his internet access, thence in that location should be no restrictions on the content that he flowerpot view. Because internet is filled with all parts of information and anyone tolerate access unsuitable information at anytime, just about sort of government intervention is necessary in the form of inte rnet edict to uphold the morals of the society. There are several miens done which internet can be regulated.Government can make use of the state control start to intervene directly and place good controls on the content that can be accessed by their citizens (Darlington). A holy case is Saudi-Arabian Arabia where all of the countrys Internet do providers view as to go through a central node where the Saudi authorities block access to sites hosting pornography, those believed to cause religious offence, and web sites containing information on bomb-making (Darlington).Another form of regulation, the self regulation approach is found on voluntary initiatives by the Internet Service Providers (ISP) industry (Darlington). As per this approach, the ISPs try to control the fictional character of content available to the customers and they keep a check on information being accessed over the internet. Classically this is the approach in Britain where there is no written constitut ion and government has shown no wish to legislate (Darlington).And perhaps the most commonly used and widely accepted form of regulation is the use of filter outing techniques through which access to whatever parts of the information can be controlled for some particular substance abusers. For example, parents can use filters to restrict their squirtren from viewing contrary explicit content. One of the objects for having regulation is that internet can be accessed by anyone. Initially, it was supposed to cater to the take of the American military establishments. Then its uses spread over to the academic communities and right a office it can be accessed by any individuals from any country and belong to any age group.For example, a child can easily view inappropriate content from his bedroom at any time he wants. This should not happen because that material can corrupt the mind of that child and can have some serious negative effects. As the run of the Internet increased dram atically with the development of broadband access in the late 1990s and early 2000s, not only has more of this type of information become more available, but also users have been able to access this information in greater quantity (Internet efficacious Definition).So in such(prenominal) circumstances, we must have some procedures for tackling illegal content on the Internet and some mechanisms for allowing end user control of what is accessed on the Internet (Darlington). It is argued that the genesis of the Internet was such that it embraced and fostered a new spirit of freedom, openness and experimentation and that these values must tolerate an integral feature of the Internet and if any form of regulation is introduced then the whole essence of the internet will be lost and people would not be able to access the vast resources of information that it has to house (Darlington).The opponents of regulation also argue that any form of internet regulation is against the individual s rights to freedom of expression and the concept of net neutrality because in such a scenario a person may not be able to choose the content he wants to view. However, it should be all the room understood that society is greater than a single person and if such rights of freedom cause harm to the values of the society as a whole, then it is perhaps the right of the government to intervene and restrict the rights given to every individual in order to maintain those values. There is repellent content on the internet, so this justifies the use of internet restrictions (Darlington). Internet is filled with explicit content. There are thousands of websites that contain pornographic materials which is considered inappropriate for minors and mostly this content is available for free, so there is no additional cost of viewing it besides the charges paid to the ISP. Also there are some sites which propagate extremist views, often of a anti-Semite(a) nature (Darlington).Though such expl icit material is legal to be viewed by an individual of a certain age which in most countries is set at 18, there is no one particular way of making sure that it is not viewed by anyone under this age because individuals can mislead the system and hide correct personal information. So in such a scenario, the most effective way for individuals who have responsibility of the children, like parents and teachers, is to limit the access to such material through the use of filters. These filters allow censorship of inappropriate material using the ratings provided by the websites.However, it should be kept in mind that this censorship technique enable adults to control their own access to material so they do not bollix up across things (advertising, violence, erotica/pornography, religious or political material etcetera ), which offend them (Internet Regulation). So in a way it is a matter of personal choice and responsibility which gives an individual the might to choose what he views because one can easily change filter settings to control the type of content available to him.Despite all the great uses provided by the internet, it is used by some people for illegal purposes therefore, the use of regulation is justified because a stringent internet regulation can help to curb the innumerable illegal activities over the net (Manohar). Examples of such criminal activities include copyright theft, credit card fraud, financial scams, silver laundering, hacking, industrial espionage, cyber terrorism, actual terrorism, bomb making instructions, prostitution, certain forms of gambling, medicate use, drug smuggling, suicide assistance, defamatory allegations, cyber stalking (Darlington).In recent times, people have started to complain about the ever increasing number of spam emails that are sent over the internet. The number of spam messages sent increased nearly 300 percent from 2001 to 2002 from 14,078,511 to 55,683,103, according to e-mail filtering company Brigh tmail ( Kornblum). Spam refers to submitting the resembling message to a large group of individuals in an effort to force the message onto people who would otherwise choose not to receive this message (Spam).In order to ensure that people do not indulge in such criminal activities and the society remains unharmed, the government must intervene to stop any of these activities from taking place by imposing restrictions. Some people argue that the internet is an enormous network which is growing rapidly as time progresses, so it is not workable to regulate the internet. The argument provided here is flawed because the fact that the internet is so large makes regulating it more difficult, but because it is difficult it does not mean that it should not be regulated.Some also argue that because internet is variant in operation from other communication networks, so it should not be regulated (Darlington). Whereas radio and television is pumped into millions of homes simultaneously (push technology), the Internet is an interactional medium and requires a particular user actively to seek a particular site or application (pull technology) (Darlington). The very nature of the way in which the end user consumes the internet makes a good argument for having some sort of formal restrictions.In the case of radio and television, there are certain restrictions on the amount of violence and sex that goes through. So even if an individual wants to see something special, there is absolutely no way in which he can do that if nothing such is broadcast at that time, but the case of internet is quite different. A person can view anything, anytime and anywhere he wants. Therefore, regulation acts as a great measure to ensure that a check is keep over the usage of the internet.Some people even argue that it is not the responsibility of the government to protect the children against the inappropriate content that is available over the internet because it has got other tasks to take care of and instead those trustworthy for them at the time parents, teachers, guardians, supervisors should control what they access on the Internet (Darlington). While children and teenagers hire a certain amount of privacy, they also need parental interlocking and supervision in their daily lives (Free Essay).One way suggested by these people requires the parents to spend time with their children when they are online so that they can keep a check on what their children are accessing. But this benign of total control can not be exercised by those responsible for children because they can not be present at all times. Furthermore, internet can now easily be accessed on mobile devices so it can be easily misused and in the case of a school where a teacher has to look after a lot of students, it is practically impossible for her to monitor the activities of each student at the equivalent time.So while parents and teachers must exercise responsibility, they should be assisted by other approaches including the taking down of sites with criminal content and the filtering of sites with offensive or inappropriate content (Darlington). The debate over the topic of internet regulation versus the concept of net neutrality has become a great snub these days because of the ever growing increase in the usage of the internet and its implications on the society in general.