Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 19:20:16 -0500 (EST) X-Sender: lynna@postoffice.yorku.ca Mime-Version: 1.0 To: webgrrls-toronto@webgrrls.com From: Lynna Landstreet Subject: TWG: Re: Net Censorship (Warning: Long!) Sender: owner-webgrrls-toronto@webgrrls.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: Lynna Landstreet Status: Brandi Jasmine writes: >Cybersitter and Netnanny are voluntary though - at the same time that I am >against censorship of the Usenet and the Web, I also support technological >tools that assist people from blocking what they find objectionable - if >they have that ability for themselves then they are less likely to try to >legislate a solution. Well, yes and no. Certainly, I think people have the right to decide what *they themselves* do and don't want to see. But the major purpose of programs like that is to allow people, usually parents, to decide what *other* people, usually kids, can and can't see. There's a bit of a difference there. I know that the idea of "protecting children from [fill in the blank - sex, violence, politics, reality, etc.]" is a bit of a sacred cow, but it's one that I, at least, have some mixed feelings about... >This is anathema to censorship "purists" - but I think there is >also a right NOT to see what you don't want to see, a right for employers >to decide what their equipment will be used for, a right for parents to >decide what their minor children will see. The problem with parents' "right" to decide what their children can and can't see is, in part, the definition of a child. A six-year-old and a sixteen-year-old are very different creatures. And while I don't think too many people would contest the idea that some things aren't suitable for the former, when you start dealing with teenagers, things become a little more complex. I will try to be a little more specific about what I mean, with reference to my own experience (and I hope this doesn't get too "political" for WebGrrls - feel free to tell me to shut up if it does...): I'm a lesbian. I came out "officially" at 19, though I had questions about my sexuality before then - for a *long* time before then. I never dated boys in high school. But I was relatively lucky in that when I did come out, (a) my parents were relatively cool about it, and (b) I was already living on my own so there wasn't much they could have done about it in any case. But a lot of other young gays and lesbians, including a lot of my friends, are not nearly as lucky. I have known people whose parents responded to their coming out - or being "outed" - by beating them up, throwing them out of the house, trying to commit them to psychiatric institutions, disowning them, and other not-so-nice things. As a result, some ended up on the street, in trouble with drugs or alcohol, or attempting suicide - gay and lesbian teenagers have a *very* high suicide rate. As I've said, my own experience was pretty mild in comparison. But even so, during those initial "questioning" days when I was still living at home, had never met another gay person in my life and was terrified to talk to even my comparatively liberal parents about it, having access to some kind of information and support could have made me feel a lot better. There was no Internet in those days (yeah, I know, I'm showing my age), and no gay youth phone lines or anything else like that that I knew of. I was left to deal with my fears and alienation and loneliness on my own. For kids with very conservative or fanatically religious parents, or kids who live in smaller communities or rural areas, it's much worse. The Internet can sometimes be, quite literally, a lifeline. At a time when you're feeling that vulnerable and scared and isolated, being able to find out that there's others like you, that you're not a freak, that there's a caring community out there, can be the difference between hanging on until you're 18 and out of there, or swallowing that bottle of pills... On one Fidonet BBS I was on in my pre-Internet days, there was a 16-year-old lesbian who lived with her fundamentalist Christian family in a tiny town in the US midwest. Her mother was an abusive alcoholic who she feared would kill her if she ever found out her sexuality. She said at several points that having understanding people to talk to in the women's echo she frequented was the only thing that kept her going. One day she stopped posting, and never returned. We were all sick with worry for her, and we never did find out what happened. I just hope she somehow ended up getting away... In an ideal world, yes, it might make sense to say that parents should have control over what their kids can see. But we don't live in an ideal world. Some parents are abusers, bigots, religious fanatics, or otherwise destructive to their kids lives and well-being. And it's not just gay and lesbian teenagers who are at risk. A good friend of mine, who is straight and now in her forties, tried to kill herself at the age of *10* because her stepfather was sexually abusing her. Her family lived on a farm and there was nowhere she could go to get away. For a child in that position now, the Net could make a big difference - but not if daddy dearest has installed software that blocks any mention of sex, including sexual abuse. >Better Netnanny than the Communications Decency Act. Well, I think we can agree on that, at least, but I'm not convinced it's all *that* much better. It's like trying to decide between having an arm cut off, or your head - one choice might be less damaging, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't still try to avoid either one of them. Besides, some of the "self-censorship" technologies have some pretty scary potential - like PICS. I'm going to paste what I wrote about that in Xtra into another message - this one's plenty long already. Lynna __________________________________________________________________________ Every thing that Lynna Landstreet lives is Holy. Environmental Studies York University - William Blake Toronto, Ontario, Canada http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2709