TECH: accountability and the Internet

[Russell Smith <rssmith@TENET.EDU>]

>Tonight I received a piece of email in which the writer invited me to
>"suck" his (?) " ----."  I could see from the address that it had been
>emailed from within Netscape.  When I plugged the URL into my browser, up
>came the home page for an elementary school.
 
 
   This reminds me of some stuff I saw on the Net and wrote an article for
_Minnesota Media_ (just got a copy of it today in the mail). Here's that
article on Net censorship: (BTW...I am censoring this article with XXX's
because the quoted passages are quite blue... the original article in
the magazine was printed uncensored).
 
 
 
                  Should We Censor the Internet?
 
 
By Russell Smith
Special Contributor
 
 
     Here's a posting from LM_Net back in July of 1994:
 
     To: Multiple recipients of list LM_NET <LM_NET@suvm.acs.syr.EDU>
     In-Reply-To:  note of 07/23/94 02:15
 
     who really gives a diddly squat about this cropola.  there is much
more in this world that is both relevant and important, don`t you think?
come on, get off the `chine and go boink your significant other, whether
dog, man, beast, or woman.  as the sun rises, and the buzz off the 2
bottles of warm red wine and a couple of cases of cerveza start to
dissipate, I may have to think about such tedious topics as destructional
design and other myths.  `Til Mary Carpenter= Chapenter cums to get me,
I'll misbehave.  Get a life!!!! Jesus H. F___in' Christ!!!!!!
 
 
 
 
     And here's this intellectual gem from list ALLMUSIC in December 1994 :
 
 
>>>want rude?  WHY DON'T YOU JUST EAT SXXX AND DIE?  (Now, THAT was
rude!) ;-}
 
>i think that what you were too weak to say was "you can shove your two
>cents up your fXXXXXX aXX,"
 
>but when men support what women say just because
>they've been on this dXXX list forever...that's also something i can't
>tolerate.  fXXX you.
>but...now i am.  i am rude.  sXXX my dXXX if you condone lorena bobbit's
actions...
>and luckily, these two cents fit quite well up my aXX--i just tried it.
 
Sounds like you enjoyed it, too!  Try sucking your *own* dXXX while you're
experimenting with yourself, 'cause no-one here will, I guaran-gXXXXXX-tee
it!"
 
 
 
    Now the preceding passages were posted on unmoderated educational
lists. Unmoderated means anyone can post if they subscribe to the list and
the message will not be screened by a human before it goes on public
display. So my question is do we really want ten-year-old student
Internauts viewing text like these examples?
 
 
     I say no and until someone convinces me that such language is
appropriate for young minds I will continue to oppose full access to the
Internet for children.
 
     There are other concerns besides just x-rated adult text on the
Internet. Graphical images of sexually-explicit materials are accessible
on the Internet for downloading and the ability to download such images is
only limited by the computer skills of the users, not their age. Thus, a
ten-year-old with sufficient computer savvy can quite easily download
x-rated pictures and print them out for distribution.
 
      Now if the student has his or her own Internet account that they can
use at home then the potential for seeking out sexual materials is
heightened. Who will know if little Johnny is downloading nude pictures in
his room instead of writing a penpal in Australia? Nobody will until
Johnny brags to his friends or prints out pictures for distribution.
 
      Of course there are worse dangers than just downloading
sexually-explicit materials. Youngsters can be contacted on the Net by
sexual deviates who assume many guises. The deviates may pretend to be
students themselves and carry on e-mail correspondence with real
youngsters.
 
      It may sound weird or far-fetched, but serial killers either exist
or will arise on the Net and some kids will be enticed to their deaths.
Sound scary? You bet it is and that is why federal, state, and local
police are beginning to spend more manpower monitoring the Internet. The
rise in live chat sessions on commercial services has exacerbated the
growth of online sexual deviates. The anonymous nature of the services (no
identifying e-mail addresses) has led to more experimentation by deviates
and youngsters alike.
 
     To the kids online chat sessions can be like the old game of playing
on the telephone, but without any social scoldings. To the deviates the
chat sessions represent an ideal environment to play out sexual fantasies
or in the worst scenario, solicit victims.
 
     So if there are indeed problems with implementing student Internet
accounts then what kind of actions should schools and parents undertake to
lessen the dangers? Here's a five-point plan:
 
 
     1. The AUP (Acceptable Usage Policy) should be carefully explained to
students and parents. Follow-up training should be administered on a
regular basis;
 
     2. Very young students should be directly supervised by parents and
teachers during Internet sessions:
 
     3. Older students (secondary) should not have school accounts to use
unsupervised at home;
 
     4. Adult content newsgroups or discussion groups should be removed
from the providers lineup of easily viewable groups (menu picks);
 
     5. Anonymous Chat areas on the Internet should be offlimits for
student accounts.
 
 
     Now you might notice that the main focus for my suggestions is on
school censorship because in most instances youngsters will have access to
the Internet in an educational venue. But parents who share Internet
accounts with their children or purchase accounts for them would be
foolish indeed to turn their younger children totally free on the Net.
 
     Parents should devise their own censorship scheme based on the social
and intellectual maturity of their children, but to assume that youngsters
(even highly-intelligent ones) will always choose the right path is a big
mistake. Kids are by nature very curious about the unknown and the
Internet is full of unknown riches as well as dangers. To assume that
children are miniature adults is a fallacy and can lead to disaster.
 
     In summation, the question of censoring Internet student access
should not be so much a question of should we, but how much? To fail in
assuring our children's safety on the greatest communications invention in
the history of the world would be a grave disservice and one we can at
least try to prevent.
 
Russell Smith
rssmith@tenet.edu
Educational Technology Consultant                     Fax 915-675-8659
Region 14 Education Service Center  Abilene, Texas    Ph. 915-675-8647