As we go running down the info highway and approach the digital crossroads where our freewheeling pop culture starts to collide with the information revolution we find a never-ending source of fine folks whose moral duty it seems is to curb it. Either curb it or ban it. The word censorship has been used so often and in such contrasting purposes that its true meaning has ceased to exist. There is no consensus these days as to what censorship is, or who the censors are, or even how we as individuals feel about the issue. We always talk about censors as someone else.
Censors are an institution or some third party entity.
But, in truth we are all censors of a sort. Just as we get comfortable with one form of censorship, in our library, on TV and in the movies, along comes another new-media technology of some sort and our emotions get involved again. Parents, politicians and other moral guardians who find it intolerable to put young people in contact with sexually explicit material or urge boycotts of advertisers that sponsor offending TV programs are all practicing censorship of one form or another. Certainly most of us find these activities laudable. But there is inherent danger in any form of censorship.