do are still alive in the days of the information superhighway, making bank computers nervous, but at the same time making the internet a more open place to communicate. The government also difficult task in defining what exactly "indecent" means. It was left in as a clause in the telecommunications bill and is extremely vague. Where would the government draw the line, does late night TV (NYPD blue) have the right to broadcast nudity while people communicating on the internet do not have the right to type in what they want in a chat room, in complete privacy? The biggest drawback of censorship is the fear it creates. Anyone who actively uses the internet knows the realities of the online world and is excited about where the internet is heading. None of them surf the internet in fear of being offended as you control the path you are taking. Unfortunately once the government sets a precedent, it is difficult to break. America Online, one of the biggest online service providers, decided to actively sensor content in its message bases. This seemed like a good idea at first. Unfortunately people in breast cancer newsgroups had to refer to it as "hooter cancer" as their messages would be automatically deleted if they used the word "breasts". Pregnancy newsgroups also suffered similar communications difficulties. Hundreds of America Online subscribers were outraged as they could not communicate on the internet about the same things they could on other medium, so they canceled their subscriptions. Today America Online is less strict with its censorship policies. America Online is a tiny news base when compared with the internet and if they had such difficulties with their article and message base, it would be horrifying to see what would become of the internet if it were subjected to tampering. The U.S. government wants to make the internet more family oriented but it will never succeed because of the technological infeasibility of their propo...
