Below is my final writting assignment for CS391 - a class taken at Oregon State University on Computer Ethics. This was originally written in March of 1996. I have not changed this document in any way since I've originally wrote it. Thus, any and all spelling mistakes and grammer mistakes still exist. I apologize for the mistakes, but I believed it was more important to reflect my views on this issue as they were back in 1996 than to clean up this document and start from fresh. I do plan on writting another paper in the near future commenting on the same issues. My next paper will include more examples and possibly actions by courts in this area.

Thank-you,
Tracy

Viewpoint:  Tracy L. Hornschuch

Cyberspace & The First Amendment


Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the  freedom of speech, or of the press;
and to petition the Government for a redress of  grievance.
	-THE FIRST AMENDMENT,
	  UNITED STATES OF AMERICA




One night Sarah wanted to enjoy herself by signing on-line with America Online. She
clicked on a chat line and within seconds she was placed into Flirts Nooks #3.  
Flirts Nooks is one of many on-line chat rooms, and the three means that this is
the third room of this type.  What she wanted was some laughs, and what she
received was very upsetting to her.

Questions that were asked that evening were of the norm.  "Age and sex."  To her
dismay, and many others, one of the other participants replied that they were "m 11
1/2."  In other words this user was only eleven years old and male.  Sarah along
with four others was trying to get this child to sign off.  The question most
asked to him was, "where are your parents?"  His reply was, "they are sleeping."  
It would have been about 2:30 to 3:30 in the morning where he was at, and his
parents were in bed.  This was just half the story for Sarah's bad experience.

The other half started about thirty minutes after Sarah was placed into this room.  
Individual A started to make racial slurs to individual B.  B tried to ignore the
comments, but they didn't stop.  Then B tried to fight back, by not making
demeaning remarks back, but by trying to get A to back off.  This still didn't
work.  Sarah who wanted to have fun, laugh, and flirt finally said something.  She
told A to leave the room because "no one here wanted to read that kind of talk."  
Individual A started to call Sarah bad names, this caused six others to get
involve.  Nobody wanted A to be in that room.  Meanwhile this child is still in the
room reading all of this.  To be further annoying, individual A started to make
sexual remarks to the kid.

Between the kid and individual A, Sarah's evening didn't turn out the way she
wanted.  She was arguing with a stranger about ethics in cyberspace.



Betty enjoys music.  She likes to read fan mail (both good and bad) in her favorite
newsgroups.  Clicking through the news she didn't realize what she was clicking on
until it was too late.  There were many sexual, anti-government, and other unwanted
propaganda in her favorite newsgroups.  This was annoying to her, because it takes
time to open them.  The more news a newsgroup the longer it takes to open it.  In
some of the newsgroups, more than half would contain the unwanted material.  She
stopped reading her favorite groups; it just wasn't worth it.


Bob was in need of some software.  The software he wanted would have cost him
nearly one hundred and fifty dollars.  He could afford it, but thought the company
was charging to much.  Bob turned to cyberspace for help.  He clicked on the
newsgroup alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc, and before he knew it, he found the software
he was looking for.  It wasn't in a store, and it wouldn't cost him nothing.  All
he had to do was download the software into his computer.  Bob downloaded.


Tom was looking for some adult pornographic pictures.  He enjoys reading and
looking at Playboy, and he heard of a great web sight on the World Wide Web.  This
web sight contained pictures of women.  So one night he entered in the URL address
that was given to him.  The pictures he viewed were tasteful.  They also were
connected to many other pornographic pictures.  Tom click on one of those web
sights.  To his dismay and dislike, a pornographic picture of a child was displayed
to him.  This is not what he wanted to see.


Before hearing and reading the stories above, I remember hearing on the news about
a year ago about a runaway.  This runaway was about thirteen and male.  This story
made head-lines because this child was persuaded into leaving his home by another
male.  This other male was an adult, and wanted to use this runaway child in
pornographic pictures.  How this man was able to reach this child is what caught my
attention.  He used a chat room.  I can't remember if it was America Online or
CompuServe that the boy and the man used, but it was one of them.

Shortly after this story, I heard on the news that the FBI was monitoring some chat
rooms in America Online and CompuServe.  The FBI agents would pretend to be
children inorder to catch adults trying to lure children into pornography.


Clearly all of the stories above use cyberspace.  Cyberspace is defined as a
network or web of telephone lines that potentially connects every computer in the
world with every other (Johnson, 106).  Webster's Dictionary defines cybernetics is
a science dealing with the comparative study of the operations of complex
electronic computers and the human nervous system. Cyberspace is not a physical
place; it is space.  Since the network or web that connects the computers together
resemble a nervous system, we combine cybernetics and space.  Thus the birth of the
term cyberspace is born.

To connect to cyberspace, all it takes is a computer and modem.  People from all
over the world are connected to cyberspace today.  Therefore, cyberspace doesn't
only exist in the United States of America, but all over the world.

The First Amendment of the United States of America was written to protect the
freedom of religion, speech and the press.  People should have the right to say
what they want without prosecution.  People couldn't talk, news papers couldn't
report all of the news, and religions couldn't practice their sermons, without the
First Amendment.  How could anyone communicate if they weren't allowed to speech
their mind?  What if you were told what you can say and what you couldn't say?  
What if the news papers couldn't report all of the news?  And, what if you couldn't
choose what church to attend?  Would this be freedom?

""CONGRESS SHALL make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press. . . ."  The prohibition imposed by this amendment is absolute in both its
terms and its tone.  It seems to say that certain legislation is strictly
forbidden. . . ."(Anastaplo, 35).  I would like to elaborate the ALL legislation
concerning the freedom of speech should be strictly forbidden within cyberspace.  
The Congress of the United States of America doesn't have the right to decide on
issues that effect the whole world.  The issues surrounding cyberspace today just
don't reside within the US; it resides throughout the world.  Therefore, making it
a world issue.

My solution to this problem would take ethical efforts of many people.  It will
effect users, parents, government, service providers, and those who implement the
web pages.  It would mean that people would need to deal with one another with
respect and compassion.  We as human-beings would need to work together as a whole
and not individuals.  If everyone wants freedom not only in America, but across the
world, then we the world would need to work at it.  This is a problem that can be
solved without any country's government involvement.

I propose that parents pay close attention to what their children are doing in
cyberspace.  If this means that parents need to sit right beside their children to
protect them, then so be it.  Myself being a mother of three children of different
age groups can easily understand how important it is to protect our children.  Our
children is our most important commodity.  We as people of the world, not just the
United States of America, need to protect all of our children from any harm.  This
harm could be child pornography, or it could be an adult trying to persuade a child
in leaving his home.

I would like to see a "v-chip" developed for on-line serves.  Parents should be
able to block their children from certain cyberspace areas.  For example, I am an
American Online subscriber.  I can choose that my children have no access to any
chat rooms, but by doing so they wouldn't have access to the children chat rooms
that were designed for them.  I don't feel that this is parent control.  This is
all or nothing, and it isn't right.  Being a parent I should feel that my children
will be protected while being in a children's chat room.  With my children I can,
because if they don't feel comfortable about something they let me know about it.  
I can trust my children, but there are people out there that I can't trust.  I
would feel much better if I can select to have my children blocked from all adult
chat rooms.

As far the world wide web pages, I feel that they should be rated.  We rate movies.  
Music is starting to be rated.  Now why can't we rate www pages?  I feel that we
can.  This is an issue that most people would agree on.  This responsibility should
belong to the person who created the web page.  We should be able to trust other
people that they would do the right thing.

Service providers should provide their customers with the software to block
unwanted material.  Also, they should monitor the rating of web pages.  This might
take many man hours, but with today's society and the economy this would create
jobs.  Here is a case where computers are actually creating jobs instead of taking
them away.  We don't need hundreds of people checking these pages every second of
the day.  What we need is support to those who find ethical violations in this
process.  If someone finds a web page that is rate 'G' or 'NR' and it should be
'R', then they should be able to report it to someone.  Of course the next question
is who that someone should be.

I propose that all internet service providers come together and create an entity to
monitor and provide some guidelines to the rating process.  This way, if a consumer
is unhappy with the rating of a web page, then they have someone to complain to.  
We the people of the whole world should not be complaining to our own governments,
but to some committee of standards.  There should be many committees structured
all over the world.  At least twice a year, the committees should gather to
communicate to each other about cyberspace.

My proposal complements the First Amendment because the United States Congress
wouldn't need to be involved.  This can be achieved if we really want it.  Laws are
made for those who do not have morals.  So let the people of the world show that
they have morals, and solve this without the help of any government.  A viewpoint
by J. Walker Smith, he states that self-policing is apparently not the answer.  He
continues with figures obtained through surveys, that 51 percent, of the people
surveyed, believe that it self-policing would fail.  I propose it wouldn't.  The
movie industry developed their own rating system, and the music industry is now
rating their music.  Now it is time for the internet industry to develop a rating
and self-policing system.  Between the services, parents, users, and web page
implementors, we can make this work.  It will take everyone, not just a few people.

References

Deborah G. Johnson, "Computer Ethics", second edition,  Prentice Hall (1994).

George Anastaplo, "The Constitutionalist, Notes on the First Amendment", Southern
Methodist University Press, Dallas, Texas.

J. Walker Smith, "Standoff in Cyberspace Gulch", The New York Times, January 2,
1996, Business, p. 14.

And to all the people who respond to my request for their opinions, thank-you.