Chief Justice: Internet Generation Makes Lousy Jurors
Friday, November 07, 2008 |
FoxNews.com
The Internet generation is not used to listening for long periods and so could be unsuitable as jurors, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales told a lecture audience recently.
Sir Igor Judge said that many young people are "technically proficient" and obtain "much information from the Internet."
That meant that they were "not listening, they are reading," he said in a lecture at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England. "One potential problem is whether, learning as they do in this way, they will be accustomed, as we were, to listening for prolonged periods."
Even if they are able to endure hours and days of sitting and listening, Chief Justice Judge wondered how long it would be before some of them asked for the information on which they have to make their decision to be provided in forms which adapt to modern technology.
By the year 2020 or 2025 that would not be technology as it is now, he added.
"I cannot begin to imagine the extent of the changes which lie ahead," said Justice Judge.
• Click here to read the rest of this story at the Times of London.
