rnet. It is true that there is a wealth of pornography and other indecent material online for us all to see. All that a person has to do, and this includes both children and adults, is to type an indecent word in any search engine and it will point to sites where the word pops up. Although this material is just a tiny portion of all web pages, it is still a huge number considering there are millions of web pages on the net. Most of the material is very hard to access, and an advanced knowledge of computers must be known. But it is our youth that is gaining knowledge of how to use computers. Problems arise when minors are left alone on the computer and are let free to browse some of the most graphic pictures taken, or to learn an easy way to make a bomb from household materials. Currently, there is software being released that promises to block children's access to known X-rated Internet newsgroups and sites. However, since most adults rely on their computer literate children to setup these programs, the children will be able to find ways around them. This mimics real life where these children would surely be able to get their hands on adult magazines, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, etc. Moreover, many high schools in the United States provide Internet access to students, which are very useful for looking up information, but if a student intends to look for inappropriate material, he/she is very likely to find such material simply by doing an Internet search. This is not as prevalent today since most high schools are using what is known as firewalls which block access to certain web pages. While people are concerned about Internet pornography, it should be recognized that pornography is sometimes legal; for example, pornography is legal in video and magazines. Therefore, it is inconsistent to ban the Internet equivalents. If the purpose of censoring is to prevent minors from being exposed to indecorous material, not only the Net has to ...
