Whether it is prurient photographs or the unchecked lure of pedophiles, sexual exposure, for many, poses the biggest Internet threat. But the fears go well beyond sex and pornography. Ray Hyman, a psychologist at the University of Oregon, agrees. The Internet aggravates the problem of what I call information pollution. Much of the stuff you find is nonsense, but because it comes off the computer it has the mark of being credible.
Experts are spilt on the efficacy of fringe group recruiting on the Internet.
Cults need to keep people isolated from other ideas, and the Internet puts you in continuous access with thousands of other ideas. Although opponents argue that the causes of seditious militias and cults are societal, those in favor of censorship note that the Net makes the dissemination of dangerous information infinitely easier. Censorship, the argument goes, is needed to keep this from occurring. Fear of sedition, anarchy, and the like, however, are not unique as the next millennium approaches. In America, society and the legal system have grappled with such issues since before Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence and colonial residents took up arms against the English King.