Censorship, The First Amendment, and Free Speech Essay - 2

Censorship, The First Amendment, and Free Speech - Essay Example Regulation of the general speech is censorship but regulation of evil and illegal speech is not censorship. The government should control some internet content such as hate sites, excessive violence, pornography and misuse of chat rooms (Kagan 12-46). The first step of controlling and regulating internet content is by proper enforcement of National laws. Laws are important since they are effective in controlling the harmful content in the internet. For example, the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) efficiently help in regulating harmful internet content to children. The government should also pass a bill which restricts contents such as pornography, misuse of chat rooms, information stimulating excessive violence and hate sites (Akdeniz 2-12). Pornography is the major evil element in the internet. According to the annual review of Online Computer Library Centre (2001), there were about 74000 websites containing â€Å"adult content† which were generating more than $1 billion as a profit. Despite the wide-spread of pornographic material in the internet, most of them are legal except the child pornography, bestiality, sadomasochism and necrophilia. Therefore, the government should establish laws that restrict adults from holding or viewing pornographic materials (Akdeniz 2-12). The law should also ensure that internet users do not misuse chat rooms. The government law should restrict the hate sites and ban their creation in the internet. R v Graham case of 1999 is an example of how government can regulate internet content through the enforcement of the law. Secondly, the government can regulate and control the harmful and illegal internet content by developing active hotlines for reporting various cases involving illegal internet content. Hotlines are important in regulation since they enable the government to identify users who are