© 1997 j-dom Media. Contact us!We've often been taught to "Never judge a book by its cover." Yet it seems now that we are going to be encouraged to judge web sites by their labels. This seems to be pretty close to ignoring that important lesson. Every site is unique and cannot be classified under a simplistic system.
As is the case with the V-chip the labels are highly subjective and kids tend to be more technically able anyway, making it likely that they'll by-pass any protection. The fact of the matter is that labels can be abused by the people setting them. If you set your own you could maliciously make them misrepresentative of what you offer. Government regimes might censor democratic organizations' web sites and companies offering labeling systems might accept payments to censor sites. So Microsoft could pay for a competitor's sites to "disappear" from the Net. The possibilities are endless.
The labeling system is merely passing the buck. Parents are waiving the moral decisions in favor of some unknown strangers working in companies somewhere. Kids are going to see pornography at school from a friend if not on the Net. Parents saw it didn't they? The Net shows the wonderful diversity of the world's peoples and kids should be allowed an unrestrained view of that. If parents feel strongly about their kids not seeing certain things or are worried about their being upset by seeing things then they need to supervise their kids. Their can't rely on someone else, its up to them to pass on their values to their children.
Labelling will even kill the Net as we know it. See how in Part 2.
