Your turn: Let’s lock arms and work together to keep children safe online

While our law-makers wrestle with their desire to be a part of the “rule making” pertaining to the internet, I firmly believe, grandstand behavior, in an abusive, insulting tone of voice will not in any way, hasten the discovery of how to keep the youngsters of the world safe, while they use incredible connective tool known as the internet.

Protecting our children, grand-children and all the children of the world who do not fall within one’s particular family, has, I believe, always been a societal goal.

Sadly, the world we live in, and have lived in for eons, has always been fraught with individuals of society who “hunt” for ways to exploit the vulnerable around them.

Today, these persons have at their disposal, a device they can put to use, while remaining anonymous until they have lured their prey into their web.

As the purveyors of the “internet services” struggle to stay ahead of the perpetrators of the illicit materials, and I believe this is one of their main goals, our governing bodies are watching their progress in this “war” very closely.

Rightfully so.

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In so doing, this “war” on what is and what is not acceptable, ran head on into, and not for the first time, the First Amendment of our Constitution.

In 1996 the Communications Decency Act was written. Intended to protect minors from unsuitable internet material, the Act criminalized the intentional transmission of "obscene or indecent" messages as well as the transmission of information which depicts or describes "sexual or excretory activities or organs" in a manner deemed "offensive" by community standards.

In 1997, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Reno v. ACLU that the anti-indecency provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.

The landmark ruling affirmed the dangers of censoring what one judge called “the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed.” The court also wrote that “the interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship.”

With all of that said, most of us will continue to be diligent as we work to protect those most vulnerable.

I also believe attacking the individuals whose creations have been put to questionable and at times dangerous use, will not, in this universe or any other, help to weed out those misusing their product.

In this case the creators are not the ones attacking those most vulnerable. Those violating the vulnerable are the predators of the world.

Unfortunately, since the beginning of man, evil seeks out the weak and vulnerable. So much of the time that equates to the youngest and the oldest members of society.

Fast forward to 2024 and the ease of access to materials on the electronic devices the world can no longer live without and our children have close to unlimited access, predators have found ways topresent our youngsters with “material” no child should ever see or hear.

Much of the “materials” I referred to, shouldn’t be seen by anyone.

Can these illicit acts be prevented? I do not have the answer to that question.

I have to believe the heads of Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and X, all companies represented at the resent hearings, are keenly aware of, and are, working with groups of dedicated and extremely competent men and women, to keep weeding out those who misuse their platforms.

I say again — Let’s lock arms and work together, rather than lock horns.

George B. Graham Jr. is an author, lifetime associate member of the Korean War Veterans Association, member of the Macon County Historical Society, Macon, Missouri, and member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Let’s lock arms, work together to keep children safe online