Key
Concepts and Vocabulary
Key
Concepts
•
First Amendment
• Freedom of Speech
• Accountability
• Communications Decency Act of 1996
• Censorship
First
Amendment
The
First Amendment is a part of the Bill of Rights of United States
Constitution. It prohibits the government from making laws that
establish religion (the "Establishment Clause") or prohibit
free exercise of religion (the "Free Exercise Clause"),
laws that infringe the freedom of speech, infringe the freedom
of the press, limit the right to assemble peaceably, or limit
the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Freedom
of Speech
Freedom
of Speech is a right derived from the 1st and 14th Amendments
to the United States Constitution, to express information, ideas,
and opinions free of government restrictions based on content.
A modern legal test of the legitimacy of proposed restrictions
on freedom of speech was stated in the opinion by Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Jr. in Schenk v. U.S. (1919): a restriction is legitimate
only if the speech in question poses a "clear and present
danger" — i.e., a risk or threat to safety or to other
public interests that is serious and imminent.
Accountability
An
obligation or willingness of an individual to accept responsibility
or to account for his or her actions.
Communications
Decency Act of 1996 (Title V of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996)
The
Communications Decency Act (CDA) was the first
attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic
material on the Internet. Title V affected the Internet (and online
communications) in two significant ways. First, it attempted to
regulate both indecency (when available to children) and obscenity
in cyberspace.
The
Act imposed criminal sanctions on anyone whoknowingly (A) uses
an interactive computer service to send to a specific person or
persons under 18 years of age, or (B) uses any interactive computer
service to display in a manner available to a person under 18
years of age, any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image,
or other communication that, in context, depicts or describes,
in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community
standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs.
It also criminalized the transmission of materials that were "obscene
or indecent" to persons known to be under 18.
In
Philadelphia on June 12, 1996 a panel of federal judges overturned
part of the CDA, saying it would infringe upon the free speech
rights of adults. The next month, another US federal court in
New York struck down the portion of the CDA intended to protect
children from indecent speech as too broad. On June 26, 1997,
the Supreme Court upheld the Philadelphia court's decision in
the landmark cyber law case of ACLU v. Reno. The court
stated that the indecency provisions were an unconstitutional
abridgement of the First Amendment right to free speech because
they did not permit parents to decide for themselves what material
was acceptable for their children, it extended to non-commercial
speech, and did not define what the law meant by "patently
offensive," a term with no prior legal meaning
The
second part of this Act, Section 230 of the Act, declared that
operators of Internet services were not to be considered as publishers
(and thus legally liable for the words of third parties who use
their services. Section 230 stated in part that "No provider
or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as
the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another
information content provider".
Through
the so-called Good Samaritan provision, this section also protects
ISPs from liability for restricting access to certain material
or giving others the technical means to restrict access to that
material. This part of the Act was not overturned and is still
in effect today.
Censorship
The act of deleting parts of publications or correspondence or
theatrical performances. Censoring involves examination in order
to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable.
Vocabulary
•
blog
• chat room
• cyberbullying
• e-zines
• filtering
• libel
• social network
• ISP
• URL
blog
An abbreviation for the term “web log” which is a
web site containing periodic posts. Blogs often function much
like newspaper columns. A blogger is the person who writes for
and maintains a blog.
chat room
A real-time electronic forum; a virtual room where visitors can
meet others and share ideas on a particular subject.
cyberbullying
Cyberbullying involves the use of communication technologies such
as e-mail, text messages, instant messaging, social networking
web sites, and online personal polling web sites, to support deliberate,
repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that
is intended to harm others
e-zine
An online magazine that is delivered in an electronic form. The
magazine may be online-only, or may be the online version of an
otherwise print-published magazine. Most e-zinest caters to a
niche or special interest subject matter.
filtering
Blocking certain types of data using a software program or ability
of a program that reads data in and manipulates the data to fit
another output pattern or removes data that may not be needed
or allowed. These programs are sometimes known as censorware or
content filters. For example, a parent control Internet filter
is used to help block obscene web sites from children on the Internet
while a government can use filters to block information on the
Internet from reaching its citizens.
ISP
A company that provides users access to the Internet.
libel
A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures
that damages a person's reputation.
social
network
A web site on the Internet that brings people together in a central
location to talk, gossip, share ideas, share interests, make new
friends, etc. A social network may also be known as a virtual
community or a profile site. Some of the more popular social networks
include:
• Bebo ( http://www.bebo.com/
) - A site where users can share photo's, stories, their
journal, and more with friends and family privately or publicly
on the Internet.
• Classmates ( http://www.classmates.com/
) – A site that brings together and allows people
who graduated from a given to communicate.
• Friendster ( http://www.friendster.com/
) - A social network, similar to MySpace, that brings together
friends, family, and allows you to meet new people who share
similar interests to you from all over the world.
• FaceBook (http://www.facebook.com/)
– The social network is similar to MySpace but is a more
closed environment. While it is used more by college students
and working adults, some high school students have pages posted
on it.
• MySpace ( http://www.myspace.com/
) - One of the most popular social networks and one of the most
viewed web site on the Internet.
• Orkut ( http://www.orkut.com/
) - A popular service from Google that provides you a location
to socialize with your friends and family, and meet new acquaintances
from all around the world.
• StumbleUpon ( http://www.stumbleupon.com/
) – A community of Internet users who vote for web pages
they like and dislike and allows users to create their own personal
page of interesting sites they come across.
• TagWorld ( http://www.tagworld.com/
) Great clean social networking site that brings users together
who enjoy similar music tastes or other similar interests. In
addition to allowing users to create their own blog users can
post videos, music, etc and/or browse other users videos and
music.
• Windows Live Spaces ( http://spaces.live.com/
) - A service by Microsoft that allows any user to create their
own personal blog and social networking site.
• Yahoo 360° ( http://360.yahoo.com/
) - A service from Yahoo that allows users to create their own
web page containing their own personal journal, pictures, favorite,
links and allows users to share with other users and create
their own friend network.
• YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/
) - A network of users posting video blogs or Vlog's and other
fun and interesting videos.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator (formerly Universal Resource Locator).
An Internet address which tells a browser where to find an Internet
resource. For example, the URL for Wal-Mart is http://www.walmart.com/.
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