Governments everywhere claim to pursue public safety, health, and welfare. This
effort produces laws governing everything from weights and measures to national
highways, to the content of radio and television programs. Electronic media of all
kinds (telegraph, telephone, radio, and television) have historically been regulated by
governments seeking to develop a rational commercial telecommunications environment and to control the content of the media—which may be critical of government or
offensive to powerful groups in a society. Historically, in the United States, newspapers
and print media have been beyond government controls because of constitutional
guarantees of freedom of speech. Electronic media such as radio and television have,
on the other hand, always been subject to content regulation because they use the
publicly owned frequency spectrum. Telephones have also been regulated as public
utilities and “common carriers,” with special social burdens to provide service and
access, but with no limitations on content.
In the United States, critical issues in e-commerce center around the protection
of children, strong sentiments against pornography in any public media, efforts to
control gambling, and the protection of public health through restricting sales of drugs
and cigarettes.