A social and ethical essay task designed to provide students with a broader insight into both the Internet and computer ethics. .
Since the beginning of time, men and women have fantasised over naked bodies. Pornography has always been a part of life and yet it has never been so readily available as what it is now. Erotic stories, explicit pictures, XXX-rated films and modern day magazines, are all part of the stimulus material which is known as "pornography" or as it is legally put, "obscenity." Is it ethically right for our children to be looking at this erotic material at such an early age? Do we have a twisted sense of morals if we support pornography? Or is it just a natural part of life that should be nurtured and encouraged? .
These questions and more are springing to people's lips as we enter the technological age. The age of the Internet. Never before has pornography been so readily available. Through mail-order, at secret places around the schoolyard, or simply down at the local newsagent or video store, pornography can be purchased in any form or media. I know children, some as young as ten years, who have an unlimited supply of pornography. They have been exposed to it from an early age and it has become an addiction like smoking or drinking. Part of the problem is that censorship laws are not enforced. Some newsagents will sell a twelve-year-old, pornography, (legal age of 18) but will not sell them a packet of cigarettes (legal age of 16 until June 1994). The obvious derivative from this statement is that fines and punishments for selling pornography to underage persons are not high enough. So why don't we raise them? The answer to this question can be found on the screen of every computer in the world. The Internet, or as one person put it, "The closest thing to true anarchy that has ever existed." .
How is one to censor the Internet when it is literally impossible? What is the use of placing fines for copying pornography when it is impossible to tell the age of the user.
