Afew years from now, when we look back at what crippled the Internet as a global forum for the free exchange of information, at least we’ll know it was done with the best of intentions.

Who, after all, could oppose Internet ratings if they create a “family-friendly” online world?

And so, to make the Net safer for kids and to avert government regulation, the Internet brain trust has banded together to push rating, filtering and labeling technology — a private-sector techno-fix to cleaning up the Net. President Clinton has signed on and has used his bully pulpit to jawbone companies that were wavering on the issue. And the news media have covered the president’s initiative with the gusto of a pep rally.

With all this firepower behind them, ratings are coming to a Web site near you — in fact, to all Web sites, if proponents have their way. And a panoply of would-be censors — from foreign despots to home-grown zealots and pandering politicians — couldn’t be happier.

“What’s happening now is a move toward the privatizing of censorship,” says David Sobel, legal counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). “It’s likely to destroy the Internet as it’s existed up till now.”

There are a great many ironies here, but the greatest irony is that the censorship will be self-imposed — we’re doing it for the sake of family, parents, children. In truth, Internet ratings are being driven by the changing business interests of the major players involved.

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More and more travel sites are cropping up on the Web. So why are newspaper Web sites ignoring their travel coverage?

This column appeared in the July-August 1997 issue of The American Journalism Review.

By J.D. Lasica

As online news matures, we’re beginning to see Web publications evolve into true news channels rather than warmed-over digital versions of their pulp parents.

One of the biggest trends in cyberspace during the past six months has been the rise of Web sites that take advantage of readers’ booming interest in travel news. But you’d never know it by visiting the travel sections of almost any online newspaper.

At the annual meeting of the Society of American Travel Writers editors council in the Bahamas in April, it became clear that when it comes to newspaper Web sites, the Travel section is just an afterthought — if it’s given any thought at all. Consider:

• Most papers refuse to put their travel section contents online.

• For those that do, it’s often impossible to find the travel section. Even at such estimable sites as the San Jose Mercury News’ and the Seattle Times’, users can spend hours on any given Sunday without being able to locate any travel news.

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