In future, we will see the growth of a new kind of social life-one that crosses borders, but does not necessarily transcend cultures or interests. More telephone calls go from Germany to Turkey, for example, than from Germany to the United States. People will build friendships with strangers across the world-sometimes more readily than with the family next door. Something that is acceptable on a screen in the United States may horrify devout Moslems in Saudi Arabia. For those who are determined to have access to evil, the communications revolution will make it easier to do so.
Most democratic societies are likely to find the costs of banning such access too high.
On the other hand, many people will want the material that reaches their homes to be screened, and will be prepared in exchange to sacrifice access to some of what is available on the Internet and in other ways. The model will be the commercial circulating libraries of Victorian England, which sternly refused to carry books that they deemed unsuitable for reading aloud to a family audience. This was censorship, performed by the private sector, in response to perceived market demand. Similar services will thrive on the Internet. Q. Some politicians and community activists warn that a high-tech world will ultimately hurt the poor, technologically illiterate and disenfranchised.