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OLPC Used to Browse Porn

youthoftoday writes "The OLPC project to bring the internet to third world has worked well — too well, it seems. Yahoo reports that Nigerian Children are already using the OLPC to browse for porn." This is why as kids we couldn't look at National Geographic issues without being supervised. A rep from OLPC said, understandably, that the laptops would now be fitted with filters.

37 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Then it is true by Broken+scope · · Score: 5, Funny

    We have finally brought the joys of the internet to those less fortunate.

    --
    You mad
    1. Re:Then it is true by Tribbin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes we HAD brought the joys of the internet to the less fortunate.
      It's not fair.
      These fortunate black males will now also see ads for penis enlargers. We will never be able to catch up with them... ever.

      --
      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    2. Re:Then it is true by kripkenstein · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just think... a generation of children in the third world will learn programming just in order to hack around the anti-porn filters.

    3. Re:Then it is true by zlamma · · Score: 4, Funny

      Duuh... Anybody remembers what OLPC stood for? One Lapdance Per Child or something...

    4. Re:Then it is true by Joebert · · Score: 4, Funny

      Joys ?!
      They're recharged by hand, they have to crank one on just to crank one off !

      --
      Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  2. Yeah right by HalAtWork · · Score: 4, Funny

    I really can't take the story's word for it without photographic evidence.

  3. It's only fair... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Americans looked at naked Africans as kids, so African kids should be able to look at naked Americans now.

  4. In other news by Deadplant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It has been reported that the sun has risen in Nigeria today.
    Analyst are in agreement that the sun will almost certainly rise again probably once each day for the next few weeks.

    Also: filters? get a fucking clue.
    How about instead we just use these internets to send the offending officials some biology texts so that can learn about human sexuality and stop trying to stifle it.

    1. Re:In other news by larry+bagina · · Score: 4, Funny

      better yet, point them to goatse and tubgirl.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  5. Porn is inevitable by Shabbs · · Score: 5, Funny

    No matter where you go on the 'net, chances are you're going to hit some kind of porn sooner or later whether you meant to or not. Since these were originally destined for children, I'm surprised they did NOT come equipped with filters from the start. A big oversight for sure.

    OLPC Project: "Here children, I give you THE INTERNET... totally unfiltered. Enjoy."

    [5 minutes later...]

    Children: "What is Goatse?"

    Sigh...

    Get those filters on!

    --
    Mark
    1. Re:Porn is inevitable by Eudial · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Get those filters on!


      If they truly only blocked porn, then maybe it would be a matter of discussion, but certain filters' habit of censoring all sorts of irrelevant contents, political and otherwise really makes porn the lesser of the two evils.
      --
      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    2. Re:Porn is inevitable by Tuoqui · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As much as I hate to say it. You're right.

      If you start blocking porn because of its content (porn) then the people who have the power will demand other things be blocked too which leads to the Great Firewall of China problem... Except this one would be in Nigeria.

      The internet was supposed to free everyone and allow them to think for themselves. Naturally those in power decide to try and force it into a tool for control just like everything else from Income Taxes to Drivers Licenses.

      --
      09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
      +2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
    3. Re:Porn is inevitable by Belacgod · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In China recently a censor let through a tribute to the June 4 martyrs because he didn't realize that was referring to Tianamen Square because he'd never heard of the massacre there. So yes, indoctrination works well on the young and unlearned.

    4. Re:Porn is inevitable by grcumb · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you start blocking porn because of its content (porn) then the people who have the power will demand other things be blocked too which leads to the Great Firewall of China problem... Except this one would be in Nigeria.

      I've been dealing with exactly this issue for the last 4 years. I work in the developing world, and one of the things I do is assist with the integration of computers into programmes of all kinds. I can tell you that one of the biggest fears (after malware) is the content that people will access.

      This may strike some of you as bizarre or even disgusting, but in cultures where sexuality - and women too - have historically been repressed, it's not unusual for a man to sit in his office and wank[*], not stopping when other staff members pass the door. Men can sometimes be surprisingly aggressive about their desire for porn. I remember being told a story about IT staff opening pop ups on a miscreant's computer, saying "We can see what you're doing. Stop it!" He just kept right on going. I myself have sat in the next office to one especially persistent guy, blocking domains the moment he accessed them. In the end I had to use back-channels to get the situation addressed.

      [*] Odds are really good that this is the only place he can access the Internet. There's no computer at home, and Internet cafés are too expensive. The compulsion simply becomes to strong to deny.

      Everybody asks me to install filters, and I do it, because in this country, pornography is against the law. But I explain to every manager who will listen that the technical measures are simply CYA: They exist so that you can argue in a court of law that you took reasonable measures to curb illegal activity. Ultimately, controlling what staff and/or project stakeholders see on their computers is a basic management issue. If people are properly supervised, they will not stray far. If they do, they must be disciplined.

      In short: There's no technical substitute for supervision.

      The internet was supposed to free everyone and allow them to think for themselves. Naturally those in power decide to try and force it into a tool for control just like everything else from Income Taxes to Drivers Licenses.

      I submit that this contention is just as flawed as the idea that a content filter is the right tool for the job. What you are describing is people allowing a political and social climate that permits this kind of behaviour. The challenge is not a technical one. The means already exist for a complete surveillance state, and we can't un-invent the tools. All we can do is ensure that they are used appropriately. And that problem doesn't have a technical solution. It comes down to human beings showing humanity to one another.

      I'll refrain from commenting on any current socio-political trends that might serve as examples. I'm sure we can all find suitable cases in our own back yards.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  6. No way! by Viraptor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously... who would've thought... Why was it reported at all? Maybe another title would be better - "Shocking revelation: Nigerian boys also want to see sex". I'm not surprised - are you? I'd say that great majority of males on the intertubes browsed porn sites at least once - keyword statistics from search engines seem to agree.

  7. in other news... by teknikl · · Score: 5, Funny

    latex balloon sales to Nigeria skyrocket overnight!

  8. Understandably? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A rep from OLPC said, understandably, that the laptops would now be fitted with filters.

    No, sorry, I do not understand. There's nothing evil about porn and those filter won't work anyway.

    1. Re:understandably? by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Remember, morality is relative

      Relative to what?

      Reality isn't very relative. A system of values ("morality") that's grounded in reality and reason is fairly straightforward. People can (and of course, do) certainly dream up philosophical frameworks based on all-powerful invisible friends that still dole out the occasional case of childhood cancer just to keep us all on our toes, and operate as if some magic representation of your firing synapses are going to keep echoing through time after the meat computer that allowed them to come up with that bit of whimsy in the first place is being eaten by worms... but certain moral decisions that are anchored in imaginary consequences (or the lack of them) aren't "relative" - they're wrong. They may frequently overlap with a framework based on reason and reality, but they're going to suffer the rot of mixed premises, and the symptoms of that are the attempts by their holders to act in accordance with contradictions... which can't exist, and which produce sometimes tragic results.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    2. Re:understandably? by smallfries · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well done you. You've described why your own view of reality is an objective fact that everyone could base their own morality on. You're in popular company there, with many dictatorships, religions and cults. But most people are capable of seeing that their own subjective view of objective reality differs from other peoples. Hence, morality being relative to the observer. Sure, for most of the big life and death questions most people's view of morality overlaps, but that doesn't make it an absolute.

      How is that autism working out for ya?

      PS The idea that morality is timeless and external to the human race pretty much died out with Kant.

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    3. Re:understandably? by westlake · · Score: 4, Informative
      So its understandable that we will start enforcing our concept of morality on others right off the bat?
      Remember, morality is relative.

      OLPC is a state-subsidized educational program for children.

      If you want OLPC to succeed you do not create problems in the classroom, you do not embarrass its local sponsors.

      Nigeria is a mix of Islam, evangelical Protestant, conservative Catholic, and tribal religion. Tolerance of pornography - and the exposure of children to pornography - doesn't figure prominently in any one of them.

      Porn on the Internet is framed in terms of the Western stereotypes of the dominant male and the subservient [often promiscuous] female. In the Nigerian setting, this comes at a price:

      Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. It is a country on the brink of an AIDS disaster. And its dominant religions - traditional religion, Christianity, and Islam - all proclaim the superiority of males to females. These three aspects are closely linked.
      In traditional Nigerian society, there is no separation between the laws governing secular and spiritual spheres. What the gods say is sanctioned by society and forms the norms of the community. They cannot be challenged, especially by women. This divinely ordained male dominance forms the ultimate basis of patriarchal entrenchment in Nigerian culture.
      The siege of patriarchy encompasses all spheres in Nigerian society including practices like female genital mutilation, child marriage, widow inheritance, rape, and polygamy. Talk about sex is considered immoral; sexual issues are not open to discussion. This secrecy surrounding sexual relations, combined with the religious and cultural expectations that subjugate women, largely explains women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in the country. No effort to curb the spread of AIDS in Nigeria can afford to ignore the influence of religion and culture.
      Women in Nigeria: Religion, Culture, and AIDS [2002]

      On a fundamental level, Christians and Muslims in Nigeria have similar views on the why HIV continues to spread: both groups see promiscuous behavior as the root cause of the HIV crisis. Promiscuity is frowned upon heavily because of religious teachings and because of underlying cultural traditions within Nigerian society. Even before Christianity and Islam were introduced, Nigerian cultural tradition emphasized the importance of sexual discretion and believed that sex should be reserved for marriage. Leaders in both the Christian and Muslim communities discourage their followers from pre-marital and extra-marital sex, and teach that procreation is the main reason for sex. Religion and HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

    4. Re:Understandably? by ydrol · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sex and sexuality != Porn on websites

    5. Re:understandably? by chazwurth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is no pre-existing blanket-o'-morality waiting for you to see it and embrace it...

      That's true, but I don't think that supports your original assertion, namely:

      A system of values ("morality") that's grounded in reality and reason is fairly straightforward.

      Reason cannot ground a morality. Reason is a tool that doesn't provide goals. It gets us from point A to point B -- that is, it allows us to achieve the goals we've set for ourselves. It cannot tell us what those goals should be, and it's precisely this 'should' that grounds any moral system. So, for example, if my ethnically related compatriots and I want to kill our ethnically different neighbors -- because they make us uncomfortable, because we're short on land and water and they have plenty of both, because their beliefs offend us, whatever -- reason can tell us many things. It can tell us that we can't get away with what we want to do because someone with a big stick (another neighboring group, say) will come and kill us in turn; or that the people we want to kill are too strong for us to assault; or perhaps that nothing stands in our way of accomplishing our desire. If the latter, reason can tell us how to best go about killing our enemies -- what tactics to use, what timeline to follow to achieve the best results, how to hide our actions from outside observers until we've succeeded, etc.

      What reason cannot tell us is that we should not kill our neighbors in any absolute sense. It can tell us that we should not try to kill them because we cannot handle the consequences of trying. Or it can tell us that we should because we can get away with it. But it can never tell us that we shouldn't because it would be morally wrong to do so. Reason doesn't dictate what we should or shouldn't want -- only how to get where we want to be.

      Moral systems that invoke reason are thus also relative -- relative to our desires and to all of the assumptions we bring to the table. Whether reality itself is relative to anything, or an absolute framework in which we live, is more or less irrelevant. The benefit of classical systems of ethics -- what gives them their moral force -- is that they are based on unreasonable foundations, such as the sanctity of human life, which reason cannot in any sense provide. We can reject them because they do not, in our view, reflect reality; but we can't replace them with a tool that has no claim to absolute moral truth. If we're to be honest logicians, we must accept the consequences of our conclusions and live in a world that is ultimately far less comfortable and settled and straightforward than the world of our religious forebears.

      --
      The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'. --Dan Kaminsky
  9. Time to end the OLPC project then by maynard · · Score: 5, Funny

    I mean - think of the children!!!

  10. understandably? by nurb432 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So its understandable that we will start enforcing our concept of morality on others right off the bat?

    Remember, morality is relative.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  11. huh by nomadic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't know why the OLPC project is giving internet access anyway. If I were them I'd create a closed network with educational sites alone. They don't need access to the internet universe.

  12. Censorship in this case is wrong. by 3seas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is an AIDs issue to deal with here!

    A question to ask: Does porn help promote AIDS with viewers or help to demote it?

    Perhaps there is an age of threshold but that is something that should be determined by the current living environment.

    So what is an indicator of that threshold? What gave the kids the idea of looking for porn on the internet in the first place? Seems to me the threshold was already passed before they looked for it on the internet.

    I'm almost 50 years old and my email is filtered, not by my choice, such that I still get the porn promotion emails but the urls are changed to be random character strings. Whether or not I would access such sites is not the issue.

    The issue is of censorship of what is in fact a part of human nature.

    If you make something as natural as sex bad then you'll guarantee the typical rebellious teen age person will find a way. And maybe that way is such an act as to spread disease and unwanted pregnancies.

    What can porn teach? proper safe sex? It can perhaps remove some level of curiosity ...

    But porn or not, there is the natural human sex drive. Deny it and you'll have problems develop from ignorance and un-natural guilt. Such acts as rape included.

    And how about the history of porn? What can it teach? The dangers of AIDs and other STDs?

    If kids already know to look for porn on the internet, maybe its time the subject matter be properly addressed instead of being swept under the rug filter.

    The biggest problem, the biggest contributing factor with the spread of AIDs in Africa, is ignorance.

    Wait a minute, I live in Atlanta, I'm white...

    Forget everything I said above.....

  13. Actually, I don't understand by Tim+C · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Could someone explain to me, preferably without recourse to religious argument, what is wrong with these kids viewing porn? I mean, they're actively seeking it out, and so must already be interested, so you can't argue that the laptops are somehow corrupting them - they're already corrupt (by that definition)...

  14. Re:They are not allowed to. by arthurpaliden · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A few years back I was watching a documentary on TV dealing with stone age peoples somewhere in the world. At one point it showed all the the women (white scientists and black natives) and their children in the river bathing. Breasts of all shapes and sizes were visible as they all frolicked in the water. That is, on the black women, on the white women their brests were digitally obscured.

  15. Re:They are not allowed to. by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    That is, on the black women, on the white women their brests were digitally obscured.

    So whose fingers were being used to cover the breasts?

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  16. It's a good thing... by Original+Replica · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, let those kids learn about unprotected ass-to-mouth sex. That'll keep the HIV rates down!

    Let them learn about every kind of sex, stop treating sex and masturbation like freakish taboo abnoramalities and let them have open honest dialogue about sex. That will bring HIV rates down. Alot of guys in porns wear condoms. Nobody every got AIDS from masturbating. If (while they actually stay monogamous) they can close their eyes and fantasize about some porn starlet and that fulfills their natural male desire for a variety of partners, then that too will help control the spread of STDs. Maybe some men there will learn to appreciate women who have orgasims, and the practice of female circumcision will stop. All in all this will probably be a good thing.

    --
    We are all just people.
  17. Inaccurate by crossmr · · Score: 5, Informative

    This wasn't done on OLPC laptops. Not only did digg have the story before you, it was correct.
    http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/booby-trap/kids-use-us+ donated-laptops-to-surf-the-porn-of-course-280715. php

    The OLPC manufacturers were just asked about what they'd do. That was there only relation to the story.

  18. Fantasies and Facts by HerbieStone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pornography is all about sexual fantasies. Most people don't have sex like the do on a porno movie. An impressionable children might come to believe that having sex like seen on a porno movie is the normal way of having it.

    I'm not against nudity or teaching kids about sex, but it should be a balanced education about the facts and not just about some male fantasies.

    Greets
    MadMike

  19. Porn is not a substitute for sex ed by Foerstner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let them learn about every kind of sex, stop treating sex and masturbation like freakish taboo abnoramalities and let them have open honest dialogue about sex.

    I don't have a problem with porn, and I don't have a problem with children learning about sex, but I don't think porn is a healthy way for children to learn about sex. There's all sorts of porn out there, and a good deal of it presents unrealistic scenarios out of context. Particularly those that deal with how women should be treated.

      Porn should come after proper sex education, not in its stead.

    --
    The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
  20. Thank you. I'm going to be rich now. by www.sorehands.com · · Score: 4, Funny

    That just gave me an idea that will make me richer than Bill Gates and cure the energy crisis at the same time.

    I'll build a device that goes on a man's cock and generates electricity by an up and down motion.

  21. Association with porn harms development goals by ttnb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem is that this gets in the way of the project's ability to achieve its real goals:

    In every society there are people there are people with stricter-than-average standards of morality with regard to matters of sexuality and there are people with less strict standards. Here, with "standards of morality" I mean the pricinples according to which the people actually conduct their lives, I'm not talking about moral rules that people claim to uphold without actually living accordingly.

    It can not be denied that for long-term economic development the key group of people to reach are those which who have sufficiently high standards of morality that they are able to have stable families in which the children are supported and empowered so that there is a good chance of them making significant positive contributions to the future of their community, region and/or country.

    In every society, there is segmentation: Parents who work hard on empowering their children to be really successful will generally desire for their children to associate with the children of other parents who do the same. This is easy to understand economically. After all, in every society, knowing the right people is a key success factor.

    Now what you absolutely don't want to happen in a project with development goals is for the key segments of society (with the people whom you really need to reach) to become unenthusiastic about the project because it gets associated with blatant porn in ways which are considered totally unacceptable in those segments of society.

  22. Re:They are not allowed to. by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Funny

    As Henry Ford hath said: You can see whatever type of breasts that you like, so long as you like black.

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  23. Re:The end of 419 scams? by TychoCelchuuu · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think the ones sending the email scams actually already own computers. That's kind of how they do it.

    --
    Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.