Today, cell phones — and text messaging as a byproduct — often seem to be the center of society.
Last December, a study released by Nielsen found that cell phone users from 18- to 24-years of age send about 1,630 texts per month, according to Read Write Web. That seems to be on the low end. According to Verizon, I send an average 3,657 messages a month, but I’m sure there are far worse cases.
How many of those messages you send would be mom-approved? Would you like her to screen all your texts?
This could be the reality for the country of Pakistan, but instead of parental regulations the government and cell phone carriers would take the role as regulators.
Think of how much this would affect our society. According to Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 83 percent of Americans own a cell phone. One could even say that for most of us, especially college students, our lives revolve around them.
When we wake up in the morning with our cell phone alarm clock, we roll over and use them to refresh our Twitter feed long before we brush our teeth.
Two weeks ago, three Pakistani carriers received a notice from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordering them to ban cell phone users from texting anything on a list of nearly 1,700 words viewed as “obscene” to cut down on spam messages, reported CNN.
That list contains English and Urdu words and phrases ranging from ear-muff worthy expletives, to others like “fart,” “quickie,” “athlete’s foot” and “Jesus Christ.”
The ban was to be implemented by the carriers seven days after the notice went out, but it has yet to occur.
“If at all we finally decide to go for this process, then we will prepare a list in consultation with the mobile operators,” PTA spokesman Mohammed Younis told CNN, denying the existence of the ban after claiming the PTA was giving carriers to a chance to provide a shorter list by extending the implementation date.
The Huffington Post reported that the noticed was claimed to be “legal under a 1996 law preventing people from sending information through the telecommunications system that is ‘false, fabricated, indecent or obscene.’”
“It also stated that free speech can be restricted ‘in the interest of the glory of Islam,’” the article read.
Such a ban could not only frustrate text messagers who feel their messages are being unanswered, but it could be a blow to modern communication around the world if other countries begin to catch on.
Thanks to our right to free speech under the First Amendment, the chances for such legislation to be passed here in America are slim to none, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of someone proposing it.
Until then, let's not take this convenient communication for granted.
Reach the columnist at alhains@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
