Censoring on its own means “examining something officially and suppressing unacceptable parts of it.” Applying this definition to the realm of technology, one would say that censorship means that certain persons—individuals, groups or government officials—find the data or information involved objectionable or dangerous and have proceeded to control or suppress what exactly is accessible or available to any individual using the Internet (i.e. words, images, ideas, etc.). The unacceptable parts of the internet that could potentially be censored would most likely be information or data that would be harmful if the wrong person were to read or hear it. A censor typically stems from concerned individual(s) who believe that censorship of the particular data can improve society, protect a group of people (usually children), and restore what they deem as lost moral values. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that there are certain narrow categories of speech that are not protected by the First Amendment: “obscenity, child pornography, defamation, and “fighting words,” or speech that …show more content…
Censorship used in schools is justified, because it ensures that internet use is appropriate for the school setting, and in particular the eyes of young children. Some libraries may use censorship in order to block access to certain web pages, including pornography, advertising, chat, gaming, social networking, and online forum sites, because pages such as these, may be considered unsafe for some users that could potentially access the internet from the library. Companies may use censorship in order to control what websites their employees may view on their internet during the time that they should be working. Such censorship would be beneficial, because it would ensure that employees are remaining productive and not using the internet for activities like social media, games, or other