Internet should be regulated

            The Internet, as defined by Merriam Webster, is “an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world”. The Internet is a series of computer networks connected to each other. This computer networks may contain as much as a thousand of computers that are interlink together. The Internet has created ways for fast and reliable communication. A computer user may send a file to several computers without passing through a centralized distribution system. In this system, there is no centralized management. In this scheme, data transferred can not be monitored publicly. Instead, an individual organization or network screens the data coming in and out of their network.(Gralla, Ishida, Reimer, Adams. 1998)

            Should the internet be regulated?  Why not? According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission, the internet can not be completely regulated, due to the fact that net users in China can still bypassed their government’s censorship. However, Vint Cerf, Google’s net evangelist and a founding father of the network said the following:

Anyone regulating beyond what was clearly illegal, put themselves on a “slippery slope” that could limit freedom of expression.

“If it’s not illegal, it raises a rather interesting question about where you do draw the line”.

The internet has been a great help to our society. It has remained a medium for open speech. Anyone can freely express their thoughts on the internet. However some of these acts are obscene and quite offensive. Helium’s journalist Sam Vaknin wrote the following in his article at Helium.com:

Inevitably, the legal situation varies across countries and continents. Internet penetration has reached different levels at different times in different places. Thus, the following observations and recommendations are not universally valid or applicable. In some locales, various aspects of cyberspace have been tackled by governments and legislatures, albeit rarely fully and satisfactorily. In others, the field is wide open and the Internet resembles the Wild West at its worst moments.

The internet has become chaotic over the few years. Several people used the internet to perform several criminal acts. Some of these are theft, pornography and terrorism.

            Several websites has stolen people’s identity or information to be able to steal their money. This is called identity theft. Over the years, the Federal Trade Commission has reported millions of these cases. Usual types of theft, involves a victims credit card number. A thief would try to acquire your credit card number and make several online purchases before the credit card user notices.

            Plagiarism is a form of intellectual property theft. This theft is very rampant in the internet. Information is freely available for internet users; this is why information can be stolen. A user may copy information without properly citing its original source. These kinds of theft can be avoided, if we had Internet regulations.

            Pornography, one of the major problems, has plagued the internet. Accesses to these materials are out in the open. Without a proper regulation, these materials can be accessible even to a 5 year old kid. According to Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist and advisor to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, pornography is worst than crack. People who had an addiction with pornography had a harder time recovering from it than people who were abusing drugs. Pornography can also cause more serious crimes like sexual harassment, rape and murder. Internet regulation would be a great solution to stop the spread of pornography. Having an internet regulation will keep your children away from sexually explicit materials.

            Terrorism has reached a new level. Modern day terrorist can freely used the internet to spread their black propagandas as well as coordinate with other terrorist groups to perform their crimes. Using a free web mail service, a terrorist group can recruit or plan their attacks. The internet is a great source of learning material. The terrorists are able to learn creating bombs up to flying a simple aircraft. The internet also reduces the time of transmitting messages. This is highly utilized by terrorist groups.

            Internet should be regulated in order to prevent these kinds of crimes from taking place. The internet is a form of media, similar to radios, televisions and movies. These forms of media are regulated, so why not the internet?  An internet regulation will protect its user from being vulnerable to crimes. Contents of the internet are regulated by countries that have access to it. However, these regulations are not enough to protect the welfare of the society. The government should reform these regulations by putting sanctions to those who violates. These regulations should be empowered so that criminals will think twice before doing their act.   Internet service provider should set up web filters to provide maximum protection to their clients. This filter can be configured based on their clients need. The right to information will not be violated.

Internet regulation does not aim to trespass individuals privacy but to further guard it. It is true that the society has a right for their privacy, but what if these privacy already intends to harm others welfare. We could not neglect this, which is why we need to regulate the internet. As years passed, the internet has evolved rapidly to offer a vast selection of services. New crimes will arise far worst than what is present today. The internet should be regulated to be able to prevent users from being violated.

Reference

Gralla, P., Ishida, S., Reimer, M., ; Adams, S. (1998). How the Internet Works. Indianapolis, Indiana. Que Publishing.

(2008, October 20). CRTC hearings: Should the Internet be regulated?. Halifax Chronicle Herald.

            Retrieved http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorials/1085759.html

(2007, August 29). Call to regulate the net rejected. BBC News.

            Retrieved http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6968322.stm

Singel, R.(2004, November 19). Internet Porn: Worse Than Crack?.

            Wired Magazine.

            Retrievedhttp://www.wired.com/science/

            discoveries/news/2004/11/65772

Weimann, G.(2004). www.terror.net: How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet. United States Institute of Peace.

Retrieved http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.html

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