Provenzano 1

Mia Provenzano

Vyvial

ENGL 1302

29 April 2017

A Healthy Proposal

In almost every circumstance, in every part of the world, some form of censorship is used

throughout conversation and interaction. Censorship is the act of suppressing or deleting

expression that is considered objectionable on moral, political, religious, military, or other

grounds (Sweeny). Censorship, as used in democratic nations, is generally used to protect

innocence or to avoid being offensive to others. In America, television shows can be censored in

order to avoid teaching young children bad words. In other areas of the world, though,

censorship is used to a greater extent. North Korea, for example, is a nation that follows the

Confucian examination model, which then leads to the practice of rigorous censorship

(Cull). North Korea censors all aspects of human interaction in order to force the nation into

obeying their leaders. The word censorship usually holds a negative connotation, however it does

not always mean repressing a person. Censorship can protect a persons morals or innocence.

Though censorship can be a dangerous tool used to suppress individual development, as seen in

North Korea, if used in moderation, censorship can actually be used for the protection of the

American people.

America is a melting pot of ideas, morals, beliefs, and religions. All across the nation,

people are free to say and do as they please. The same is true on the internet. On the web,

anything can be shared or displayed, included images and shared standards of how a persons

body should look. These beliefs are the cause of the increase of body dissatisfaction in women
 Provenzano 2

and men alike (Gunadttir). On social media platforms, people are in a constant state of sharing

their ideals of beauty. For example, social media uses the basic interest in viewing beautiful

people as one method to attract viewership which can lead to body dissatisfaction in those

viewing. When surfing the web, people are bombarded with beautiful women and men that are

unrealistic to the average viewers body. The tactics that are used to attract viewers also causes a

decline in low self-esteem, and can eventually lead to the development of eating disorders

(Media and Body Dissatisfaction). Social media can be a platform for cultivating unrealistic

body standards that people are unable to achieve without drastic measures, like starving

themselves. Failure to emulate the ideals in which shared on Twitter, or Instagram impacts users

so strongly that their confidence and health is at risk. Though social media was created with the

intent of joining people together and creating an interesting, fun environment and can easily be

manipulated to do the opposite. The rise in internet use is leading to the unfortunate rise in body

dissatisfaction. This is why the internet needs regulations and censorship. In order to prevent the

negative impact that social media has, censorship should be implicated. However, this form of

censorship would not be used to suppress a person or remove their individuality. This censorship

would instead be a way for Americans to protect themselves against the dangerous ideals found

on social media.

America is a nation that was created to be free. The freedoms in which the American

people are granted allows them to practice individuality. The first amendment is most notable for

the protection of this individuality. Freedom of religion, press and religion are all protected by

the first amendment, including what is said or done online. The internet, as stated above, can

cultivate a negative environment in which people are influenced to comply with unrealistic body

standards. It is because of the risk that people face while interacting on social media that the first
 Provenzano 3

amendment be restricted on the internet. Censorship should be online with the sole purpose of

protecting the American population. Without censorship, the internet has too much freedom

which can become a threat to individual character or collective order (Sweeny). Repealing the

first amendment to a certain degree specifically on the internet would restrict the negative impact

that advertisements, models, thinspiration accounts, along with others, would have on people.

The repealing of the first amendment would only be applied to the internet, not in real world

settings. It would also only be applied to images, posts and advertisements that display a persons

body. Censoring aspects of the internet that may be unsafe is necessary in protecting the publics

self-esteem and confidence.

To implement such a change is a difficult task because of the way in which American

people find immense pride in their rights as a US citizen. However, the execution of the Safe

Internet Act, as it has been named, is not a tactic to repress or take away a persons beliefs, ideas

or moral, but to simply protect the emotional welfare of other users. This is why the SIA (Safe

Internet Act) would be placed under the General Welfare Clause of Section 8, article 1 of the

United States Constitution. The General Welfare Clause is an aspect of the constitution that states

that Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the

debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States (Voigt).

This clause provides a means in which congress has the ability to collect money from citizens to

fund a plan that was created to help the general population. The Safe Internet Act, like other

plans under article 8, is placed in order to aid the well-being of US citizens. Having the Safe

Internet Act listed under the General Welfare Clause would provide the necessary means to pay

for censoring the internet. It also serves as a way to display to the American people that the SIA

is unlike other countrys forms of censorship. Instead of absolute control to repress people, the
 Provenzano 4

SIA still allows thought and individuality while simultaneously protecting users from the risk of

developing body dissatisfaction or eating disorders. The Safe Internet Act is a plan created for

the American people that will be most effective at preventing low self-esteem cause my social

media when enacted under the General Welfare Clause.

Restricting something like the internet is seemingly impossible. However, other nations

that practice censorship, such as China and North Korea, provide a multitude of techniques that

can be applied to make the SIA work efficiently. For example, URL filtering, IP address

blocking, and packet filtering are the biggest tactics that would regulate social media. URL

filtering and IP address blocking are both used to limit what can be accessed on the internet.

When in place, URL filtering, does exactly as it says, filter URLs that may contain target words

or phrases, similar to IP address blocking (Gillies). This would stop the creation of sites or

media pages specifically aimed towards thinspiration or encourages people to become thin.

Packet filtering is another form of censorship that is able to analyze the frequency of keywords

and terminate[s] packet transmissions when a certain number of controversial keywords are

detected (Gillies). This would be the main technique of censorship used by the Safe Internet

Act. Packet filtering would remove posts that are in any relation to body image. Posts on social

media that display a model, person, or statement of the ideal body image will be removed.

Moderators will also be interacting with the internet at all times in order to monitor social media

sites and prevent the spreading of standards.

There are many objections to censorship. Some may say that any form of censorship can

become a slippery slope that can lead to the government taking absolute control of the internet.

Though censorship is known for being suppressive, the Safe Internet Act will be regulated and

monitored. For example, a code of ethics and constant surveillance by the users of the internet
 Provenzano 5

will force the censoring to remain moral without removing a persons thought or ideas. When

analyzing the SIA a person must understand that the act only applies to the web. Censoring body

image relating posts online is necessary because of how powerful the internet is. Online, the

internet can be manipulated and shaped to be something dangerous, which is why censoring will

help remove any risk that people may endure without it. Ending the societal expectations of

beauty and how a persons body should be shaped on the internet is an incredibly hard task. The

SIA is the best, and so far the only, course of action that may change the internet.

The Safe Internet Act is a form of censorship that may be hard to accept. Though

censorship can be manipulated to control people and gain power, the SIA will remain regulated

by the public and it shall never be applied to the physical world. Having some form of

censorship, especially on the unrealistic and dangerous standards of beauty that is found on

social media, will allow Americans to browse without thinking about if they comply with

societal ideal. The internet is a platform of ideas and thought, it allows people to spread, share,

and say whatever they want. Though this the internet can be used for great things, it can also be

used to form mass expectations and unrealistic beliefs about the human body. Censoring the

images or posts that aid in the cultivation of body standards will remove the influence on a

person to comply with the dangerous, unrealistic ideals.

 Provenzano 6

Works Cited

Cull, Nicholas J. "Korea." Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500

to the Present, Nicholas John Cull, et al., ABC-CLIO, 1st edition, 2003. Credo Reference,

http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/abcprop/korea/0. Accessed 29 Apr 2017.

Gillies, A. "Internet, Regulation and Censorship." Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, edited by

Ruth Chadwick, Elsevier Science & Technology, 2nd edition, 2012. Credo Reference,

http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/estappeth/internet_regulation_and_censor

ship/0. Accessed 30 Apr 2017.

Gunadttir, Unnur and Ragna B. Gararsdttir. "The Influence of Materialism and Ideal Body

Internalization on Body-Dissatisfaction and Body-Shaping Behaviors of Young Men and

Women: Support for the Consumer Culture Impact Model." Scandinavian Journal of

Psychology, vol. 55, no. 2, Apr. 2014, pp. 151-159. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/sjop.12101.

"Media and Body Dissatisfaction." The Psych 101 Series: Media Psychology 101, Christopher

Ferguson, Springer Publishing Company, 1st edition, 2015. Credo Reference,

http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/spmedia/media_and_body_dissatisfaction/

0. Accessed 29 Apr 2017.

Sweeney, Michael S. "Censorship." Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications,

Donald Johnston, Elsevier Science & Technology, 1st edition, 2003. Credo Reference,

http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/estimc/censorship/0. Accessed 29 Apr

2017.

Voigt, Steven T. "The General Welfare Clause: An Exploration of Original Intent and

Constitutional Limits Pertaining to the Rapidly Expanding Federal Budget." Creighton

 Provenzano 7

Law Review, vol. 43, no. 2, Feb. 2010, pp. 543-562. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h