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Mr. T Experience / "New Girlfriend" Copyright and contact information is located at the bottom of this magazine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonas E'Zine Volume 3, Issue 1 :: April 30, 1997 In this issue.. 1. Edicius' Editorial [essay] 2. Jonas News and Information 3. Odd Twist of Cyberadventure - compiled by Tom Sullivan 4. The Curse and Blessing of Humanity [essay] - by Brian Gatti 5. Problems at the Millennium [essay/humor] - by Auren Hoffman 6. Simon the Ant [fiction/humor] - by Jeffrey Brayne 7. Poetry - various writers 8. Reviews - by Tom Sullivan 9. Closing Notes and Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edicius' Editorial ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a suggested alternative to government censorship, net blocking software has become all the rage lately. Going by names like Cyber Sitter and Net Nanny, they've become the valuable tool in the fight against online pornography and indecent material. Parents don't have to look over their childrens' shoulders anymore, they can rely on a software program to watch their children for them. How much more mindless can they get? When did parents become so lax with their kids that they need the government and Silicon Valley to protect them? This goes much further then the "indecencies" of the Internet, it goes right down to the root of our social values. You don't just stumble upon pornography on the Internet, you have to outright seek it. You have to know where you're going to find it. Years ago, you could be walking through New York City, and you could come across sex shops and prostitutes. That's a lot easier then just browsing the Internet and "stumbling upon" www.pornshack.com. You're not going to get www.teenangels.com confused with www.shareware.com .. It's not that easy. If a parent teaches their kid the harmful effects of drugs and really, truly, instills good values in them, they're not going to have to worry about their kid smoking crack on the corner. Same thing here. If a parent really teaches their kid, they don't have to worry that their kid is going to be setting up dates with 40 year old guys in drag. Case in point: my ex-girlfriend. Among other amazingly stupid things that she's done, she ran away to Chicago to a guy that she met on America Online, and that she described as her "soul mate." Keep in mind, at this point she had only been using the computer for a few months, and she had only been talking to this guy for a month or so. He's 20, he sends her a $300 round trip train ticket from New York to Chicago, and when her parents go on vacation, she goes to Chicago for five days. During her trip, her parents never once called her house to see if she was all right. They were in Colorado, and to this day- almost six months later - they still don't know about this trip. Now, that's the difference between me and her. First off, I wouldn't take someone's train ticket and visit them halfway across the country without knowing who they were- and I couldn't possibly know a person that well after only a month or two. I'm like that because my parents taught me to be smart, they taught me that not everyone is a nice person. I don't take things at face value, and I wouldn't trust someone enough to go visit them in such a case. More importantly, my parents care about me enough to call when they're away. The second that they would call me and not know where I was, they would call someone to check on me. If no one could find me, my parents would be back in New Jersey looking for me. I wouldn't be able to get away for a day without them knowing, nevermind a week. Simple fact is, my parents care about what I do. But they taught me good, so they don't need to worry if I'm doing anything bad. They know I'm not going out and fucking myself up in life. When I leave them and venture off into the "real world", they don't need to worry; they did a good job raising me. For now, however, the "real world" is as close as this computer terminal for me. My parents know what I do on the computer. They're not techno-savvy, by any means. But they know whats up with my computer. They know the people that I hang out with that I know from the computer, because they've made sure that they met them before I hang out with them on an regular basis. Just like they've done with all of my other friends. Sooner or later, I make it a point to bring all of my friends to my house so that my parents know who I'm hanging out with. But even beyond that, of course they don't know everyone that I'm talking to, or everything that I do. Most of what I do does go beyond what I'm able to explain to them. Regardless of that, they can trust me that I'm not going to do anything stupid. They've taught me well. There's very little, in real life or on the computer, that I wouldn't do in front of my parents that I do behind their backs. They don't need the government or a silly software program to watch over me. Back to my ex-girlfriend, though. Her parents just went plain wrong with her upbringing. It's because of parents like hers that there's bills like the Communications Decency Act and software like Cyber Sitter and Net Nanny. If parents did a good job of raising their child, they wouldn't need to worry. That's the underlying theme of this article. If parents did a good job .. Unfortunately, some parents just haven't done a good job. They've let their children run astray in some areas. That's why they need a software program to watch over them. On the bad side for these parents, there's no software program to watch over their kids when they're at a party. You can't filter out "*!@*beer*drugs*sex*" in real life. I'm not saying that parents today are any better or worse then my parents are. It just seems that people today are more reliant on the technology available to guide their lives. My parents weren't "blessed" with this technology, so they had to raise their kids "on their own." Perhaps if the technology had been available, it would be different, but no one can answer that. You may be asking yourself why I have a negative view on net filtering software, such as Net Nanny and Cyber Sitter. The simple reason is, software like this does not work. These programs, along with filtering out indecent and pornographic sites, also filter out sites with valuable information, such as the National Organization for Women's website. There is no way for the user of this software to find out which sites are blocked except through trial and error. There is nothing that this user can do, because the file that stores the list of blocked sites is encrypted on the user's computer. This brings up another debate. Peacefire, a teen-run anti-censorship group, has released a program that will decrypt the site list file from Solid Oak's Cyber Sitter program, so that the user can see exactly what sites they are being blocked from. Is this the kind of filtering that should be going on? First the government is telling me what I can't do on the Internet, through vague definitions and huge loopholes. Now, a private company is telling me specifically what sites I can't visit because they don't think it's appropriate? Sure, there are some sites that are universally harmful to kids- sites that kids just shouldn't be looking at, such as the pornographic sites. But, just because this company sees a gay rights website as potentially harmful, they filter it out so no one that uses their software can see it. The worst part of this is that the user of this software may never know that these sites are being blocked out, unless they specifically tried to go to a blocked site. Yes, I know that I have a right not to use this software. But, software like this does not have a right to exist. Point blank, it's unconstitutional. It restricts freedom of speech, and that's just not right. It's worse when people don't realize, or aren't given the chance to realize, exactly what sites they aren't allowed to see. The government doesn't need to step in and regulate the Internet. Neither does a small company from California have that right. The only people that can control what I do on the Internet, or anything else for that matter, are my parents. Constitutional rights aside, my parents are my parents- it's a respect thing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonas News and Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's another issue of Jonas, hail hail. The website is totally phatty boombastic (read: really good) now. We've done a lot to it over the last month, and added a lot of features. There's still a lot more that we're going to be doing to it, so check it out. I've also redone my webpage, so check that out. (www.cybercomm.net/~edi/) I got a job at A&P. I push carts now, for $5.05 an hour. It's fun. I have no problems. There's a bunch of hot girls that I have no chance with that work there, so it's fun to stare. Oh yeah, April 2 came and went. It also marked our two year anniversary. No one sent me a card or a note of appreciation. Jonas was given very pleasent reviews in The Aquarian and Internet Underground. We got four stars from IU, and a nifty graphic for our webpage. Send us feedbank, visit out website, and enjoy Jonas E'Zine. Have a good one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Odd Twist of Cyberadventure :: compiled & writen by Tom Sullivan ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Taken from Jonas Issue 15: ----- In my local area, a case has been brought to light over the last few days. A woman living in the town of Long Branch, NJ, started recieving letters from men wanting to have sex with her. Stephany Willman, 41, believes that her ex-boyfriend, who now lives in Florida, scanned and posted nude pictures of her to "several erotic newsgroups." The pictures also included her address, and asked that lonely men write her. A South-Florida Internet provider, Icanet, has suspended the account of the poster of the pictures. It is not known whether or not her ex-boyfriend is using the account, but it is suspected. Icanet presidet, Bob Hurwitz said, "I caught him doing it again, and we put a cancel on his postings immediately." A man claiming to be Willman's ex-boyfriend called a local newspaper, the Asbury Park Press (who have been covering this story) and said, "I want to contact Bob Hurwitz and do anything I can to get Stephany's pictures off the Internet. I'm not a computer whiz and I'm not the horrible person everybody thinks I am." Of the 3 pictures posted, only one was nude. The other two were pictures of Stephany in a bikini. Police say that a harrassment case against Willman's ex-boyfriend remains open, but they will not pursue the case. It would be impossible to get the main from Florida to New Jersey for a disorderly charge. If enough evidence is found to prove that he really posted the pictures, then Florida Police would have to handle the case. ----- In a very odd twist of "cyberfate", I was forwarded the following posting from Usenet: ----- Subject: Re: Stephany Willman - Document of Child Neglect From: Johanna Wagner