Filtering the Web

Here's a topic that seems to get some people up at arms but the majority...not so much.

My daughter's school, like all US schools (if they want federal funding) must use some kind of web filtering.

I'm kind of torn on that issue; I don't normally agree with censorship, but if everyone approached technology like I do then it wouldn't really matter. I don't really care about what's out there. It's like censoring math or technology. This stuff is out there. Sheltering people from being exposed to it is just pretending it isn't there. And if you didn't realize it already, life ain't like it was depicted in Leave It to Beaver.

I'm continually amazed that television was actually regulated down by the powers that be...the people who had the power to produce TV shows at the time...to the point where it was pretended that married couples didn't sleep in the same bed. Shows like I Love Lucy were considered breakthrough...she got pregnant! And they slept in the same room! I wonder if the two were related?

If you read your history you will find that life was most certainly more raunchy and baudy then ever depicted in media. Hiding this fact doesn't make it magically erase from history.

In my view, in my own little mental world, we can be responsible for what we view and do.

Just as with the real world, there are horrible and wonderful and amazing and scary things on the Internet.

That's my view. Unfortunately, I know some teenagers.

I see the Internet as a vast resource. A library. A diversion. A creative outlet. A medium on which to paint my feelings, my hopes, and find others expressing themselves as well. It's a way to find news and find new ways of thinking about things and ideas and events.

Most people see the Internet as just a toy. It's a way to get free music. It's a way to play cheap Flash games. It's a way to find boobies.

I'm not against games. I'm not against music, or boobies. But that's not all I see the Internet for. Most users that's pretty much it. It's not a tool for creativity, it's an extension of the television set with more possibilities for explosions, violence and boobs.

In other words, it's an extension of passive entertainment.

If others would truly utilize the Internet to exploit the possibility of leaving a fingerprint in our short lives perhaps things would be a little different. Instead it's just a way for people to forever send forwarded messages to each other.

While I don't support censorship and the ethical questions that come into play when you broach the subject, I do think that I've seen way too many teenagers waste time and resources...like their lives...on silly passive activities on the Internet instead of using it as a tool for creating. I think they should earn the right to look at webberboobs. I think they should pay in learning before shifting from drooling in front of the TV to drooling in front of the keyboard.

This is just the 10,000 foot overview on the subject through my glasses. What do you think?