[12969] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France -- Restricting the Internet?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Tue Jun 15 20:20:58 1999
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 15:17:46 -0600
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@well.com>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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FYI France -- Restricting the Internet?
The French appear to be interested in "Internet restriction", and
in US attitudes toward this thorny problem. The appeal which I
made recently for suggestions on the topic yielded a number of
replies from France (...and a number of others, all to receive
their replies from me in turn I promise, just as soon as I can
get them done...)
In the meantime, a large and growing list of "Internet Use
Policies" and other resources on the whole question of Internet
restriction now may be found at,
http://www.fyifrance.com/fy1275a.htm
and -- as with anything on FYI France -- all suggestions,
comments, and criticisms will be welcome, particularly any which
suggest new W3 sites and other resouces on Internet restriction.
The idea is to provide both the French and the non - French with
a site useful to anyone concerned about efforts to restrict
Internet access by users. Child safety and censorship are the
primary concerns, and Internet restriction by libraries
specifically, but persuasive arguments for the inclusion of other
topics will be welcome as well.
My own prejudice, I will admit, is for complete freedom of
information for adults coupled with severe restrictions on access
by children. This extremist view -- open to adults, but far more
closed to children than currently is the case -- is not shared by
most who have been writing to me, from France or elsewhere. Most
seem to be in either the "civil libertarian" or "censorship"
camp, with little boundary - spanning of these two coming in from
other interests such as children, or cultural difference, or even
religious difference -- some folks just want the pipe more open,
some more shut, it doesn't seem to go much further than that.
ALA, the American Library Association, long has taken a very firm
position advocating open Internet access for children, albeit
with strong parental supervision -- a position which influences
most library "Internet Use Policies" in the US which I have found
so far. It is a position with which I personally do not agree.
My hope is that French and other FYI France users -- and US
librarians as well -- will examine the US position carefully and
perhaps suggest foreign views which contrast or support.
The site is intended to serve as an index only, and not to
represent any particular point of view in the debates. Although
short excerpts from some sites may be quoted, this will be done
not to represent the site quoted but to encourage users to go
there and look, and judge, for themselves -- always with a live
link, to help them to do this.
This is not the only site online devoted to its general subject:
as others are discovered or suggested links to them will be added
as well. As anyone else comes across interesting material in
France about Internet restriction, particularly by libraries and
particularly regarding Internet access by children, I hope they
will let me know.
We have had high school shootings in the US recently -- too many
of them -- and these and much else that is wrong with society are
being attributed to the freedom of information now found, and
found moreover by children, on the Internet. French writers are
horrified by this: their children are not as unruly or as violent
as are ours in the US -- yet -- but there is a great and growing
fear in France that they might become so and, once again in
France as in the US, the Internet is being blamed by many.
Alarming events like the US high school shootings often happen
for only a very short time -- terrible as they are, things
change, society moves on. Before Internet restrictions which
could curb the free speech of several generations of users are
imposed, in reaction to possibly very transitory recent events,
they need to be very carefully considered.
Jack Kessler, kessler@well.sf.ca.us
--oOo--
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