Censored Internet on College Campuses

Ajit Vakharia

Today, students have the privilege to go anywhere on the internet they want on college campuses. This includes sites to watch television shows they might have missed, look up instructions to make a cake, find directions to the nearest golf course, and look at adult rated sites, and even download copyrighted material illegally. This brings up the question whether colleges should censor certain sites preventing students from going to them. According to the University of Richmond, thirty-four percent of college students download music illegally with college campuses being the most popular location for downloading illegal material. Colleges need to start monitoring and censoring sites that allow students the privilege to download such material. Copyright material is the property of the artist or whoever made the material. It is not fair for these artists to not get the money they deserve for their work since college students are downloading the material illegally. Many students also do not realize that if they are caught downloading items illegally, they could be put in prison and fined heavily. Earlier this year, a Boston University graduate student was ordered by the court to pay 675 thousand dollars for illegally downloading and sharing 800 songs over an eight year period, 1999 to 2007. Universities could thus protect their students by blocking sites and programs that allow students to download and share music or anything else illegally, so these students cannot get caught on campus downloading and put in prison of fined heavily. If such initiatives were put in place, both students and colleges can work together to make sure everyone benefits and no one party is unhappy. Colleges and universities need to make sure their students realize the danger in downloading such material and by blocking such websites and programs, colleges are only protecting their students.