Essay
Gallery
Harmful Contents on the
Internet
Satoya Hoshino
Integrated Skills
November 24, 2004
Harmful contents are becoming a huge problem as the technology of the internet develops. According to the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications in Japan's White Paper 2004, the internet users are increasing dramatically(1). That means the chances of meeting harmful contents and violating human rights are increasing also. So, the problem is very close to all of us. In this essay, I'm going to cover three main points: the current situation of harmful contents, Japanese laws related to harmful contents and the best way to root out harmful contents on the internet.
When we think about harmful contents, there is always a question. What are harmful contents? Harmful contents are such contents as pornography, violent sites and sites that abuse human rights. Those contents are getting to be a social problem and the government and groups of people are trying to root them out. How many harmful contents exist now? According to the Japan Internet .com, the one hundred seventy thousand of harmful contents are exist. There are so many harmful contents on the internet that everyone has a chance to meet them accidentally.
Secondly I'd like to explain Japanese laws. Harmful contents are caused by the development and widespread of use of the internet. The effects are that those contents could encourage people to commit crimes and that people's human rights could be violated. To catch up with the development of technology, many laws have been enacted. One of them is the Law for Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and for Protection of Children. According to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the law stipulates that a person who sells child pornography products shall be punished with imprisonment with labor and a fine. I think enacting a new law to deal with child pornography is good because it would apply for crimes which were uncovered by previous laws. However, there are still a lot of uncovered crimes which are very sophisticated by using computer technology and the gray-zone of laws.
Finally, what is the best way of rooting out harmful contents? As I mentioned, the Japanese law cannot cover all problems of harmful contents. So I think people's effort is the most important thing to root out those contents. According to the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, a content filter can keep harmful contents away from internet users by installing the software(2).
I've covered the current situation of harmful contents on the internet, Japanese laws to abolish harmful contents, and the best way of rooting out harmful contents. It is almost impossible to root out all harmful contents on the internet even though we have laws to abolish it. So, decreasing the number of people who see those contents is the best way not to benefit the providers. Filtering could be one of the most reasonable ways to decrease the number. We need to be careful about harmful contents, and try to protect ourselves by ourselves.
References
1 "White Paper 2004." Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications in Japan: No Date Available. 12 November 2004
<http://www.johotsusintokei.soumu.go.jp/whitepaper/eng/WP2004/2004-index.html>
2 "Filtering FAQ." Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility: 6 April 2001. 29 September 2004. <http://www.cpsr.org/filters/faq.html>
