Some people say that there is too much harmful content on the internet. They say the only way to make the internet safe is for the government to censor the content of websites. To what extent do you think the government should control what information is available on the internet?
Here is a band 6.5 essay on this topic written by one of our students. The comments in the red colour are given by the examiner who rated this essay. You can also find a band 9 sample on this page. Need help with IELTS writing? Get your writing samples corrected by me.
Analysis
The student has expressed a clear opinion and managed to defend it with convincing arguments. However, there are too many grammar mistakes in this essay. The student has written a lot of lengthy sentences with complicated patterns. If they wrote shorter sentences, they would make fewer mistakes.
Band 9 essay sample
The internet is a treasure trove of information. Unfortunately, a great deal of this information is harmful or offensive. Hence, some people argue that the government should censor the content of websites. While I am not a great fan of media censorship, I agree with this view to a great extent.
The internet enables anyone to publish content. This is its strength and weakness. Anybody with access to a smart phone or computer and an internet connection can now post any sort of content on the internet. This has certainly given the common man a voice. At the same time, it has also created a deluge of false information. People who stumble upon such content often assume it to be true and act upon it. Terrorist organizations and various anti-social elements are all active on the internet and working to strengthen their agenda. Gullible people fall prey to their schemes and often become a tool for them to further their nefarious intentions.
The internet is even used to influence elections in various countries. It has in the past triggered communal riots in many parts of the world. It has tutorials on how to make bombs and other explosives. It even teaches people how to execute a crime. Needless to say, there is a need to monitor the content of various websites. The government should bring in laws that make it mandatory for people to check the veracity of information before posting or sharing it on the internet.
At the same time, censorship is a double edged sword and oppressive governments all over the world have used it to suppress dissenting voices. In other words, unless it is used sparingly, internet censorship has the potential to the lead to the violation of human rights. Hence, only content that is likely to be misused by miscreants should be censored. The governments can set up a panel consisting of members coming from various social, political, religious, educational and economic backgrounds to head that panel. This way we can ensure that censorship does not hurt the interests of any particular community or region.
In short, there is certainly a need to monitor the content of websites that spread false, misleading and malicious information. However, the government needs to ensure that the only objective of censorship is eliminating harmful information. It should never use internet censorship as a means of suppressing dissenting voices.
