limiting access

Je ne regrette rien (LOOMER@ECSUC.CTSTATEU.EDU)
Sun, 31 Aug 1997 12:13:00 -0400 (EDT)

i have been reading with interest the different perspectives being
given here. i happen to be the parent of a teenager as well as an
artist who has some nude and erotic art online. and i've also had
a little experience filtering access (to a small extent) on a com-
mercial online system.

my conclusion based on all of the above is that what we don't know
*can* harm us. parents aren't cocoons for their offspring (well,
other than at newborn and helpless stages). each of us enters the
world alone, we must each of us ultimately find our own way through
life (shoals of sexual content and all), and before we leave, we
have to make *lots* of choices on our own.

it so happens that my son has been a journalist from the age of 12,
that his paternal grandmother was one of the first commissioners on
the state freedom of information commission in the state where we
live, and that his paternal grandfather was a newspaper editor and
writer. so you see why i *have* to argue in favor of free access.
it really is my family's lifeblood.

there has always been nastiness in the world ('sodom' was biblical
to begin with, after all). a value system is the best we can do.
but the world has become way way too consumer-structured. i want to
at least get real information, not become the consumer of packages
of factoids put together by anyone's (bill clinton's, bill gates's,
ANY middleman's) information archives.

leanna loomer

loomer@ecsuc.ctstateu.edu <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>
<> <> <> <> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/leannaloomer/