An ecological systems approach to reduce children's encounters with obscenity on the internet

Abstract

This dissertation explores how to reduce children's encounters with obscenity on the Internet. Congress has been trying to shield children from encountering online obscenity and some of Congress' attempts failed because of unconstitutionality. The courts have been clear, however, that children have limited constitutional rights when the issue is obscenity even though they have trouble defining obscenity. This study modified Urie Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Systems Model and named it the Internet Ecological Systems Model to solve the problem of children's encounters with online obscenity. The ecological systems perspective is a framework for recommendations and solutions. When each environmental system from the model collaborate in effort toward a common goal, the solution becomes effective. Congress and future researchers can use the Internet Ecological Systems Model for finding solutions to reduce the possibility of children encountering pornography and obscenity on the Internet.