The internet has had mixed reviews over the course of its surprisingly short runtime. With people arguing that it’s beneficial, useful and downright needed in modern day society. While others saying that it’s a burden, things were easier before it, and it’s just caused more trouble. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Well, i’d like to believe that it’s a mix of both.

The internet, in my opinion, is much more of a grey area than most people like to believe. With the increased use of the internet in modern times we can certainly see those issues and successes come too fruition. The internet undoubtably brings people together and spreads many more opinions than used to be shared. Though, this brings its own faults into play. Just how good is having everyone, and everything shown on the internet? how far is too far and where should we draw the line as far as censorship?

Well it’s been widely know that, as long as the internet has been a topic, that children will find their way onto and around it, being privy to things that really shouldn’t be viewed by children. It’s become so widely known that even adults use this to their advantage on sites such as youtube to push “children’s content” that isn’t so much content for kids but rather using widely known characters to attract children’s attention and gain notoriety. Eventually gaining profit from such views.

One such example is that of “Elsagate” back a few years ago on YouTube. This was a time where channels on YouTube would skate by the censorship bots on youtube and gain millions to BILLIONS of views on YouTube Kids by making crude, disgusting, and downright inappropriate videos marketed towards kids. Many channels on the platform who had caught wind of this had put forward complaints to youtube’s team to take these videos down, censoring the imagery that these “kids channels”. Though, the creators of such “kids channels” had argued that they hadn’t, in fact, made these videos for kids but were marketing them towards adults, hence why they weren’t penalized by YouTube’s team.

This, for me, is a prime example of one of the core issues with the internet in modern times. With such immediate and fast technology, we gain access to that of the web, but at the same time, there doesn’t seem to be a bar of censorship that draws the line. There’s no in-between yet, and just like we had discussed in class, while there’s a wide variety of content on the internet, there hasn’t been much in the way of censorship as of yet. We rely on certain people to do this for us. Which, in turn, hurts those in charge of such a steep task. There’s isn’t a line in the sand, and if things like these don’t go unchecked, then what may happen in the future?