Controversial Problems in UN net summit

According to “Controversy blights UN net summit”, by Jo Twist, the World Summit tried to bring technology to poor countries, but it is not going well. They decided to hold a meeting in Tunisia at a conference they first had in Geneva two years earlier. At the end of the summit, they decided to meet again in a few years to discuss progress in bringing technology to poor countries. There is a problem with censorship and who is the controller of the net. No one has enough money to help poor countries to bring technology. United States representatives used the summit to argue for electronic freedom, as well as civil rights in Tunisia anf the rest of the world. Huang Ju, the Chinese representative, said in order to protect the government against criminal action, they need to censor the Internet. Yoshio Utsumi, international Telecommunications Union secretary, disagreed with Huang Ju. Utsumi said everyone is supposed to have freedom to use internet. He said that must be done to have an information society.

There are many controversial issues in this article, such as censorship on the internet, bringing technology to poor countries, and freedom of speech.

Censorship is good under certain conditions. If I have children, it is my responsibilities to tell them what they can or cannot see on the internet, not the governments. In addition to age of the child, the content is important for deciding on what to censor. For example, how to make a bomb should not be on the internet. Safety concerns are appropriate for the internet.

Bringing technology dose not help poor countries. Poor countries don’t need technology yet, but it depends on how poor they are. If they are starving to death, internet is not even worth discussing. If they are ready for education, developed countries should help poor countries. I don’t believe that developed countries are lacking the money to help poor countries, because I read an article about computers powered by a hand crank that were sent by someone to poor countries.

Everyone has to have freedom of speech. We have right to say anything, but some countries don’t have it. So we have to make the right for other people too. If there are bad things going on, we have to be able to change. Governments should not limit people’s freedom, because some countries’ people are free, and it is not fair that people are forced to do what they don’t want to do.

In conclusion, there are three controversial problems, which are that censorship is good in moderation, that technology should be brought only to countries that will use it to educate people, and that freedom of speech needs to be everyone’s right. Censorship keeps us safe from criminal activity, but should not limit our discovering the world. Technology is not as important as food, and developed countries need to realize that. Finally, freedom of speech is very important to make the world better.

Twist, J. (2005, November 18). “Controversy blights UN net summit.” BBC News. Retrieved March 19, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4450474.stm