Once again, it looks like the free-range days of the "wild west" are coming to an end. Since its inception, the internet has allowed us to make like children and re-create the lawless days of Jesse James and Billy the Kid. But sooner or later, we all have to grow up, and that includes you, too, dear internet.
In the recent months, there's been a lot of talk circulating about the NSA monitoring and storing our on-line activity, and recent legislative action to reign in the NSA's far reaching power was defeated. While favor for the man responsible for leaking the details of the program, Edward Snowden, is on the decline, many of us still feel violated, like we're entering the age of Big Brother. And now, in England, massive reform is being suggested that would block users from accessing pornographic sites without first asking for permission.
Attempts to legislate the internet are nothing new; remember the debate over SOPA and PIPA, two separate bills targeted at preventing online piracy? While they may have been defeated, it's only a matter of time before a new piece of legislation is introduced, and actually passes into law.
Look, I know we're all hoping for the final outcome to be some dream piece of legislation to pass that's going to let us have our cake and eat it, too; but the hard reality is, whatever shape these new bills take, the internet is going to change, and change can be a pretty scary thing.
I do accept that part of the problem with some current, and prior attempts to bring about this change, is the very people drafting the legislation admit to not really understanding the nature of the "internet". Sure, it may be something we all use, and use on a daily basis, but how many of us really understand how the internet really "works". And regarding national security, we know that the internet poses some kind of new avenue for bad people to do bad things, but how can you police it without stripping away our essential constitutional rights?
This is usually the part where I proffer up a message of encouragement and reassurance, but in this instance, the best I can say is whether we like it or not, change is coming, and there is little we can do to stop it. The world of the internet is unlike anything that has come before it, and we can't expect to shoehorn our old methods of dealing with theft and security into the digital realm. The internet has given us a new way of looking at and interacting with the world, and with any great privilege is going to come with an even greater responsibility, and consequences. And maybe if we can accept this, then we can at least enter into the conversation in a meaningful way.
Cody Hobbs
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