Chris Tolley's "Green Ribbons"

There are many people, myself included, who have to grit their teeth when explaining that they use the Internet. Why? Well, one of the commonest reactions from people when I explain that I use the Internet concerns "all the pornography on it". People who don't know the Internet "know" that it's full of porn. Well, actually it isn't. Not full, anyway. But there is a sufficient amount of porn and other offensive material that you can't turn over many pages before discovering something you'd rather you hadn't read. And lots of people have heard about this.

I believe in Free Speech. I think that it is only by communicating that we can become better adjusted to each other. We have to talk to learn about each other. We have to negotiate. We have to communicate. But communication is a two-way thing. It isn't just a case of person A forcing their views on person B. It must be possible for person A to speak in such a way that his speech does not in and of itself restrict person B's freedom. Communication works best when it is measured and polite.

The kind of Free Speech I advocate is the kind which leaves both parties to the conversation free. I'm against the kind of free speech in which party A exploits party B. That isn't free speech at all. It's an abuse of power. It's an insult.

So, my pages have a green ribbon on, not a blue one. That shows that I respect your right to publish whatever you want, but at the same time, I believe you have a duty behave responsibly when you do. The key word is "responsibly". The Internet is brilliant. It's too brilliant to allow it to be restricted by the kind of laws which would become necessary to ban offensive materials. Responsible speech is that form of speech which does not invite that legislation.

If your Internet Service Provider carries material that you object to, do something about it. If it is against the rules of that service provider, complain about it and get it removed. If it isn't against the rules of that service provider, transfer your account to a different one with rules that reflect your preferences. My account is with UKOnline, and one of the main reasons for that is that UKOnline's rules specifically ban the distribution of obscene or offensive materials via web pages on their server. Another handy benefit is that subscribers have unlimited web space!

(And for those of you who want to know my specific views on pornography, as I mentioned it above, here's what I think: I don't believe there is any virtue in it whatsoever. In some circumstances it is harmful, both to the people who are involved in its production and its end users. It can and does cheapen relationships. I believe that people who use the Internet to distribute pornography without ensuring that minors cannot see it are not acting responsibly. The overwhelming majority of the people who distribute pornography on the Internet hide behind aliases or "anonymisers." That's proof enough that even they are ashamed of what they are doing...)

This page is a part of Chris Tolley's web-site. Latest update: Friday, July 06, 2001 03:11
Links on my pages can point to other web-sites. If you find that the administrators of those web-sites have made changes which mean you can't access them, please let me know, so I can update or remove the links. As far as I know, none of my links point to sites likely to contain offensive material - but if you discover otherwise, please let me know, as I would like to remove such links from my pages.
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©1996 to 2001: Christopher J. Tolley