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UK Considering Automatic Web Filtering For Adult Content
Dupple writes with news that the British government is considering restrictions for ISPs that would block by default anything considered "adult content." From the article:
"Ministers are suggesting that people should automatically be barred from accessing unsuitable adult material unless they actually choose to view it. It is one of several suggestions being put out for a consultation on how to shield children from pornography. Websites promoting suicide, anorexia and self-harm are also being targeted. The discussion paper asks for views on three broad options for the best approach to keeping children safe online, in a rapidly changing digital industry. ... The latest system, called 'active choice-plus,' is aimed at reaching a compromise. It would automatically block adult content, but would set users a question, along the lines of whether they want to change this to gain access to sites promoting pornography, violence and other adult-only themes. This is partly based on 'Nudge' theory, a U.S. concept which states that persuasion, rather than enforcement, can be an effective way of changing behavior."
And also fuck the establishment!
(Punk is not dead!)
Ban the Bible it is full of porn.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
The blocking is so easy to circumvent, it's ridiculous. More legislation from politicians who don't have a clue how the Internet works.
How can we show people how stupid this whole "won't someone think of the children!?" argument is?
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome."
...that every 18 year old still living at home, with the legal right to view such material... now has to approach his mother and father and say "Could you please turn the porn on?". This could destroy more lives than the current setup.
Me still thinks this is doubleplusungood. If you want to protect your kids, don't let them unsupervised on the Internet when they are still young. You don't let them play on a dangerous road either, do you?
... as one can chose "safe search" or not. It seem like a good option for search engines, a possible-but-onerous one for browsers (ask Google if a page is safe?) and a huge expensive kludge for ISPs.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
I wouldn't say that's fine. They're suggesting that things they don't like should be automatically blocked. What if I said that we should automatically block republican/democrat/religious/atheist websites, for instance? I'm sure there are some people that would like at least a few of those blocked, yet if it was proposed, I believe there would be far more outrage.
If the schools don't want that happening, they can implement a meaningless block themselves.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
How about parents become engaged in their children's lives and be more aware of what websites their children visit? Simple! Problem solved!
Pity they don't try it with the War on Drugs. Enforcement seems to rule there.
Pornography, at least, is already age-restricted. Asking ISPs to do the same level of filtering that brick-and-mortor stores do, while a little unreasonable, does make a certain amount of sense.
I would suggest, however, that any laws surrounding that be tied to pre-existing format-neutral regulations. If there's no law prohibiting someone from buying a book that promotes anorexia, for example, why make a ruling that only affects online users?
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Ministers are suggesting that people should automatically be barred from accessing unsuitable adult material unless they actually choose to view it.
So, leave it exactly the way it is, then?
No really, I am trying to think of the last time I saw anything pornographic that I wasn't looking for, and I can't name a single example. Maybe it's because I took two minutes to read Google's tips on how to get good search results? At any rate, this is the very first time in recent memory that I sincerely felt pro-status quo.
The Internet is a really great thing. Can't we have just one nice thing that the Puritannical busybodies don't fuck up for us? Is it really everyone else's problem if this tiny minority gets offended? Can we just decide to trust the parents to be parents, and accept that if we can't do that, the children have much bigger problems than any censorship is going to fix?
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Where is the line drawn between "promoting" and "featuring"? Who decides where it lies?
I view a website practically every day that regularly features violence of the most brutal kind. Abuse, murder, assaults, genocide, mass murder, casual, premeditated. It's all there. It's called BBC News. I wouldn't say it is "promoting" violence, but someone else may have a more censorious view on that. Why should they get to decide and not me? Why does my habit of reading this website need "nudged"?
Let's block censorship!
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
That's always the problem with censorship systems.
For instance, is a picture that is clearly a depiction of Nick Clegg and David Cameron going at it while not showing any private parts qualify as adult content or political speech? How about if they aren't even engaged in sexual activity, but just depicted wearing drag? How about classic artwork, like "Liberty Leading the People", where a breast is clearly visible? How about smutty literature, like Harry Potter lemons, the Song of Soloman, or D.H. Lawrence?
The line isn't clear, and the answer is usually that the government hires some prude to decide for the rest of us what's ok and what's not.
I am officially gone from
A friend of mine was never allowed to look at porn as a teenager. He was severely punished when a Playboy magazine was found under his mattress. I've never known anyone more sexually suppressed.
He is now a convicted sex offender. He ordered a video from a website claiming to be of teenage girls. That website was a honeypot. He didn't go to jail, but the constant death threats you get mailed to your house from complete strangers when you're on the sex offender list drove him out of the country. He lives in China now.
I was always allowed to look at porn if I wanted to. I was allowed to watch the sexually explicit movies on Cinemax, Showtime, etc. I watched Real Sex on HBO as a kid. I looked at all the porn I wanted to on the internet.
I no longer have an urge to look at porn. I haven't since I was a kid. Got it all out of my system, I guess. I'm now happily married and have a normal and satisfying sex life. No sex convictions.
Glad I didn't grow up in a house where it's wrong to masturbate.
>This is partly based on 'Nudge' theory, a U.S. concept which states that persuasion, rather than enforcement, can be an effective way of changing behavior."
This "Nudge theory" has proven only to be the bullshit of "we're okay with letting private entities to automatically enroll and then subsequently allow customers to opt-out instead of an opt-in".. regarding a system of what is essentially censorship.
That being said I don't think any major U.S. telcos do this, yet. What the FUCK do you care if I'm looking at legal porn? What the fuck do I care that you know? It's not like you don't know all the data I'm sending anyways. What's next, want to post a public list with my name and address on it as a 'peruser of adult content'?
Thank god we grew out of this shit 40 years ago.. better watch out! The communists, oops, terrorists, will get you next!
Fuck you too, terrorists.. I don't want or need your fear in my life, and I'm not interested in invoking fear on others. I reject it.
Fuck you fear, in all of your myriad of forms in this world. Realizing that, as you collapse down the categories of all things human, it is all due to the motivating force between you and love. And I choose love.
I love you, fear, for driving me to this understanding.
I love you, web filter, for hopefully driving others to understand the very same concept. That you are a piece of fear and should be rejected by all those who seek to free themselves from such.
They're suggesting that things they don't like should be automatically blocked. What if I said that we should automatically block republican/democrat/religious/atheist websites, for instance? I'm sure there are some people that would like at least a few of those blocked
It's difficult to fathom being so grotesquely insecure as to be that deeply threatened by the mere existence of people who disagree with you. These are the people least worthy of getting what they want.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
The point isn't to be hard to circumvent(in a technical sense),
it doesn't need to be hard to circumvent the filters to prevent people from doing it. It just needs to be illegal.
it's the same as hacking into a site. The law doesn't stop you from being prosecuted if the site had lousy security - the "But M'Lud, it wasn't burglary the door had an easy lock" defence is a myth. If the law is drafted so that intent to circumvent is illegal then the strength of the lock-out doesn't matter.
And if ISPs know which sites are banned for the opt-in's it will know which of it's opt-in'd users are trying to access them. If there is then some traffic flow from that banned site the only question is whether the ISP has a duty to report it. Until the law is written we will have no idea just how draconian it will be.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
When I was young we had to draw or write our own porn. It taught me a life-skill I can still use today!
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Some "undeveloped" peoples run around nearly naked. Their sons and daughters know what penises, vaginas and breasts are. They help to cook food, and thus see the gory innards of slain beasts.
In the developed world most of their children have no clue that opposite sexes even exist. Children often know the issue of "where babies come from" is uncomfortable to their parents long before they even learn the truth. They're vastly undereducated as to the urges their hormones bring... They have little sense of the finality of death, or of nature. They bring their own children up in the same fashion, where censorship is more easily condoned, where ignorance is praised, where they don't abhor violence or war.
Goodbye Humans. You've decided to destroy yourselves. I'll have no part in it.
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Their attraction was undeniable. Fully exposed, their bodies drew rapidly closer. Nearness awakened every fiber of each form to the other's. Her lithe curves and easy undulation betrayed her ample experience, some of which she would soon impart to him. Her awesome presence caused him to quake softly in response, this being his first time.
With only her incredible closeness she called forth the very tip of his being. Their bodies touched first only at a single point, from which searing waves of heat rushed forth, mirrored in them both, ripping away all resistance to their inevitable purpose. An ageless eternity passed between them in a moment, and instantly all of her knew all of him.
When their intense furious coupling had subsided, she drifted at the edge of his perception. The heart of his being was left glowing brighter than a billion suns. No one knew what seed had been planted that day, but it was certain he was changed and could never be the same again.
-The Big Bang
A story of Universal creation by VortexCortex
This story is so offensive to "Puritanical busybodies" on so many levels, that I email it to them in a response to their Kitty Porn, and I never hear from them again.
think this is a direct effect of all the Nouveau Russ immigrants settling in London. Before you know, they'll be opening their Korova bars and London will be overran with the gangs of overdressed gangs of teenagers. We need liberally minded approaches to enforcement... The kinds which influence the mind in subtle ways... through re-purposing associations. Oh, where have I seen this movie before. And why is it that every generation thinks it's so important to ruin the fun for the generation after? Life is inherently dangerous. Prudence is learned through experience... not through sheltering. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.