Can you imagine a place where expressing your own opinion is not allowed? Picture not being able to research a topic of your interest. Can you imagine a place where you can get penalized for your choice of words? Can you imagine living in a society that prohibits you from expressing yourself the way you like? Well, if you live in a democratic society, you probably cannot imagine living under such strict laws. In a democratic society, freedom of speech is necessary because a democratic government is government run for the people, by the people and of the people. Freedom of speech allows us to express ourselves both publicly and privately. Censoring the Internet is a very complex issue that is open for debate.
             Should the Internet be censored? Many people might agree on this and those are the people who have younger children online. Many parents feel that the Internet should definitely be censored because the Internet allows minors to explore sites that may be harmful to them; such sites might include pornography. Pornography is a big issue for parents because they feel that it exists all over the Internet. They are not mistaken; it is fairly easy to find pornography on the net. Nonetheless, you will not actually see pornographic entities unless you open up the site. Just like the Internet, pornography also exists in television and the movie industry. The fact is that if you want to see pornography you will turn on the television to the specific channel and choose to watch it. Many times people may receive pornographic mail, but unless you open the mail you are not exposed to pornography. Instead of censoring the net, there are alternative solutions. Parents and schools may purchase Surf Watch and Net Nanny instead of insisting on censoring the Internet as a whole. The problem is that the use of children in order to help the media censor the net is very easy. People have a soft spot for children, they know that they are defenseless and ...