In other News:
- Prof. Bellia speaks out on legals standing of Patriot Act
- Campus Artist expresses disagreement with Patriot Act
Word about Campus and Beyond....
by LIZ DRELICK
Liz Drelick examines student and parent opinions regarding internet regulation and the government's infringement on your rights.
Notre Dame, IN, April 15, 2003 -- In almost any household accross America there is an age old mantra repeated by teenagers and well known to all parents living at the receiving end: "You don't understand my generation!" While oft-quoted in How to Raise Your Child, and How to Communitcate With a Young Adult manuals, this mantra has made an appearance in a slightly suprising debate. Today, experts speak of the generational gap in technology and internet usage almost as often as they speak about the class or race gap in computer usage. Campus Voice decided to test this elusive gap by analyzing college students and their parents regarding internet usage and political awareness with regards to tech issues and their rights in the age of the net. The results, as you wil see, are quite interesting.
The survey began with some general
questions regarding the intrusive nature of the internet. Not surprisingly,
100% of people using electronic mail receive unwanted email or Spam
and 100% of these email users find this unwanted communication inconvenient.
What was surprising was the respondants reaction to the question,
The responses concerning government regulation are not surprising however, when one considers that 88% of Notre Dame students were not aware that the United States government often shuts down websites based on clauses in the Constitution, while only 40% of parents were unaware of this behavior. Upon hearing of this government action, 35% of these same students felt that this activity was unconstitutional, while only 24% of parents felt that the government's behavior went against the U.S. Constitution.
The gap, thus appears as parents overpower students in current political knowledge of government actions. According to the survey, 52% of parents are aware that the USA Patriot Act "expands upon the government' ability to collect information and surveillance," while, only 21% of Notre Dame students were aware of this expansion. The implications of the expansion affect one of the basic tenets of American tech-life: e-mail. In this respect the the gap appears in the form of diverging opinions on e-mail surveilance. When asked,
In the end, the gap appears with regards to discussions of 4th and 14th Amendment protections. 6% if parents were aware that under the Patriot Act, federal agents may now conduct sneak-and-peek searches of a person's home or office without notice of the execution of the search warrant until after the search has been completed, while a larger portion of the student body, 21%, were aware of this activity. However, 93% of the students surveyed felt that it was an infringement on their rights, while 100% of parents felt that this was unconstitutional. Finally, when asked about the government's right to protect our citizens and the individual rights of each citizen,
