Chilling effect of Internet requirements ...
Peter Jones
for children. I would like to pose the question: Is the world safe for
children? Are books safe for children? Is the drinking water safe for
children? The fact is that the world is a place where we all reside and,
for those of you who haven't noticed, it is, at times, not safe for many of
us.
It is simply wishful thinking to believe that the Internet will be rendered
'safe' for children at some point in time. It is going to be no more 'safe'
than any other communication medium. Are movies and the theaters our
children go to 'safe'? I frequent a theater with 21 cinemas and see young
children dashing about by themselves all of the time. Does it mean that we
should clamp down and get those darn theater operators?
The Internet is a wonderful, enlightening, dynamic communication media in
which we need to strive to create exciting, innovative learning
environments for children to use and thrive in. Our focus should be on the
positive always trying to work toward a healthier model. No it is not
appropriate for commercial operators on the web to take advantage of
someones server operations. My suggestion is that you have a lawyer write
to the offending group and possibly take action against them. This would do
more to help children than to raise red flags in front of all of us about
what a dangerous world it is.
Sincerely,
Peter Jones
>While I'm all in favor of Acceptable Use Agreement and Social Contracts,
>there remains a serious problem that such documents and agreements don't
>address.
>
>I operate a small non-profit educational outreach service for the K-12
>community. Over the weekend, one of our mail servers was hit by a
>junk mail spammer who dumped tens of thousands of e-mail ads for Viagra
>onto our server, expecting them to be forwarded on to subscribers at
>AOL and CompuServe. This junk mail spammer went to great lengths to
>avoid using his own return address or his own mailer to deliver the
>traffic. The load swamped our system and rendered it unusable for 4
>days running.
>
>The ISP of the junk mail spammer, AGIS.Net, ignored my call for intervention
>and allowed their commercial subscriber to operate unchecked all weekend.
>
>No matter how much we try, the abusers discover new ways to defeat the
>anti-spam features and overrun systems like ours. I don't see how we
>are going to make the Internet safe for children with unethical businesses
>abusing resources dedicated to the K-12 community.
>
>Barry Kort, Ph.D.
>Consulting Scientist
>MuseNet K-12 Project
Peter Jones
Truth is I don't like "such behavior" any more than you do but I like to
learn from history. History suggests to me that all new enterprises
introduced to humanity come with good and bad. Highways evoled and at one
point billboards proliferated. As a nation we decided that we would like to
live without them and for many years we debated their existance. We came to
consensus and they are now part of history.
The lesson I have learned from history (both current and past) watching
humanity struggle with the good and evil of the world is that part of what
makes us human is the struggle to overcome the least desirable of our human
traits. Yes, the Internet is not a perfect world. Never will be. It seems
to me that the energy we expend should be focused on communicating, in
productive ways, about how we improve this wonderful environment to shape
it in positive ways.
Please read my last note. I do not suggest we succumb to the aggresive,
unproductive, greed exhibited by those who have taken advantage of you. I
suggested that we not go around fear mongering about how this is a great
threat to children. The threat comes from overreacting to our personal
circumstances and projecting our anger in a way that LIMITS the
opportunities for children. Lets take it in stride and push back against
it. It would be a true tragedy if we reacted to "spammers" illegal
activities by limiting our children's choices.
Sincerely,
Peter
>Peter,
>
>Did we spend 30 years and billions of dollars developing the Internet just
>to deliver it up to a gang of abusive users to exploit it recklessly?
>
>We somehow managed to rid our Interstate highways of billboards, and
>we don't have anonymous gangs going around plastering bumper stickers
>all over your car, forcing you to carry ads for disreputable companies.
>
>Why should such behavior be welcomed and tolerated on the Internet?
>
>Barry