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SHOULD THE INTERNET BE REGULATED BY LEGISLATION?
The relevance of internet in today's society
The internet has come to be one of the most
significant pillars of information technology in
society today; it is quickly expanding and it is
and will continue to remain a very relevant part
of numerous individuals lives, and how can it
not be, when it is seen as a blend of an
entertainment centre, a library, a global notice
board, a post box, an information hall, a chat
line, a banking entry, and a shopping hall, more
or less the things that dictate how the world
revolves today,
Why does legislation regulate?
Policy makers have the mandate to control
certain issues by law in order to govern a
society while at the same time protect every
individual's rights and interests. Some of the
key issues they look at when deliberating
internet regulations are; Online property rights
(e.g. Internet taxation, digital certificates,),
online content (e.g. Violence, language, sex and
nudity), this is in the interest of protecting
minors from harmful content, and online crime
(issues such as credit and fraud, terrorism,
copyright theft, prostitution among other
things)
Importance of free internet to the individual
The internet is a great threshold of
interaction, with people looking to it to
satisfy their developed IT wants and needs,
therefore Individuals interests and rights
should be respected and protected, and the
traditional edict of a personâ's dignity and
privacy should be upheld and revered. One should
be able to explore the virtual world, learn from
it and interact without the fear of having their
personal space violated; it is a despairing
feeling for a user to learn that their privacy
has been contravened. With studies and
analysisâ's revolving the internet and its
control conducted, it is worth noting that the
more people became familiar with the internet,
its function and the concerns surrounding its
regulation, they were more likely to verbalize
their opinions and maintain that users should be
able to supervise and control internet content
themselves.
Conclusion
The question of whether the Internet should be
regulated or be left to develop without
conformation is a topic that has sparked and
continues to raise heated debates amongst
Legislators, Entrepreneurs, and Individuals of
interest among others. While about
three-quarters of the masses would like some
form of internet content regulation, a great
number concurrently does not see how that sort
of order could be realized. It would be
unfeasible to try and regulate what would be,
indispensable private claims with the same
authority as would be needed to control public
applications, not forgetting that unlike other
communication networks regulating the internet
would be rather cumbersome because it is so
infinite and global, and even if one tried it is
just impossible, a programmer once said, that
the internet actually interprets any kind of
censorship as damage and actually evades and
routes about it, furthermore censorship software
are quite rudimentary in their execution and
sometimes end up blocking access to some useful
sites, so all in all the legislators should not
be so quick to regulate, there are actual
repercussions for doing that, that affect so
many.
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