Essay - Protecting Children Online Like any Forms of Advancement, Computer and...

Protecting children online

***** any forms of advancement, computer and information technology are double-edged swords. On one h*****, they offer new opportunities for learning and self-expression. However, the same ***** also threatens ***** safety of *****, exposing them to inappropriate content and online predators. This paper argues that given these safety concerns, special measures should be taken to protect children from these Internet *****.

Protection legislation

In 2001, the Children's Internet Protection Act (CHIPA) was signed into law. The m*****ate of this act is to protect children form the myriad of "inappropriate *****rial" available on the Internet. Public institutions such as schools and libraries must ensure that "technology *****ion measures" are in place on all of its computers with Internet access. These protection ***** *****clude filtering software to screen out inappropriate content (Reilly *****).

Supporters of ***** measure argued that ***** task of keeping children safe from online *****longs to everyone in society, not just ***** parents. After all, many children are much more tech-savvy than their parents. Increas*****gly, they surf the ***** in public places, such as cafes and their school libraries. Th***** makes it difficult for parents to mon*****or the Internet use of their children.

Further*****, supporters of this ***** argue ***** the dangers of unsupervised Internet ***** are very real.

***** addition to sexually-explicit content, ***** teenagers have reported supporting ***** drug habits via the Internet. Many chatrooms are full of drug dealers ***** pedophiles who know how to recognize potential young victims or cus*****mers ("Teens, Technology and Drugs" 2006). ********** goal of legislation such ***** ***** is targeted towards ensuring a safe online experience for children.

Censorship *****

Despite ********** ***** and the intent ***** this legislation, however, such protection laws have many critics. Privacy advocates argue that law enforcement authority and court rulings regarding piracy ***** copyright have dealt tremendous blows to individual civil liberties regarding online and Internet activities. Most people do not realize how much personal in*****ation can already be gleaned from the *****. People unwittingly sh***** information ab***** *****selves when ***** send e-mail, visit a website or buy merchandise *****. The installation of ***** software adds to ********** concerns (Reilly 2001).

Other ***** have argued ***** CHIPA and steps such as the ***** of filtering software constitutes censorship. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has charged that ***** filtering software may be a violation of the First Amendment. Imposing a sort of "r*****ting system" on the Internet interferes with ***** free*****m of expression. Such software could also violate a youth's right to a wide variety of information (***** 2001).

*****, many critics question the effectiveness of such filtering technologies.

Some charge that filtering technologies have a tendency ***** "overblock" sites. In high *****, for ex*****mple, some children complain increased difficulty in conducting research on topics like breast cancer ***** ***** sex. Ano*****r ***** ***** ***** a search ***** the term "Mars exploration," because the letters formed the forbidden term "sex." ***** difficulties interfere with the intent of sharing information over the Internet