Sex, Violence, Explicit Language, Drugs

Sex, violence, explicit language, drugs, . . . Some people consider these subjects to be extremely inappropriate, while some people find nothing wrong with them. Still others do not think twice when they read about sex crimes in the newspapers, or when they hear Bart swearing at Homer on The Simpsons. Most people do not feel one way or another about this allegedly inappropriate material because it has become a part of life in the 1990's. Those few who would choose to act upon their dislike of this material try to censor it, be it on television, in movies, on the Internet, or anywhere else. Although people have a right to decide for themselves what is and is not inappropriate, censoring material pertaining to these subjects would be unfair to those people who enjoy it. Therefore, material on the Internet considered "inappropriate" by some people should not be censored.
There is quite a bit of material on the Internet that many people would consider distasteful, and much of this material can be easily accessed. Due to this fact, someone might unknowingly visit a Web site with this material and cause him- or herself mental harm (Liston 4). This is not the issue, however. The issue here is whether this offensive material should be censored from the Internet. The fact is that it does not matter if a person enjoys this type of material or not because they are not forced to view it by anyone in any way. It is not the responsibility of the people who post such material on the Internet to worry about who will be looking at it. On the contrary, it is the responsibility of the people to decide if this material is appropriate or not. In 1968, a system of film classification was adopted in the United States, rating movies for violence, sexual situations, adult language, etc. (Konvitz). These ratings give people a better idea of how appropriate a movie would be for them. On the Internet, however, one would have a very good idea of the content of a Web site, even without a...