Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East by Jared Cohen

Iranian youth continue to find indirect ways to reach these sites that the regime blocks. The Internet is far too large and there are far too many sites for the government to effectively monitor what its youth say and do in this digital realm. The Iranian intelligence services have higher priorities, and simply put, they don’t have the capacity to effectively deal with the explosion of the Internet. At times, the regime has attempted to slow the Internet, so as to make it so frustrating to use that Iranians will simply not bother. But this underestimates the commitment Iranian people have to their digital freedom.
    The Internet is their democratic society. Even though the Internet is monitored, the youth have become extremely sophisticated in getting around the surveillance. They have become digital revolutionaries, creating, participating in, and popularizing chat rooms, blogs, and forums for discussion about everything from sports to politics. It has been stated that there are more than seventy-five thousand bloggers in Iran, with the majority under the age of thirty. The more high-profile blogs get shut down and replaced with an announcement stating, “According to the rules of the Islamic Republic of Iran, access to this site is forbidden,” but the authorities cannot keep up with the volume.
    Because the Internet is one of the newest sources of information and forums for expression, the government has tried to censor it. Despite the efforts of the Iranian regime, I actually found the authorities in Dubai—a city known for its relative social progressiveness, high technology, wealth, and entertainment—censored the Internet more successfully than those in neighboring Iran. One afternoon, while testing the limits of access in Iran, I was shocked to see that I could access the United States Department of Defense Web site, the CIA home page, and even the United States Department of State annual human rights report, where I read the following:
 
    The Government [of Iran’s] human rights record remained poor, and deteriorated substantially during the year, despite continuing efforts within society to make the Government accountable for its human rights policies. The Government denied citizens the right to change their government. Systematic abuses included summary executions; disappearances; widespread use of torture and other degrading treatment, reportedly including rape; severe punishments such as stoning and flogging; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; and prolonged and incommunicado detention.
     
    As I surfed, I also found that a number of online networking sites were easily accessible, including the site where Pedram had met his girlfriend. I was also able to use online phone services, most notably Skype, which I actually found more useful than my wiretapped cell phone that my “guides” had given me. Many Iranians today are using Skype to practice English and make friends outside of the country. Using this program, users can search for other users from any country they want and actually call them.
    In addition to telephone programs, most online messenger services were available, of which the two most popular were MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. While these messenger services enabled youth to have hundreds of online contacts, I learned that these contacts rarely extend beyond the users’ socioeconomic sphere.
    Young Iranians take full advantage of these opportunities for expression and unfiltered information, and young people in Iran are spending a vast proportion of their free time on the Internet. I was shocked by the number of Internet cafés, and where there was no café, I was even more shocked by just how far some traveled to use one. Internet cafés have actually come to serve as new meeting places for young Iranians.
     
     
     
    A s we drove down the poorly lit streets of Tehran, Cirrus explained to me what he and his friends do in the evenings.
    “It depends on the