"Despite the cold wind blowing outside, I was red with rage yesterday and engaged in a heated argument involving my brother. I had caught him red-handed as he scrolled through my phone; perusing texts, emails, and Instagram messages that were private to me, and certainly off limits for a nosy older brother. This desire for privacy and the injustice of someone violating it, strikes a cord with most people. In recent years, the american public has become outraged over discoveries of their ‚Äúbig brother‚Äù-the government- snooping on private email messages, texts, and internet data. Yet, after weighing the arguments on both sides, the implications of government monitoring internet content are far greater and more complex than the implications of my brother discovering who my secret crush was. I believe that United States Government has the responsibility to monitor internet content when, and only when, it must be done in order to fulfill their duty of protecting the safety of the public and their rights. …show more content…
Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the New England Courant said, “Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or control the Right of another.” Many people argue that another reason the government should not be allowed to monitor the internet is because that could lead to abuse of our first amendment rights of free speech. However, as Benjamin Franklin point out, there clearly is a point when individuals violate their own rights, by harming the lives of others. The Megan Meier Foundation reports that over 1 million children are bullied on Facebook alone every year, with cyberbullying being a main cause in the 4, 400 suicide deaths in teens. It is clearly time someone, especially local governments, monitor this content and stops this needless loss of