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UK Health Secretary Urges Social Media Companies To Block Cyberbullying And Underaged Sexting (betanews.com)
Mark Wilson shares his article on Beta News:
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has made calls for technology companies and social media to do more to tackle the problems of cyberbullying, online intimidation and -- rather specifically -- under-18-year-olds texting sexually explicit images. Of course, he doesn't have the slightest idea about how to go about tackling these problems, but he has expressed his concern so that, in conjunction with passing this buck to tech companies, should be enough, right?
Hunt apparently believes there's already a technology which can identify sexually explicit photos, and that social media networks should now also develop algorithms to identify and block cyberbullying, an idea the Guardian called "sadly laughable."
"Is the blanket censorship of non-approved communications for all under 18s -- something that goes far further than even the Great Firewall of China -- really the kind of thing a government minister should be able to idly suggest in 2016?"
Hunt apparently believes there's already a technology which can identify sexually explicit photos, and that social media networks should now also develop algorithms to identify and block cyberbullying, an idea the Guardian called "sadly laughable."
"Is the blanket censorship of non-approved communications for all under 18s -- something that goes far further than even the Great Firewall of China -- really the kind of thing a government minister should be able to idly suggest in 2016?"
How is "underaged sexting" a health issue? It may be a moral issue, but that seems to be outside the authority of the Health Secretary.
Bitches
Sounds like the laws need fixing, not the kids.
Teenagers have sex. Some of them a lot of it. Turns out people like to take pictures. Shock, horror.
Stupid.
This is a pattern I have come to call "deregulated regulation". Pondering a law and ultimately passing it is hard. Enforcing is too. There are such annoying nitties as "free speech", checks, balances, yadda, yadda.
Easier to lean (if needed, robustly) on some Internet Powerful, and let them the dirty work (which they are often happy to do, their occasional show of resistance notwithstanding). Because this allows them to silently increase user control -- the best way these days to protect their silos.
Grow a pair. The world is not a nice place. People are not the angels you think they are. The sooner you understand that, the better.
Just set up a system that sends all pics to Hunt's phone for approval and if approval is not received or denied within a reasonable time, like 15 seconds, automatically forwards them. I'm sure he'll approve.
Flawed idea as you can be married at 16 in the UK so having sex is legal at this age. So you have to wait till 18 to be able to see fully nude pictures which is crazy when you can legally see a real nude women at 16. Sigh.
If you ban a troll, they can just create a new account. If you shadowban a troll, it will take some time and then they will figure it out and make a new account. What we need is a "verseban" for trolls. This would be a progression of a shadowban but instead of being shunned it would appear that people are responding to them when in fact they are conversing with AI chatbots posing as those users. With the latest AI, this would be significantly more difficult to detect, especially if the replies were modeled on things users had written previously. In effect the troll would be banished to their own little universe where they cannot hurt anyone but also don't know they have been caged.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
In most european countries adolescents have the right to have sex with 14. Sending a picture of your self is not even close to that ...
So good luck with that proposal ...
Ah, BREXit ... I forgot about hat.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
If you plan to propose a law concerning the internet and telecommunication:
1) Find out how the internet and telecommunication infrastructure works.
2) Ponder how to enforce the law.
3) Ponder who gets to set the required rules and regulations to enforce the law.
4) Propose it.
Jumping straight to 4, as you usually do, leads to ridicule and only accomplishes that you're showing off your ignorance to a more and more computer- and internet-savvy population. In other words: Don't do it if you value your career.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If you accept the premise that there's a problem* then isn't this exactly the right thing to do?
He's saying there's a problem, and asking the people in the best position to do something about it to figure out a way. And don't pretend there's nothing they can do; Google image search is pretty damn good at identifying image content.
* If you want to deny the premise this doesn't apply, so go reply to someone else.
Nope, no sig
Unfortunately (especially for those of us in the UK), Mr.Hunt has a number of views that appear to be at odds with reality. e.g. https://www.newscientist.com/a...
In the UK, if you speak to many doctors about the minister, prepare yourself for a very, *very* long stream of invective.
Last time we had it because of terrorism, this time it's because of the children. Next time terrorism again, but then censorship instead of surveilance.
My cousin has preyed upon dozens of girls between 13 and 16 via Facebook. He sin his mid twenties and has somehow managed to beat several statutory rape charges. I think a minor change to the EULA would be fair in such cases, notifying parents when possible and law enforcement when not. I hacked his six character password once and closed his account with this as the reasoning, saying he could not control himself. I don't think he can.
Because that will make it true, right?
This is the worst ever suppression of human nature and if this is not sexually motivated abuse of underage youth, I do not know what is. This person is obviously a dangerous pervert.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
First the UK essentially banned pornography. Now it wants to ban being "mean" (which, being a subjective term, I'm sure will never ever be used to nefarious purposes). I can't wait to see what gets banned next in the name of protecting the children... maybe the political opposition will be labeled as "hate speech" and also be banned. Or maybe any religion that purports any morality that the government doesn't like will be labeled as "hate speech". I'm sure all this will lead to a British utopia in 10 years. I mean, sure, this path has always led to fascism in the past, but this time I'm sure it will somehow end up differently.
Jeremy Hunt sounds like the kind of clown who would advocate for putting a chip in the brain of newborns that would turn off sexual desire until they were X years old.
I was having sex at 14 with girls who were my age as well as some who were older (in some cases much older). I knew exactly what I was doing and wasn't being taken advantage of, as Hunt seems to believe is the case. If I'd had a camera I'd have probably taken pictures. So what?
In short, not everyone who's having sex below the age of 16 or 18, even with an older partner, is being raped.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Social media companies urge UK government to issue national ID cards to everyone over the age of 4.
Social media companies also urge the UK government to implement a back end system so that, given the card, they can verify underage status or not in a government database.
Social media companies further urge that the UK government have plans in place, should the ID card be stolen, for issuing a replacement ID with a different number, and repudiation of the stolen ID, such that it's no longer considered valid ID, by maintaining a revocation status bit in the back end verification database.
Social media companies finally state that the plan can not be implemented without these systems being put in place prior to deployments, and if they are unwilling to get the necessary infrastructure built so that it's even possible to comply, the UK government can go stuff themselves.
Do I have to read such drivel, and see to many people eating hook, bait and the whole fishing pole? This is just BS talk to justify censorship...politicians think we are all damn morons.
there is technology to detect such photos - it's called 'pattern recognition', please see related patents, etc.
Cyberbullying and online intimidation are a form of aggression. There is a victim and a culprit.
How is it related to teenagers doing sexual things? There are good reasons for making underage sexting illegal (the pictures may fall in the wrong hands) but it is an entirely different problem.
It is like saying : here, we are going to tackle the problem of burglary, so let's investigate the porn industry.
I'd love to see how they're going to accomplish that. People are brilliant in coming up with ways to circumvent things. Hell, kids apparently use the eggplant emoji as a surrogate penis.
So yeah... good luck with that. I wonder how many millions they're going to piss away *this time* only to find their efforts useless.