Internet

=== Censorship ===
{{Main|Internet censorship |Internet freedom}}
{{See also|Culture of fear|Great Firewall}}
[[File:Internet Censorship and Surveillance World Map.svg|thumb|upright=1.8|<div style="text-align: center">'''[[Internet censorship by country|Internet censorship and surveillance by country]] (2018)'''<ref name=FOTN-2018>{{cite web |title=Freedom on the Net 2018 |url=https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FOTN_2018_Final%20Booklet_11_1_2018.pdf |website=Freedom House |date=November 2018 |access-date=1 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101192951/https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FOTN_2018_Final%20Booklet_11_1_2018.pdf |archive-date=1 November 2018 }}</ref><ref name=ONISS-Nov2011>OpenNet Initiative [http://opennet.net/research/data "Summarized global Internet filtering data spreadsheet"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110211146/http://opennet.net/research/data |date=10 January 2012 }}, 8 November 2011 and [http://opennet.net/research/profiles "Country Profiles"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826003215/http://opennet.net/research/profiles |date=26 August 2011 }}, the OpenNet Initiative is a collaborative partnership of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto; the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; and the SecDev Group, Ottawa</ref>{{efn|name=ONIChildPornLegal|Due to legal concerns the [[OpenNet Initiative]] does not check for filtering of [[child pornography]] and because their classifications focus on technical filtering, they do not include other types of censorship.}}<ref name=RWBEnemies2014>{{cite web|url=http://12mars.rsf.org/2014-en/#slide2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312120731/http://12mars.rsf.org/2014-en/#slide2|archive-date=2014-03-12|title=Enemies of the Internet 2014: Entities at the heart of censorship and surveillance|website=Reporters Without Borders|location=Paris|date=11 March 2014}}</ref><ref name=RWBEnemies>{{cite web|url=https://12mars.rsf.org/wp-content/uploads/EN_RAPPORT_INTERNET_BD.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703221044/https://12mars.rsf.org/wp-content/uploads/EN_RAPPORT_INTERNET_BD.pdf|archive-date=2017-07-03|title=Internet Enemies|website=Reporters Without Borders|location=Paris|date=12 March 2012}}</ref></div>
<blockquote>
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-1-of-2}}
{{legend|#F9D|Pervasive}}
{{legend|#FDD|Substantial}}
{{Col-2-of-2}}
{{legend|#FFD|Selective}}
{{legend|#98FB98|Little or none}}
{{Col-end}}
<div style="text-align: center">{{legend|#e0e0e0|Unclassified / No data}}</div>
</blockquote>
]]

Some governments, such as those of [[Burma]], [[Iran]], [[Censorship in North Korea|North Korea]], [[Censorship in China|Mainland China]], [[Saudi Arabia]] and the [[United Arab Emirates]], restrict access to content on the Internet within their territories, especially to political and religious content, with domain name and keyword filters.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12187|title=Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604102753/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12187 |archive-date=4 June 2011|first1=Ronald J.|last1=Deibert|first2=John G.|last2=Palfrey|first3=Rafal|last3=Rohozinski|first4=Jonathan|last4=Zittrain|publisher=MIT Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-262-51435-4}}</ref>

In Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, major Internet service providers have voluntarily agreed to restrict access to sites listed by authorities. While this list of forbidden resources is supposed to contain only known child pornography sites, the content of the list is secret.<ref name="The Register">{{cite web|title=Finland censors anti-censorship site |work=[[The Register]] |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/18/finnish_policy_censor_activist/ |date=18 February 2008 |access-date=19 February 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220075300/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/18/finnish_policy_censor_activist/ |archive-date=20 February 2008 }}</ref> Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws against the possession or distribution of certain material, such as [[child pornography]], via the Internet but do not mandate filter software. Many free or commercially available software programs, called [[content-control software]] are available to users to block offensive websites on individual computers or networks in order to limit access by children to pornographic material or depiction of violence.