Thailand Censors 'Inappropriate' Websites

In addition to putting a curfew on an online game (Ragnarok) and Internet cafes, Thailand also starts to censor 'inappropriate' sites. More details can be found here and here. Since the rise of the current administration two years ago, freedom of the press in Thailand has been more and more restricted. Big media, newspapers, telecom companies are now owned by the administration's cronies. It makes me wonder when the government will censor any opposition on the web using this 'inappropriate contents' pretext.

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Some people are going to applaude censorship

[Smartcowboy]

No longer than yesterday I had a discussion with a girl who said she wants censorship in movies and television.

Her main argument was about the "bad taste" of some movies and tv shows.

Who is good enough to decide what's good taste and what's bad taste for everyone?
Who is good enough to decide what's appropriate and what's inappropriate for everyone?

A mindless computer program?

Some censorship comity that don't knows me/you and thinks it can decide what I/you can look at?

Censorship = Abuse

Re:Some people are going to applaude censorship

[lightspawn]

Who is good enough to decide what's good taste and what's bad taste for everyone?
Who is good enough to decide what's appropriate and what's inappropriate for everyone?

Fine companies with products such as these:

* BESS
* Cyber Patrol
* WebSENSE
* Net Nanny
* SmartFilter
* X-Stop
* I-Gear
* CYBERsitter

Re:Some people are going to applaude censorship

[BigBir3d]

"I believe in freedom of speech as long as I am not offended by what you say" - direct quote of my old literature professor (Univ. AZ 1993).

Censorship is a hard word to throw around. What is the difference between child porn and regular porn? Age is just a arbitrary number, 18 by no means implies rational intelligent thought (nor does 21 for that matter).

NYC is now completely non-smoking in all public places. Why? Public health is bull sh*&. Go somewhere else if you think it is unhealthy. You swim in a clean pool / river / lake instead of a polluted one for the same reason.

18 to vote. 18 to join the military. 21 to buy or consume alcohol legally in the USA. Old analogy, I know. But it still works.

Wal-Mart won't sell DVD's or CD's that it deems inappropriate. Walk into any store, and it is obvious that their policy is rather inconsistent.

How are the governments (regardless of USA or Thailand or China etc etc) choices going to be any different. Will it be something that is under public oversight. Whose jurisdiction is it exactly?

Re:Some people are going to applaude censorship

[cheezus]

NYC is now completely non-smoking in all public places. Why? Public health is bull sh*&. Go somewhere else if you think it is unhealthy. You swim in a clean pool / river / lake instead of a polluted one for the same reason.

Public health is bullsh*&? (btw, "bullsh*&"? please tell me that was an intended censorship joke) Best I can tell, most of the public is pretty concerned with their health. By your logic we shouldn't have laws banning spaying machine gun fire in public - Go somewhere else if you think the bullets are dangerous

18 to vote. 18 to join the military. 21 to buy or consume alcohol legally in the USA. Old analogy, I know. But it still works.

Actually, that's up to the states, but a drinking age &lt 21 means no federal highway money. When the drinking age was 18, the 18 year old HS seniors would pass alcohol on to the 15 year old freshmen. Now the 21 year old college students pass alcohol on to the 18 year old college freshmen. It's not like it's hard to get beer when you're 18. But yes, the law is stupid. One answer would be to raise the age for voting, military, legal contracts, etc to 21... but I have better idea:

Make the drinking age 21 or High School graduation. Helps the problem of younger kids drinking, and gives the dropouts a reason to reconsider.

Re:Some people are going to applaude censorship

[BigBir3d]

Public health is bullsh*&? (btw, "bullsh*&"? please tell me that was an intended censorship joke) Best I can tell, most of the public is pretty concerned with their health. By your logic we shouldn't have laws banning spaying machine gun fire in public - Go somewhere else if you think the bullets are dangerous.

Machine guns are illegal too...

Most of the general public is NOT concerned about their health (looka the obesity numbers, or smoking numbers, of US citizens).

My ire is due to the fact that cigs are legal to make, sell, use, and tax. But now it is illegal to use them in public in NYC (and CA too IIRC). If they are so bad, why are they still legal? Give me a good reason, other than taxes.

Drinking age is a a stupid law. When I was 12 I had access to beer and hard liquor. Guess what? I tried it. Tried smoking too. Who cares? Am I worse off because of it? No.

Federal highway money is a nice way of saying "extortion in this case is good." Same goes for the 75mph speed limit stuff (Anything over 65 or 70... not sure which, causes loss of percentage of fed hwy funds).

Most of this would not be a problem, if people stopped being friends to their kids, and actaully being parents. But I digress.

Re:Some people are going to applaude censorship

[cheezus]

What would the liquor store signs read?

Please have your ID or Highschool Equivalency Certificate ready before purchasing!

My plan entails the kids going to the dmv and getting an endorsement on their DL saying they are legal for alcohol consumption

Don't worry:

[Elwood P Dowd]

You can still have sex with twelve year old boys in Thailand. You just can't read about it on the internet.