Once every so often there arises a parliamentarian, who discovers that by combining the words "Internet" and "sex", he is assured of a newspaper headline. The Knesset committee for scientific and technological research and development yesterday resolved to explore the possible imposition of censorship on information distributed over the Internet, without thereby infringing the principle of freedom of expression. Like any parliamentary resolution, this one too reflects, from any legal and practical standpoint, its proponents' command of unalloyed logic.
A form of censorship that does not infringe upon freedom of expression has yet to be vouchsafed a waiting world. Any censorship, by its very nature, infringes upon freedom of expression, the only question being the extent of the damage and whether it is inflicted for a meritorious purpose.
The distinguished committee was shocked to hear that the Internet carries a wealth of information on the Israel Air Force and Israeli missile deployment. And it goes without saying that as soon as Israeli citizens are barred from accessing this information, then the Syrian and Iraqi intelligence services too, will promptly desist from surfing the Net. For the attention of the legislative assembly: even if Israeli access servers block access to these sites, they will still be able to be viewed from Israel through foreign servers. In the era of Barak and Golden Lines, an overseas call isn't even a financial burden.
Above all else, the committee debate is proof that miracles have not ceased from the Land of Israel: a "Torah U'Meida" Yeshiva student told horrified MKs, and I quote, that he had reached pornographic sites "while searching for automobiles". All I ask is why it never happens to me! In the hundreds of surfing hours I have notched up in the past two years, never once has a pornographic site popped up by accident. Never have I keyed in "law" and got "sex".
Let the lawmakers take note: every page appearing on the computer display results from affirmative action. Every page requires the click of the mouse on a link before it is accessed. Sex sites do not lie demurely concealed. On the contrary, they cry their wares very loudly, and in very explicit terms, so as to attract surfers. Thus, Yeshiva students fearful of what might affront their sight have a perfect solution to hand.
MK Oshaya, palpitating at the sight of certain pictures, asked: "Are these the pictures my daughters see on the Internet"? A very simple device exists for the protection of MK Oshaya's daughters. The Internet has no end of software programs for blocking access to such shocking sites. They can be purchased for a negligible sum of money. Their only drawback is that they also block out newspaper headlines such as those the Hon. Knesset member gained following yesterday's debate.
Israel, if it imposes any censorship whatsoever on the Internet, will fall in line with such model democracies as the Chinese Republic, Singapore and various Arab regimes. In the United States, by contrast, the Supreme Court has already ruled, in "Attorney General of the United States et al v. American Civil Liberties Union, Reno, that legal provisions prohibiting the transfer of indecent or improper information and pornographic material to minors, on the Internet, are unconstitutional, since they run counter to the First Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with freedom of expression. The question is, of course, who we would rather resemble. Or, more precisely, what decision will gain the bigger newspaper headlines.
Published by Israel's Business Arena February 26, 1998