A Change of Heart

Last month I wrote about how internet filters are not the best safeguard against internet smut, but I've since had a small change of heart. Filters can be good training wheels for younger people as they learn to navigate the internet and control themselves. Dr. Knutsen's lecture on the chemical soup that regulates our sex drive helped me see internet safety in a different light. I still maintain that our individual moral fiber is ultimately what keeps us from falling into the funnel of sexual arousal at inappropriate times, but youngsters, especially teenagers, are more vulnerable to their these hormones. Filters can provide a small barrier against making poor decisions while they mature. Even better, a combination of filters and having open conversation with your children will prepare them to make good decisions later in life once on their own.

Taking a Position

Imagine, if you will, a stranger following you around, recording what you read, where you frequent, and who your friends are. Creepy, right? Many technology-based companies follow our online lives in similar fashion, and are becoming ever more intrusive; this must stop.  Such companies make money by selling our personal data they collect to advertisers. Since some of these companies offer their services for free, I don't begrudge them collecting data about use of their products, but they've gone too far when they go beyond that and track all our online activity. Just within the last month or so I've learned Twitter wants to track what apps you download to your mobile device, both Verizon and AT&T have been secretly including trackers on cellphones subscribed to their networks, and Google is able to compile disturbingly detailed user profiles on its users. I propose that there needs to be more limits on how much information companies can gather about individuals so we can protect our privacy.