Smashing the Internet

It seems that in 1995, everyone wanted to bring down the Internet. Via the Dish I see this admission from Cliff Stoll:

Of my many mistakes, flubs, and howlers, few have been as public as my 1995 howler. Wrong? Yep. At the time, I was trying to speak against the tide of futuristic commentary on how The Internet Will Solve Our Problems. […A]s I’ve laughed at others’ foibles, I think back to some of my own cringeworthy contributions. Now, whenever I think I know what’s happening, I temper my thoughts: Might be wrong, Cliff…

Then, of course, there is my all-time favorite cover story from the magazine which I love and used to work at, The Weekly Standard that was advertised in big bold letters on the cover: “Smash the Internet.” The author’s concern:

The alt.sex hierarchy includes groups devoted to enemas, spanking, water-sports, foot fetishes, necrophilia, and pedophilia. The pedophiles, in fact, populate four separate newsgroups, some of which feature digitized photos of naked children. A company with the easy-to-remember Net moniker x- rated.com advertises “that kinky, sleazy, wild, depraved, incredibly hot- making stuff that you used to have to sneak into the house in plain, stained, brown-paper wrappings — now brought to you hygienically by the miracle of computing.”

I think we can all agree that the pornography hasn’t gone anywhere — indeed, there are probably a million-fold more pieces of pornography on the web! — but the good has certainly outweighed the bad in our digital revolution. I wonder what it was about 1995 that caused people to react so strongly against the Net. Personally, I think we all know the answer to that question: The movie Hackers was unleashed on unsuspecting audiences that year, causing panic about the deleterious effects of 28k modems on our nation’s youth. Who wouldn’t want to emulate Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie and “hack the planet” after seeing that rousing tale? The oldsters were right to be nervous after this clarion call to civil disobedience was uncorked.