Return To Autumn 1996 Index
In recent weeks, there have been many reports of the tragic case of the two children starved to death by paedophiles in Belgium. The British media seem to have been desperately trying to link the Internet with international paedophile rings. Whilst I appreciate that the crime of paedophillia is both horrifying and newsworthy, I can't understand why the Internet should be brought up as the prime route for these peoples activities.
Paedophillia has been practised for thousands of years before the Internet was thought of. (This doesn't make paedophilia right, it simply proves that the Internet is being used by these people instead of other forms of communication.) The Internet is a public space and as such reflects the culture and consciousness of all the people connected.
The British Government, is investigatng the possibility of disconnecting certain parts of the Internet. However, as Germany found out earlier this year when they tried to ban 200 CompuServe Newsgroups, this is often easier said than done. If the Government were successful in banning certain Newsgroups, this could lead to the offending material being posted on inappropriate Newsgroups and we would be back to square one. The only option then would be to shut down all Newsgroups, and still the material would be out there.
So what would the Government do about the World Wide Web? and Internet Relay Chat? They would have to shut them down, and the material would STILL be "out there," being traded as before by snail mail or bulletin boards. Is the Government going to shut down all international phone links? I don't think so. Surely resources would be better utilised in actually finding and prosecuting these people?
To quote the Philadelphia Federal Judges Panel, talking about the Communications Decency Act:
"As the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest protection from governmental intrusion."
As I have mentioned the media have made a great deal of noise about the availability of pornography on the Internet, but again the Internet is not alone in being the provider of porn. The media seem keen to spread panic about it, in a recent BBC news report a computer was shown with the alt.sex folder open and of course it showed a listing of several alt.sex groups, this gave entirely the wrong impression of the Newsgroups. (link to Newsgroups article?) The point being that the reporter had actively searched for those news groups but the item didn't tell the viewer that. To many people in Britain this is their only experience of the Internet and it is not a balanced view.
I believe this technology is one of the best tools available for promoting understanding across borders, to be able to communicate with someone of a different culture may change our own view of that culture or our own. Like any tool it is open to abuse, but simply driving paedophilia back underground is not going to change the risk to children, in the real world, hiding your head under the covers does not make the bogey man go away.
There have always been people willing to use children, but whilst these people use the Internet they are effectively leaving footprints in the sand, if the Government followed these tracks (cross border, if necessary ) it would be possible to stop this crime at source. I realise this would require co-operation between countries but this if governments were genuinely concerned then this would be no obstacle.
We don't need blanket censorship on the Internet, instead it should be a free and open space for people to express themselves. However, that doesn't stop the police from monitoring it, as they do all public spaces. I am not advocating police directing traffic on the information super highway, rather targeted operations against the individuals who perpetrate these terrible crimes.
