[Prev|Next|Index] Thu, Feb 22, 1996 Ken Leebow

Pornography

     By Ken Leebow

     There has been a tremendous amount of "noise" made about
     pornography on the
     Internet. If you have never been on the Internet this sounds like
     it would be a major
     problem. Those of us that spend a fair amount of time on the
     Internet know that this is a
     ridiculous issue.

     Yes, there are nude pictures and other types of material on the
     Internet. However, if you
     "channel surf" (to use a TV cliché) you will never come upon
     anything on the Internet
     that is pornographic, in nature. To find pornography you would
     have to spend a lot of time
     searching for it and of course have a desire to view it.

     That brings me to the point of this article. You see, I'm much
     more concerned about the
     pornography in traditional media than I am on this new medium. As
     an example, my wife
     and I sat down, with our 10 year old daughter, last Sunday at
     8:00pm, to watch a sit-com.
     To my amazement the entire show was dedicated to sexual
     intercourse and lesbianism. I
     can assure you that this is not what I choose for my children to
     watch. The sad thing is
     that this is what is on almost every channel. I have no way of
     controlling this. And I have
     no desire for a "V" chip.

     I can assure you that television is a lot worse than the
     Internet. The reason for the scare
     tactics about the Internet is simple. You see, the Internet is
     democracy at its greatest. It
     is true freedom. Freedom of expression, thought, choice and
     imagination. It is a
     grassroots movement that has a tremendous amount of momentum. The
     people that are
     on it enjoy the freedom that is implicit with the medium.

     Unlike most other areas of our life no one is controlling it! The
     government, education,
     TV, magazines, newspapers, advertising and other traditional
     media tend to control
     everything, whether we like it or not. To many institutions and
     people it is a very scary
     proposition that no one is controlling free thought. Simply, the
     Internet contains
     magnificent information of all kinds. Every area of life is
     represented on the Internet.

     I read a Yiddish Proverb the other day that makes sense to me in
     regard to our lives in
     general and the Internet specifically. "If each one sweeps in
     front of their own door; the
     whole neighborhood will be clean."

     For those of you that have never navigated the Internet and found
     its true richness
     please "surf" the net before you get on some government control
     bandwagon. The
     Internet like life will be as clean or as dirty as you choose to
     make it.

     Here's wishing you a clean neighborhood.

     See more of our opinions at
     http://home.navisoft.com/vip/humble.htm

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