Subject: Re: ALTERNATIVE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SCENARIOS From: jvncnet!coopext.cahe.wsu.edu!terence (Terence L. Day) Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 11:56:55 -0700

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Earlier this month Steve Yelvington, Rex Ballard and others were discussing
online censorship.  I had hoped to find time for a better-thought-out
response, but haven't and am about to hit the road for a week.  Time just
isn't going to materialize, so here's a quick stab at the topic.              
Censorship is perhaps the greatest threat to the entire Internet system, and
perhaps to online publications as well.  I see the threat exercised in two
ways; first by conservative attacks on Internet funding and secondly, by
threats of criminal prosecution for exposing children to sexually explicit
materials.

A year or two ago Washington narrowly escaped a referendum that would have,
if enforced, criminalized both advertising and programming currently
available on network and public television channels, as well as many
Cosmopolitan magazine covers.

This November, Idaho voters will decide a similar initiative, one that would
severely restrict materials that public libraries could have in open stacks.
It targets not just "dirty pictures," but even educational information about
homosexuality and AIDS.

Much of the threat derives from a conspiracy called the Meese Commision,
which fostered broad attacks on "pornography" in the name of children.  It
encouraged legislators and prosecutors not only t attack "child
pornography," but to define it in such a way that it includes married women
who may have two or three children (i.e., a 17-year, 11-month-old woman) as
a child.  Depict her erotically, and you can be found guilty of child
pornography.

Apply this kind of idiocy to the person who accesses an online publication
and you could have a prosecution for making pornography available to a 
17-year, 264-day old married man or woman.  

Before you dismiss this as unreasonably alarmist, consider that the U.S.
Supreme Court (if memory serves correctly) that material doesn't have to be
legally obscene to sustain a conviction under child pornography laws.  

No matter what draconian measures we come up with, we cannot keep children
from accessing anything on the Internet.

The current, reactionary, political environment is a very risky one in which
to be developing this marvelous technology.    

The other day I took photos of my two two-year-old grandsons playing in the
bathtub, and I'm half afraid to have the film processed!  Imagine what I
would be feeling if I were editing an online publication.

And then, of course, there is the gender problem.

This morning I was reading a "Readers Digest" article on gender differences.
It noted that men are more readily stimulated by visual images, women by
words.  This, the author explains, is why men like Playboy and women like
Harlequin romances.  (The author didn't use those examples.)

Society doesn't give a rip about women's pornography, but spends untol
millions combating men's pornography.  Psychologists now recognize romance
novels as pornographic.  Women read them because they "turn them on," they
get all warm and lubricated.  Just like what happens when men view
pornographic pictures.  Who ever heard a complaint against open display of
romance novels at grocery stands?  Stores that won't stock Playboy, just
about the mildest of men's magazines, will devote 10 feet of shelf space to
women's pornography.  Women carry romance novels to work and read them
openly in the lunch room, leave them laying on top of their desks, etc.  Let
a man try that with a men's magazine.

But, I digress.  I do so, however, to show what a can of worms this
censorship issue is and will be for online publications.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have sworn upon the altar of God,
eternal hostility against every form
of tyranny over the mind of man.
                  --Thomas Jefferson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terence L. Day
News Writer
Information Department
Washington State University
Pullman WA 99164-6244
509/335-2806 (v) 509/335-2863 (f) 509/334-1619 (h)
terence@coopext.cahe.wsu.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



From jvncnet!marketplace.com!owner-online-news Tue Nov  8 16:13:16 1994
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To: Rex Ballard