It’s High Noon In Cyberspace
Dodge City, Kansas. Abilene, Texas. Tombstone, Ariz. Each name conjures an image of the Old West, where, for a time, lawlessness reigned.
Today the wild frontier exists in cyberspace, where sexual predators and bandits roam as freely as computer geeks and schoolchildren. As in the Old West, civilization must gradually emerge.
On Feb. 6, a U.S. customs agent and an undercover Spokane police officer strode into cyberworld and made an important arrest. Dr. Barry Kottler, a New Mexico Public Health Service doctor, was caught after allegedly transmitting 23 pictures of children engaged in sex acts, and negotiating to have sex with an 8-year-old girl.
These diligent law enforcement officials tamed a small corner of the Internet with Kottler’s arrest, and made the online world safer for children. They deserve congratulations.
Children have much to gain from exploring the technology of the future, but are among the web’s most vulnerable visitors. Just as the Old West had to be civilized for the well-being of young pioneer families, the Internet must be corralled for the benefit of the estimated 10 million children who venture there.
Throughout U.S. history, we have waged an important struggle to protect First Amendment freedoms of adults while guarding the safety and well-being of children. A similar balance must be struck on the Net.
Aggressive enforcement of the country’s laws helps to set a clear limit. Child pornography, ruled the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982, is not protected speech. It is child abuse.
Parents, children’s advocacy groups, librarians, teachers and legislators also must grapple with appropriate ways to safeguard children.
Technology already has developed many innovative answers. New software such as NetNanny will block or filter offensive sites and Internet providers such as America Online offer parental controls over kids’ access to web sites and chat rooms. Other ideas include rating systems and special search engines designed for children.
Last week, congressional hearings examined a new bill requiring schools and libraries to filter sexual material. The bill was roundly criticized, but an innovative solution was proposed by a most unlikely source. A Seattle Internet pornography tycoon, Seth Warshavsky, proposed creating an on-line “red light district” for adults only and designing a V-chip for all computers that could block these sites.
The answers to these complex questions undoubtedly lie in the very creativity which spawned the Internet revolution itself.
In the meantime, let’s thank the good guys - and women - in white hats. Wyatt Earp would have been proud.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jamie Tobias Neely For the editorial board