Filtering Wrap Up: Of Swallows and Silver Bullets

From Sean the Blogonaut

Senator Conroy has again fired off another of the 'no silver bullet'lines in relation to ISP filtering - a phrase so prevalent that should a pack of werewolves cross over 'a bridge too far' and wander down a 'fork in the road' our kiddies will be well protected.

Sexual Predators: NOT an Internet Threat to Kids

Last year, the attorneys general of 49 states created the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to investigate sexual solicitation of children by molesters who troll for targets using sites popular with kids, among them, MySpace and Facebook. The 278-page report concluded that there's no real problem.

Psychology Today article:

Now, Senator Conroy, enough is enough. The main driver of your plan to filter the net is to protect children. That idea fails with this report.

Kids' top searches include 'porn' (BBC)

A survey of children's web habits shows that "sex" and "porn" are among the top 10 most-searched terms.

BBC Story

Kids: Sometimes they need help, sometimes they need guidance, sometimes you've just gotta get the hell out of the way.

Parents, the kids know what they're doing.

Parents might be frightened of the internet but the kids know what they are doing.

SMH Article:

China backs down on net filter plan

A top Beijing official said that a controversial internet filter software was optional for all users after plans to install it on computers sold in China triggered a storm of protest

.

Link:

Come on Chairman Rudd, your very good friends have come to their senses. Will you follow their excellent lead.

Sydney priest 'groomer' caught on webcam, court told

Catholicism fails the morality test again. The article doesn't clearly state that Father Fuller is facing excommunication. He may be punished in this world but, according to Catholicism, further punishment wont be necessary.

Link:

Banning football!!!

A football coach is on child porn charges. Obviously, in Conroy-logic, this makes football "gateway child abuse". I'll start the chorus off. Now, on my hand flapping:
Wont somebody think of the children!!

Link:

DPP blasts net censor plan

The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions has slammed the Federal Government's internet censorship policy, saying it will have very limited, if any, success in achieving its aims.

Asher Moses' SMH Article:

ITWire Article:

Chinese hack into film festival site

CHINESE hackers have attacked the Melbourne International Film Festival website in an intensifying campaign against the screening of a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

This is what the Chinese have done to silence us here. This is the same sort of thing as Conroy wants to introduce. He wants this kind of control over the net.

Article in The Age:

Thai net filter

Wanna see what Australia's net filter will look like in a few years. Thailand is a few steps further along this path than us.

There is all the emotive talk of child protection and terrorism.

Wikileaks:

It probably started with a public morality issue...

It probably started with a public morality issue but Iran's internet is now going to be used to stop any nasty little outbreaks of democracy such as the one we saw lately.

SMH article:

Iran has passed a new internet law that experts fear will make information on internet users more readily available to the authorities.

It wasn't gamers, it was a devout christian

Conroy wants to block gamers from accessing games rated above M 15+ because there might be violence. Perhaps he should be looking at what the fundamentalists are telling people about possession by demons to stop violence.

All the moderate christians out there who say that this isn't your christianity doing this should look closely at what you did to stop this sort of nonsense from gaining traction in the world. It has traction right now. What are you doing to stop this rubbish because I don't want the demons shot out of me.

Article >

We don't need a filter, we need a reality check.

Looking for the corrupting influences on children? Look no further than the High School Mathematic teaching Christian Album releasing minivan owning mother's of three.

Qantas wont have it

Qantas have refused the ad, despite giving a quote to show it. But censorship ads censored by big business are better than ads shown.

Conroy responds to GetUp ad

Conroy has denied the accusation that his net filter will stuff the internet.

Conroy's fame has spread to the UK.

Stephen Conroy's mandatory internet filtering plans have earned him the title of Internet Villain of the Year

The UK Internet Industry Awards

Conroy's fame has spread to the UK.

Mansfield man, 75, sued for sex abuse

David Harvey of 2061 Ranchwood Drive is named in the suit, along with the Rev. Sonny Thayer, 2878 Millsboro Road; Dianna Kochheiser, 1109 W. Hanley Road; and Russ Harvey of Galion. Grace Brethren Church, 531 Marion Ave., also is named.

Article

Once again, religion shows that it is incapable of forming a good society that protects children.

While governments and churches are busy deriding the internet as a terribly dangerous place for children the pedophiles are grooming the church kids. Kids who are taught that people in their church are inherently trustworthy simply because they are members of their church are left very open to abuse.

Children need to learn early that their bodies belong to them. Children have to know that they get to decide who touches them and they are allowed to say no to wrong or uncomfortable things regardless of who is doing it. That's what I taught young people in karate lessons. It doesn't take much to push an adult away. Pedophiles need quiet compliant children. They will run a mile if a child shows that he or she will fight, kick, bite and scream (yes, I gave bitting lessons). It takes 5 minutes to teach the average child to drop down in their stance (or sit down) and twist out of a wrist hold (being dragged by the hand). If they could break the hold, attack the groin. If you get away, run as fast as you can. I never got complaints from parents that the lessons caused negative behaviour.

This old guy in the church was probably trusted by all of the parents and he used this trust to get access to the children. This shows again that the church model of community is inherently flawed.

But, that aside, adults that were abused as children probably tithe more than non-abused so it's good for business. To be so damaged and confused would probably make them cling to the church.

Australian Institute of Criminology's report.

Online child grooming: a literature review on the misuse of social networking sites for grooming children for sexual offences.

ICANN says Web filters will "embarrass" Aussie govt

An Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) chief has said the Australian government will "embarrass itself" if it pushes ahead with plans to install a national Internet content filter.

ComputerWorld Article

Censordyne - Web Filter Parody

SMH Article:



Censordyne - cleaning the internet Conroy style.

GetUp Campaign - flick them a few bucks to get this ad in front of politicians.

Chinese Govt. Vs Google

On Thursday, a Chinese official accused Google of spreading obscene content over the internet. The comments came a day after Google.com, Gmail and other Google online services abruptly became inaccessible to many users in China.

SMH Article

This is the kind of crap that Conroy will be going on with once his filter is in place.

Chinese netizens.

Chinese netizens are fighting back.

China's filter isn't to US taste. Conroy's at it again.

US asks China to drop their filter.


And gamers find out that 15+ games are on Conroy's chopping block too. Despite almost everyone not wanting this Conroy forges on ahead.

There are two types of people in this debate: people who want a filter and people who know that it is an unworkable idea which is pushing against the censorship tide.

People want less censorship. We have tasted a world without the government telling us what to do. Toto has pulled back the curtain. Saying "Ignore the little man behind the curtain" isn't gonna work.

People don't just want Porn

Despite what the religious right would have us believe, the internet isn't awash with porn and people use it to socialise and research.

Much of this functionality will be damaged by the government's attempts to dumb down the internet to a G-Rating.

If people are seeking porn, they aren't seeking it because of the internet, they are seeking it because it is part of their sexual orientation.

Even China is ahead of Conroy

Even the Chinese Communist Party is more liberal minded and democratic than Conroy the puppet of the religious right.

SMH Article >

The Chinese government still has a problem with google allowing the Chinese to find porn.

SMH article >