Regulating The Internet: Whos In Charge :: essays research papers

Regulating The Internet Whos In ChargeThe net was started by the military in the late forties, and has sincegrown to an incredibly large and tortuous web, which will no doubt effect all ofus in the years to have it off. The press has recently taken it upon themselves toeducate the public to the baleful side of this web, a network which should beveiwed as a nasty resource of information and entertainment. Instead, dueto this negative image, more and more slew are shying away from the net income,afraid of what they may come upon there. We must find a way to regulate what is there,protect ourselves from what is unregulatable, and educate the general cosmoson how to use this tremendous tool."The reality exists that governance of global networks offers majorchallenges to the user, providers, and policy makers to define their boundariesand their system of govenment" (Harassim, p84)The intemet is a group of networks, linked together, which is adequate to(p) oftransmitti ng vast amounts of information from one network to a nonher. Theinternet knows no boundaries and is not located in any single country. The latent the internet has of shaping our world in the future is inconceivable.But with all its potential the internet is surrounded by questions of its usage.The intemet was named the global village by McLuhan and Fiore in 1968, butrecently the internet has been more properly renamed the global metropolis.Robert Fortner defines the internet as a place where people from all differentcultures and backgrounds come together to share ideas and information."Communication in a metropolis as well reflects the ethnic, racial, and sexualinequalities that exist generally in the society. (Fortner, p25)When a person enters into a global metropolis to engage in communicationthey do not know who they will interact with nor do they know what informationthat they may come across. Which brings an important question to mind. If thisis a community, a global metr opolis, should it not be governed to protect themembers of the community? But more importantly, can a community that knows noboundaries and belongs to no country, be regulated? And who can or shouldregulate it?With the vast amounts of information transmitted through network to network,with some information remaining at sites temporarily or disappearing insideseconds, how can one regulate it? In a meeting of the Senate learn Committee onCommunity Standards in Australia, iiNet, an Australian intemet provider,presented facts on how a great deal information passes through their server daily."Our own network sees over 200,000 items of netmail between individuals every