There is a growing concern from people around the world regarding the amount of harmful contents in the internet, and many believe that government censorship is the only solution to make the internet safe. Although I agree that the government should be involved, the censorship should not be conducted by the government itself, but rather through regulations requiring website managers and content creators to maintains the censorship on the smaller scale, and remove operation permit to whoever are not in compliance with the rules.
First of all, the term harmful depends on who consumes the content. Therefore, the government should not censor all contents on the internet blindly. For example, a film containing violence should be safe to be watched by normal, healthy adults as they have the cognitive ability to think rationally. However, such film should not given to any children, as this could hinders their mental growth. Therefore, the government can instead release regulations that require website creators to filter and limit the visitors from accessing their content. This can be implemented, for instance, by means of obligating visitors to make their accounts. An account should be paired with a nation ID, which is something that only adults have. This could prevent juneviles to consumes the contents on their website. Moreover, the regulation should also restrict a more public-accessible website to meet certain standards, e.g., having child-friendly social media to censor profanities on their own, and accounts not adhering to the rules should be severly punished by the website’s control team.
If a certain website managing company does not want comply with the regulations, the government can remove the accessibility to their product. As a result, the company could not gain profit from their service and with no income to maintain their website. For example, by blocking the operation of gambling website that doesn’t impose age restriction, the government can fully block the public access to the website and the company then have a chance of going bankrupt. However, taking the company’s operating permit is safer measure.
In conclusion, the government should not censor all harmful content by itself, but rather, by having website managers and developers to comply with regulations that control the consumers to the content on their respective websites.