From Robert Clark, Information Systems Division University College London
Recent articles on Internet censorship have argued against attempts to
control content mainly on the basis of the impracticalities of available
technical mechanisms (Off with its head, 16 March, p 44 and Forum, 6 April, p
48). The conclusion drawn is that censorship will work to the detriment of
legitimate activities such as research and commerce. However, both articles are
written from the viewpoint of responsible, male (and probably white)
users.
My perspective is different. I have to deal with the victims of cyber abuse.
Occasionally, this takes the form of complaints from female students who have
been exposed to pornography displayed on screens in public computer rooms. This
is rightly construed as a form of sexual harassment.
More frequently, staff and students have been the recipients of unwanted
e-mail, usually merely irritating in content but sometimes in the form of
vicious and personally targeted racial or sexual abuse. This kind of e-mail is
always disguised, either by being sent via anonymous remailers, or by using the
mail facility in recent versions of Netscape, or by telneting via the SMTP port
of distant hosts. Our auditing facilities show that abusive e-mail usually
originates from outside our own institution.
This abuse is a new psychopathology—”cyberstalking” —and its
victims are understandably traumatised by it.
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I do not believe that my institution is worse off than any other in these
matters. I despair of the focus on pornography, as usually this is something
that an Internet user has to seek out actively. E-mail arrives whether you want
it or not, and few users realise they are “at risk”.
I have no solutions but am seriously considering amending our registration
forms to a include a “health warning”.
