Emerging ethical issues in computer networking include freedom of speech, censorship, privacy, anonymity, harassment, and the carriage of offensive material (including hate literature, defamatory material, and sexually explicit material, usually considered to be of a pornographic nature). Despite the often fevered pitch of concern and urgency surrounding these issues, which touch upon contemporary free speech and censorship debates, they have yet to be adequately addressed by computer ethicists … What constitutes electronic free speech or harassment or slander? What is the line between public and private information, and between rights and misappropriation? … How have contemporary debates over pornography, censorship, and free speech impacted upon the debates on academic freedom, censorship, and computers? How are new legal remedies for computer networking being framed in light of current legal and regulatory mechanisms for other communication technologies?
Predictor: Shade, Leslie Regan
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 paper, McGill University graduate student, Leslie Regan Shade, discusses free speech and censorship on the Internet. She writes: ”Emerging ethical issues in computer networking include freedom of speech, censorship, privacy, anonymity, harassment, and the carriage of offensive material (including hate literature, defamatory material, and sexually explicit material, usually considered to be of a pornographic nature). Despite the often fevered pitch of concern and urgency surrounding these issues, which touch upon contemporary free speech and censorship debates, they have yet to be adequately addressed by computer ethicists … What constitutes electronic free speech or harassment or slander? What is the line between public and private information, and between rights and misappropriation? … How have contemporary debates over pornography, censorship, and free speech impacted upon the debates on academic freedom, censorship, and computers? How are new legal remedies for computer networking being framed in light of current legal and regulatory mechanisms for other communication technologies?Ó
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Ethics/Values
Name of publication: Ethical Issues in Computer Networking: Academic Freedom, Usenet, Censorship, and Freedom of Speech
Title, headline, chapter name: Ethical Issues in Computer Networking: Academic Freedom, Usenet, Censorship, and Freedom of Speech
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
gopher://insight.mcmaster.ca:70/00/org/efc/doc/shade.23nov93
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne