Christian parents are turning to Internet filters to protect their children against inappropriate material found on the Web. Christian parents want their children to have access to the Internet computer network, so they can do everything from getting help with their homework to communicating with out-of-town friends.
But they don’t want them to see the dirty pictures that can be found there, too. Internet filters can solve the problem and give parents peace of mind.
Many Christian parents think it's time the government stepped in and did something about the availability of explicit and, in some cases, blatantly illegal imagery available to anyone of any age who has a computer and a modem.
"Just in cruising around the 'Net myself, not looking for sexually explicit material, I've come across things that I have never seen before, and I never want to see again," said 41-year-old Brian Williams of Greenville, SC. "They are things I certainly don't want my children to see."
But at the same time, "there is so much information out there, so many neat, interesting and gratifying things," that Williams would not want to see choked off by government regulation.
William’s conflict illustrates a debate raging across both in the real world and in the Digital Nation, the electronic community that's been created by the revolution in computer communications.
How do you protect children from having access to graphically sexual images and text for which they may not be ready, while at the same time preserving First Amendment rights? The ability to communicate via computer has suddenly given the average person the ability to talk to large numbers of people easily and cheaply - even if what he or she has to say could be considered offensive or disturbing to others.
"You cannot restrict information on the `Net," said Sarah Heistman, an associate professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University whose specialty is electronic commerce. "If you try, you could collapse the 'Net as we know it."
The issue has come to the fore as more and more of mainstream America joins the Digital Nation via online services, computer bulletin boards and the Internet.
The search for a solution has taken two different paths - legislative and technological. Some people want laws to ban the transmission of obscene materials by computer, while others say a series of Internet filters built into online access software is the answer.
"This is really not about pornography and children," said Howard Rheingold, author of ``Virtual Communities: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier." "It is about power and control. The key is that the control of this information should not be handled in Washington. The proper locus for control of what children see on-line should take place in the home.
"What happens to family values if the family can't decide what its own values are?"
Sexually explicit images, movies and even sounds are available on-line in a variety of ways:
On private computer bulletin board systems, stand-alone systems that may or may not be connected to the Internet. In Houston, there are 580 phone numbers on the "official"July bulletin board list maintained monthly by the Atomic Cafe BBS, but only 64 boards advertise adult materials. Local BBS operators say that, for their own legal protection, they almost universally require proof of legal age before allowing a user access to adult materials.
On Usenet, a collection of more than 12,000 discussion forums, each grouped around a specific topic. This is a text-only feature of the Internet, but graphics files can be turned into text-based code with freely available software and then uploaded to the "binary" groups on Usenet. Someone who wants to see the image then brings the text into his or her computer and decodes it, turning it back into a picture.
Via electronic mail as an "attachment." The sender can attach a graphics file to an e-mail message and, as is done with images placed on Usenet, it's converted to a text-based code. When the file arrives at its intended destination, the software that receives e-mail automatically decodes it.
On the World Wide Web, which makes it easy to view graphics. This is the part of the Internet that has Christian parents worried the most. It's easy to "stumble" across something you don't expect to see merely by clicking on a link on a Web page. However, Internet experts say there is very little pornography on the Web, despite its graphical nature.
A number of small software companies have begun marketing Internet filter programs that block access to sexually oriented sites on the Internet and on-line services.
The debate on-line
Nowhere is the debate over restricting porn on the Internet more fierce than on the 'Net itself. Here are some World Wide Web links to help Christian parents follow the discussion.
The Christian Coalition's Contract with the American Family, which proposes restricting pornography in cyberspacehttp://www.cc.org/cc/leg/contract.html
HotWired, the electronic version of Wired magazine, offers various perspectives on the controversial study of pornography in cyberspace by Martin Rimm.http://www.wired.com/special/pornscare/
Rimm's study, Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway http://trfn.pgh.pa.us/guest/mrstudy.html
Vanderbilt University researchers Donna Hoffman and Thomas Novak's page on the debate about pornography on-line and the Rimm study http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.du/cyberporn.debate.html
Time magazine's story, "On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn", by technology editor Philip Elmer-DeWitt http://www.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/domestic/1995/950703/950703. cover.html
Elmer-Dewitt's followup, "Fire Storm on the Computer Nets"http://www.pathfinder.com/@@qxL2nAAAAAAAAKoF/time/magazine/dom estic/1995/950724/950724. Internet .html
The Center for Democracy and Technology's discussion of the Communications Decency Act http://www.cdt.org/cda.html
The text of the Communications Decency Act and other legislation pertaining to censoring the Internet http://epic.org/free_speech/censorship
