[1440] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: So what is the answer?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (stev knowles)
Tue Oct 8 18:24:16 1991
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 18:23:58 -0400
To: edtjda@magic322.chron.com
From: stev@ftp.com (stev knowles)
Cc: comp-academic-freedom-talk@eff.org, com-priv@psi.com,
The Texas Education Agency recently granted
Internet access to everyone in Texas affiliated
with education -- classrooms, teachers, administrators,
parents, etc.
this sounds good.
It took about two days for them to have a "major
porno incident" that ended with them shutting down
the news feed; and for now, students will not be
allowed their own accounts. Obviously, shutting down
usenet doesn't bar access to the lively material.
we always get back to the porno, dont we. now, did they find this "porno"
through the news system? if so, why did they talk down the links instead of
turning off the news?
In the two years since I started looking, I still
haven't found an answer that addresses everyone's
concerns on this topic. How does one introduce
Internet to children in a socially acceptable,
responsible fashion? What's the answer? Free speech is a
powerful argument, but please conside the reality
that you're preparing an argument for a school board.
why dont we get them a description of the news groups, and allow them to
decide which ones to accept?
School boards don't care a whit for free speech if they
think it might be a defense for something that has a
potentially negative effect on young people.
(*sigh*) i would like to think that the school boards in texas are more
intelligent than you seem to imply. nothing is black and white . . . .
And the oft-touted comparison of Internet to a library
also has problems when held up against daylight. No
matter what one argues, libraries outside of San
Francisco usually do not carry material as explicit
as that found in alt.sex.bondage or Modern Primitives,
for instance. In test after court test, it has been
my jr high school had a copy of dahlgren, by sam delany, along time ago.
they knew what was in it, they assumed that few kids would pick it up. they,
in general, were correct. remember, if you make a big deal about a banned
book, it wants to make people find out what you are denying them. i can
understand the desire to keep porn out of the hands of 8 year olds, but i
dont understand why we cant just not import those news groups into the
schools. why is this so hard?
Thank you for your thoughtful replies. I'm inquiring
for the purpose of publication; please specifically
state if you do not wish to be quoted. Pornography
i dont want to be quoted, since i have not found anyone who can quote in
context, and without distorting what was said to prove the authors point.
is not the focus of the article(s); one is a discussion
it will be interesting to see you write an article that doesnt mention
porno.
statement when I called to query the article: "Yes, I'm
quite interested in the net, but isn't it full of trash?
Sure wouldn't want my kids on there."
i see he has read your articles.
does your boss know about all the porno you are able to see?
