E-Crime Essay, Research Paper
The Internet is a method of communication and a source of information that is becoming
more popular among those who are interested in, and have the time to surf the information
superhighway. The problem with this much information being accessible to this many
people is that some of it is deemed inappropriate for minors. The government wants
censorship, but a segment of the population does not. Legislative regulation of the Internet
would be an appropriate function of the government. The Communications Decency Act is
an amendment which prevents the information superhighway from becoming a computer
“red light district.” On June 14, 1995, by a vote of 84-16, the United States Senate passed
the amendment. It is now being brought through the House of Representatives.1 The
Internet is owned and operated by the government, which gives them the obligation to
restrict the materials available through it. Though it appears to have sprung up overnight,
the inspiration of free-spirited hackers, it in fact was born in Defense Department Cold
War projects of the 1950s.2 The United States Government owns the Internet and has the
responsibility to determine who uses it and how it is used. The government must control
what information is accessible from its agencies. This material is not lawfully available
through the mail or over the telephone, there is no valid reason these perverts should be
allowed unimpeded on the Internet. Since our initiative, the industry has commendably
advanced some blocking devices, but they are not a substitute for well-reasoned law.4
Because the Internet has become one of the biggest sources of information in this world,
legislative safeguards are imperative. The government gives citizens the privilege of using
the Internet, but it has never given them the right to use it. They seem to rationalize that
the framers of the constitution planned & plotted at great length to make certain that
above all else, the profiteering pornographer, the pervert and the pedophile must be free to
practice their pursuits in the presence of children on a taxpayer created and subsidized
computer network.3 People like this are the ones in the wrong. Taxpayer’s dollars are
being spent bringing obscene text and graphics into the homes of people all over the
world. The government must take control to prevent pornographers from using the
Internet however they see fit because they are breaking laws that have existed for years.
Cyberpunks, those most popularly associated with the Internet, are members of a
rebellious society that are polluting these networks with information containing
pornography, racism, and other forms of explicit information. When they start rooting
around for a crime, new cybercops are entering a pretty unfriendly environment.
Cyberspace, especially the Internet, is full of those who embrace a frontier culture that is
hostile to authority and fearful that any intrusions of police or government will destroy
their self-regulating world.5 The self-regulating environment desired by the cyberpunks is
an opportunity to do whatever they want. The Communications Decency Act is an attempt
on part of the government to control their “free attitude” displayed in homepages such as
“Sex, Adult Pictures, X-Rated Porn”, “Hot Sleazy Pictures (Cum again + again)” and
“sex, sex, sex. heck, it’s better even better than real sex”6. “What we are doing is simply
making the same laws, held constitutional time and time again by the courts with regard to
obscenity and indecency through the mail and telephones, applicable to the Internet.”7 To
keep these kinds of pictures off home computers, the government must control
information on the Internet, just as it controls obscenity through the mail or on the phone.
Legislative regulations must be made to control information on the Internet because the
displaying or distribution of obscene material is illegal. The courts have generally held that
obscenity is illegal under all circumstances for all ages, while “indecency” is generally
allowable to adults, but that laws protecting children from this “lesser” form are
acceptable. It’s called protecting those among us who are children from the vagrancies of
adults.8 The constitution of the United States has set regulations to determine what is
categorized as obscenity and what is not. In Miller vs. California, 413 U.S. at 24-25, the
court announced its “Miller Test” and held, at 29, that its three part test constituted
“concrete guidelines to isolate ‘hard core’ pornography from expression protected by the
First Amendment.9 By laws previously set by the government, obscene pornography
should not be accessible on the Internet. The government must police the Internet because
people are breaking laws. “Right now, cyberspace is like a neighborhood without a police
department.”10 Currently anyone can put anything he wants on the Internet with no
penalties. “The Communications Decency Act gives law enforcement new tools to
prosecute those who would use a computer to make the equivalent of obscene telephone
calls, to prosecute ‘electronic stalkers’ who terrorize their victims, to clamp down on
electronic distributors of obscene materials, and to enhance the chances of prosecution of
those who would provide pornography to children via a computer.” The government must
regulate the flow of information on the Internet because some of the commercial blocking
devices used to filter this information are insufficient. “Cybercops especially worry that
outlaws are now able to use powerful cryptography to send and receive uncrackable secret
communications and are also aided by anonymous re-mailers.”11 By using features like
these it is impossible to use blocking devices to stop children from accessing this
information. Devices set up to detect specified strings of characters will not filter those
that it cannot read. The government has to stop obscene materials from being transferred
via the Internet because it violates laws dealing with interstate commerce. It is not a valid
argument that “consenting adults” should be allowed to use the computer BBS and
“Internet” systems to receive whatever they want. If the materials are obscene, the law can
forbid the use of means and facilities of interstate commerce and common carriers to ship
or disseminate the obscenity.12 When supplies and information are passed over state or
national boundaries, they are subject to the laws governing interstate and intrastate
commerce. When information is passed between two computers, it is subjected to the
same standards. The government having the power to regulate the information being put
on the Internet is a proper extension of its powers. With an information based system such
as the Internet there is bound to be material that is not appropriate for minors to see. In
passing of an amendment like the Communications Decency Act, the government would
be given the power to regulate that material.