[8907] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: What Will It Take To Educate TV About the Net?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Scott J. Carlson)
Sat Dec 11 14:30:32 1993
From: carlson@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu (Scott J. Carlson)
To: tully@cscns.com (Ed Tully)
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1993 13:30:22 -0600 (CST)
Cc: postman@lists.psi.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9312110909.AA21183@cns.cscns.com> from "Ed Tully" at Dec 11, 93 02:09:41 am
'Ed Tully'
>
> While I basically agree with you, Dave, I think you must admit there is a
> dark side to the net for 6-10 year olds. Access providers should begin
> offering access only to 18 year olds on some of the newsgroups. And
> further require access to them by anybody with a written request and
> feedback verification.
This would be very nice, but who would keep track of this. Surely someone
wouldn't want to be responsible for say
alt.sex There must be about 5000 posts on there a day from probably
10,000 people. That would be some big job keeping track of which of those
were 18, and which of those had sent in thier forms.etc.etc.etc.
If there were some electronic way of screening or something, then it would
be another story. Say some IP Checking system that actually checked userid
as well.
I am not a prude, but I certainly am concerned about
> school children, particularly the younger ones, reading some of the
> raunchier news groups. I do a lot of work with schools, as I know you do,
> and that is a seriuos holdup of universal application in many school
> districts. I don't have an answer, but I certainly recognize the problem -
> as did Prime Time - and as big a fan as I am of the Net, one kid is worth
> 10 nets - especially if the kid was mine or my grandchild. Our society has
> a majority of latchkey kids. parents cannot watch them 24 hours a day.
> Could be a real trouble spot. And please, no flames on censorship or
> yellow journalism advocate junk mail. If we want universal access to the
> little kids, recognize the problem and solve it. We won't do business on
> the net with people who advertise a legitimate business - yet we turn our
> heads and ignore this problem. That strikes me as strange as the front page
> of a local newspaer depicting the Hubbel Rescue on one half the page and the
> dying homeless on the other half - and I don't think anyone noticed the
> stark contrast!
It is really funny how all of the bad things about a certain issue always
seem to be in the spotlight.
Sure if I knew what I was doing, and was under 18, I could as quickly
download a very X rated Image, as I could the documents of the last
congressional meeting, or maybe an updated weather image.
It really would help, if someone who knew the net pretty much 'inside and
out' took all of these journalists on a weekend venture through 'cyberspace'.
Scott Carlson
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This Message Compliments of:
Scott J. Carlson
Computer Science LAN Supervisor
Moorhead State University
Carlson@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu
Carlson@mhdcs.moorhead.msus.edu
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