Information Technology Acts Paper
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BIS/220
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Lauri Figueroa
Information Technology Acts Paper
Advances in technology has changed the world in thousands of ways. Some are beneficial, such as improvements in medical equipment that allow diseases to be cured or to increase understanding of the unknown in our oceans and even space. Other advances have been harmful, like the development of the atomic bomb, bio-chemical weapons, and man-made drugs that can be abused such as meth. There is a gray area though, were some technology can be used for good or bad. One example of this gray area is the internet.
Studies on sex and drugs, films such as Jackass, and potentially bias blogs narrating opinions on gender association, race, and political viewpoints are very overwhelming to children who have no guidance on the topic. Due to realization of the effects this unfiltered information had on children, the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was passed to limit the places this information could be accessed by them. Ethically, we as a society could not allow underage kids the ability to view pornography, hateful broadcasting, or knowledge or harmful substances. In addition to the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which gives incentives to schools and libraries to place filters on their computers according to the Federal Communications Commission (http://www.fcc.gov/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act), many schools now offer drug information programs and in-depth sex education classes to further support the guided learning approach so that underage individuals may have a better understanding of the information they may encounter in environments that are not censored for their benefit.
Children are not the only ones to be effected by the internet’s ability to display unwanted information or images though. In 2003 Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act to address the rapid growth in unwanted commercial electronic mail messages, also known as the Controlling the Assault of Non-solicited Pornography and Marketing Act.