Universal Internet access sounds great. But not the way the head of the Federal Communications Commission envisions it.
FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin is proposing that free wireless Net access be made available to everyone as part of a sale of public airwaves. At the same time, he wants filters put in place so that no smut slips through to impressionable young Web surfers.
This would be the first time such filters have been imposed by an Internet service provider rather than individual users, allowing government officials or a private company to decide what can and can't be seen online.
“It's very troubling," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a digital-rights watchdog. “A government-mandated filter at the network level means the government can block anything it finds objectionable."
The FCC will begin drawing up rules later this month to auction off bandwidth intended for wireless service. Martin wants the winning bidder to set aside a quarter of the airwaves for free Internet access. The winning bidder would still be able to cash in by using the remaining 75% of the bandwidth for higher-speed, no-filters-attached wireless Net access that would come with a monthly fee.
“This initiative brings with it the promise of a free basic broadband service to hundreds of thousands of Americans who currently have limited or no access to the high-speed Internet," Martin said in a statement. “It is important that we find new and creative ways to make broadband services more accessible, reliable and robust throughout our nation, and this initiative will help us meet that goal."
That's fine. But why link universal broadband access to the slippery slope of government censorship? I'm a dad and I certainly don't want my 7-year-old son visiting some of the more lascivious neighborhoods of cyberspace. So it's up to me to keep a watchful eye on his Web browsing.
As my son gets older and more technically proficient, I suppose I'll experiment with some of the commercially available Web filters out there, such as CyberPatrol or Net Nanny. Ultimately, of course, I'll have to let him go off-leash and hope for the best.
The point is, it's my choice as a parent to determine how much Web access my child is provided. It's a whole other matter when these decisions are made by Washington bureaucrats or some team of corporate programmers.
Robert Kenny, an FCC spokesman, said any adult who doesn't want a porn filter imposed on his or her free Net access would be able to opt out of the program. But he was unable to say how the age verification would work -- that is, how you'd know whether the person opting out is in fact a grown-up and not a 13-year-old boy.
“It would be up to the winning bidder to design the system and put it in place," Kenny said. What about the 1st Amendment? Isn't blocking Web content at the source -- even the most unsavory content --a violation of the content provider's right to free speech? “We believe that allowing adults to opt out addresses this issue," Kenny replied.
