Free Speech

VS.

Protecting Children from Unwanted Material

Shahrzad Sadrpour & Brian King

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. -Voltaire
Free speech is widely considered a basic and fundamental human right, and an essential component to the existence of democracy.

Free Speech in the Online Era:

Helps individuals to develop self-confidence to express themselves without fear of being punished or condemned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-HQ3hGvzaM

Evolution of Information
Printing Press new medium of information spreading

Printed Material- eventually contributes to founding of the New World Internet latest revolution in information spreading

With the Good

Comes the Controversial:

Where do we draw the line?

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The Jake Baker Conundrum

Landmark case for cyber law and free speech on the Internet (1995) Baker wrote grotesque snuff stories, posted them to the Web; used a classmate as a character who gets raped and tortured. Wrote emails depicting alleged plans to act on stories

The Verdict?

The court ruled that Bakers stories and emails were protected under the 1st Amendment, and that there was insufficient evidence to assume he had intent to commit a crime

Anyone can access these stories through a simple Google search.

Do you believe free speech should be upheld or should there be some censorship involved?

Free Speech Activists

Despite generally being viewed as filthy, it exercises the essential right that our nation was built on Now exists in somewhat of an educational or historical context, as precedent for free speech on the net The act of writing/posting was said to be therapeutic way for Baker to vent w/o causing (physical) harm

Concerned Mothers Content should not be available thru such an easily accessible medium Could promote harmful thoughts/actions from those who read Could scar the minds of children who accidentally find it

27% of 8-11 year olds who are aware of social networking sites say that they have a profile on a site. 41% of children aged 8-17 who had a visible profile had their profile set so that it was visible to anyone 3.6 million children under 12 yrs old have Facebook accounts, despite FB setting the minimum age at 13.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90039911?Number%20of%2 0underage%20social%20networking%20site%20users%20increasing

Danger! Downside of social networking

Hate Speech
Example: Holocaust Denial Groups on Facebook Pages dedicated to those who believe and discuss that the Holocaust never happened and that the Jewish population uses the story as a means of furthering its race.
Facebook received pressure to remove the pages and disallow such organizations from congregating on the site.

Is There a Solution?
Uphold Free Speech
"You do not combat ignorance by trying to cover up that ignorance exists. You confront it head on. Facebook will do the world no good by trying to become its thought police.
Ezra Callahan, Jewish FB employee

Consider it Hate Speech When it comes to an atrocity on the scale of the Holocaust, anything promoting denial of its existence amounts to advocating violence.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper

Cybersex
Sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Craigslist can serve as a magical sex playground for anonymous sexual predators.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQg5D6FM5IM

20% of children age 10-17 have been solicited sexually online; the solicitors asked to meet the youth in person, called them on the telephone, or sent offline mail, money, or gifts. 14% of children have met face to face with a person they have met online. From 2007-2009, Myspace and Facebook found and deleted profiles of over 140,000 registered sex offenders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7d41MT2WRs

Cyberbullying
E-mail, Instant messaging, Myspace, Facebook and etc. allow bullies easy access to both the victim and their target audience. Bullies deliver daily doses of embarrassment by simply posting a message on their personal web page or sending an e-mail about the victim to everyone they know.

1 in 3 teens and 1 in 6 preteens have been the victims of cyberbullying

I Am Under 18 Button Clicked For First Time In History Of Internet. -ONN

90% of children between ages 8 and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet. 70% have accidentally come across pornography on the Web (so they say) In a recent study, 17% of boys and 16% of girls aged 10-11 had unintentionally viewed unwanted material

48 percent of K-1st reported viewing online content that made them feel uncomfortable, of which 72 percent reported the experience to a grownup, meaning that one in four children did not.

Ways we can start:

Web filtering software such as Net Nanny performs state of the art analysis which actively blocks or filters objectionable material.

Social sites for kids, such as Togetherville.com, provide a safe alternative to Facebook that parents can share with their young children.

TALK to your kids! Make sure they understand the importance of internet safety, and enforce rules about what they can and cannot use the internet for (easier said than done, I know)

Censorship Across the World

Several Countries have adopted methods for attempting to censor what users can access on the internet. Of these, China undoubtedly has the most advanced and most restrictive system.

What do you think

Should the U.S. adopt a
censorship method of keeping the web safer, or should we continue to uphold free speech at all costs?

Great Firewall of China

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWfUOG0EA9w

References:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10239926-36.html http://www.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90039911?Number%20of%2 0underage%20social%20networking%20site%20users%20increasing http://enough.org/inside.php?id=2UXKJWRY8 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29289048/ns/technology_and_sciencesecurity/ http://www.hraban.com/scott/stanford/free_speech.html

http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/05/togetherville-a-social-network-forchildren-and-their-grownups/
http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/netnanny-review.html Postman, N. (1998). Five things we need to know about technological change. Shirky, Clay(2008). Solving Social Dilemmas. In Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. Weinberger,D. (2007).Social knowing . In Everything is miscellaneous: The power of the new digital disorder. (pp. 129-147)