cyberspace ：if you don't love it ,leave it

something  in the American psyche loves new frontiers. We hanker after wide-open spaces ;we like to explore ;we like to make rules but refuse to follow them .But in this age it's hard to find a place where you can go and be yourself without worrying about he neighbours .

    There is such a place : cyberspace . Formerly a playground for computer fans ,cyberspace . Formely a playground   for computer fans ,cyberspace now embraces every conceivable constituency : school lchildren , flirtatious ,singles ,dirty pictures behind their bedroom doors provoke a crackdown ?

     The first order of business is to grasp what cyberspace is . It might help to leave beind metaphors 隐喻 of highways and frontiers and to think instead of real estate . Real estate ,remember ,is an intellectual ,legal ,artificial environment constructed on top of land. Real estate recognizes the difference between parkland and shopping mall ,between red-light zone and school district ,between church ,state and drugstore .

      in the same way , you could think of cyberspace as a giant and unbounded world of virtual real estate .Some property is privatedly owned and rented out ; other property is common land ; some places are suitable for children , and others are best avoided by all citizens . Unfortunately ,it's those places that are now capturing the popular imagination ,plaecs that offer bombmaking instructions ,pornography 色情（或淫秽）材料, advice on how to steal credit cards .They make cyberspace sound like a nasty place . Good citizens jump to a conclusion : Better regulate it .

      But before using regulations to counter indecency ,it is fundamental to interpret the nature of cyberspace . Cyberspace isn't a frontier where wicked people can grab unsuspecting children ,nor is it a giant television system that can beam offensive讨厌的 messages at unwilling 不情愿的viewers . In this kind of real estate ,users have to choose where thy visit ,what they see ,what they do .It's optional可选择的 .In other words 换句话说,cyberspace is a voluntary destination --in reality事实上 ,many destinations  .You don't just get "onto the Net" ;you have to go someplace in particular尤其、特别 . That means that people can choose where to go and what to see .Yes , community standards should be enforced ,but  those standards set by cyberspace communities themselves ,not by the courts or by politicians in Washington .

     what makes cyberspace so alluring 诱惑的、迷人的is precisely精确的 the way in which it's different from shopping malls , television ,highways and other terrestrial 地球的jurisdictions 司法权、裁判权.But let's define the territory区域 :

      First ,there are private e-malil conversations ,similar to the conversations you have over the teleophone .These are private and consensual 经双方同意的and require no regulation at all .

      Second , there are information and  entertainment services , wehre people can download anytihing from legal texts and lists of "great new restaurants " to game software or dirty下流的、恶劣的 pictures . These places are like bookstores ,malls and movie houses --places whre you go to buy something .The customer needs to request an item or sign up for a subscription 捐款、订阅; stuff 材料 (especially pornography ) is not sent out to people who don't ask for it .Some of these services are free or included as part of a broader service like ComputerServe or America Online ; others charge may and may bill their customers directly .

       Third ,there are "real" communities ---groups of people who communicate among themselves . In real-estate terms ,they're like bars or restaurants or bathhouses . Each active participate contributes to a general conversation ,generally through posted messages . Other participant 参与者 may simply listen or watch 　．Some services are supervised  by a moderator ; others are more like bulletin boards点子公告牌 ---anyone is free to post anything .Many of these services started out unmoderated but are now imposing rules to keep out unwanted advertising ,extraneous外部的、不相干的 discussions or increasingly rude participants .

        cyberspace communitis evolve演变、进化 just the way terrestrial ommunities do : people with like-minded具有相似意向或目的的 interests band together联合起来 . Every cyberspace community has its own character . Overall大体上、总的来说 , the communities on CompuServe tend to趋向 be more professsional ; those on AmericaOnline , affluent 富裕的、充足的young singles ;Prodigy奇才、天才 family-oriented itself there are lots of passionate热切的、强烈的 non-commercial discussion groups on topics ranging from Hungarian  politics  (hungary Online ) copyright

 law .

       what's unique特有的 about cyberspace is that it allows communities of any size and kind to flourish ; in cyberspace ,communities are chosen by the users , not forced on them by accidents 偶然性of geography地理、地形、地势 . This freedom gives the rules that precise准确的 in cyberspace a moral authority that rules in terrestrial environments don't have . Most people are stuck in the country of their birth, but if you don't like the rules of a given cyberspace community ,they can restrict their children's access to it .

       what's likely to happen in cyberspace is the formation of new communities ,free of the constraits that cause conflict on earth . Instead of a global village ,which is a nice dream but impossible to manage , we'll hae invented another world of self-contained communities that cater to their own members' inclinations without interfering with anyoneelse's The possibility of a real market-style evolution of governance is at hand .In cyberpace ,we'll be able to test and evolve rules governing wht needs to be governed --intellectual property ,content and access control , rules about privacy and free speech .Some communities will allow anyone in ;others will restrict access to members who qualify on one basis or another .Those communites that prove self-sustaining will prosper (and perhaps grow and split into subsets wiht ever-more-particular interests and identities ) Those that can't survive --either because people lose interest  or get scared off --will simply wither away .

       in the near future ,explorers in cyberspace will need to get better at defining and identifying their communities . they will need to put in place --and accept ---their own local governments apart from terrestrial governments ,just as the owners of expensive real estatet often have their own security guards though they can call in the police to get ride of undesirable customers .

      then what shoul be done about undesirable material in cyberspace ? What to do ,for instance ,about pornography . The answer is labeling ,besides banning ,questionable material .it makes sense for cyberspace participants themselves to agree on a scheme for uestionable items ,so that people or automatic filters can avoid them . It's easy enough for software manufacturers to build an automatioc filter that would prevent you or your child from ever seeing the undesired item on a menu . (it's as if all the items were wrapped , with labels on the wrapper.)

Someone who posted pornographic material under the title "Kid-Fun" could be sued for mislabeling .

     Without a lot of fanfare , private enterprises and local groups are already producing a variety of labeling services ,along with kid-oriented sites like Kidlink and Kid's Space .People differ in their tastes and values and can find services on the Net that suit them in the same way they select books and magazines . Or they can wonder  freely if they prefer , making up their own itinerary .

     In the end , our society needs to grow up . Growing up means understanding thtat there are no perfect answers , no all-purpose solutions , no government -sanctioned safe havens .We haven't created a perfect society on earth , and we won't have one in cyberspace either . But at least we can have individual choice --and individual responsibility .