I think we are on the verge of a new era of partnership with government - Steve 'Understatement' Ballmer
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UK wants to censor the web now
FOLLOWING the popularity of Australia's attempts to censor the world wide wibble, the British Labour Party now thinks it is a wizard wheeze to try something similar.
Andy Burnham, the Culture, Media and Sports Secretary, has decided that there is too much smut on the web and he is going to sort it out by getting some old fashioned censorship in there.
He wants to set up an age-rating system for Internet web sites to prevent children from being exposed to unacceptable images.
Burnham, who is in charge of British culture, said it is too easy to view a beheading these days. The last people who saw one of those in Blighty were the crowd who saw Simon Lord Lovatt beheaded on Tower Hill when he was executed for treason on April the 9th, 1747. None of them stuck a phone video up on YouTube.
Burnham, a father of three young children, said he only allows them to use the Internet when they can be closely supervised. Clearly he thinks the rest of the UK population are his children and that is the best way to bring kids up.
He said that the UK will work with the US to see if the Internet can be purified. He insisted that this is not about turning back the clock. He acknowledged that a free internet had been "empowering and democratising". However, he said there were no stakes in the ground to help people navigate their way safely around it.
Clearly he has not heard of the concept of common sense and personal responsibility, but then again he is a politician. µ
L'Inq
AP
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Brothers and Sisters, well ... i m not a U.K. citizen n neither from West. I m a so call Global Villager. Lucky for me that our government hasn't taken up any steps to filter the Internet for the time being n if they do, who knows, i may not be here in this site. Many thanks to the Internet and to those people who have made such a wise move. But now why this ...Contraband (i don't speak english well). A good doctor learns about new medicines and techniques all the time to cure patients and a worst doctor never learns anything from anyone and kills patients making many excuses. So who you wanna be now? The good doctor or the bad one. Well its up to you. If you'r censoring the Internet for some reasons(i can guest two or three) you should know you are hurting yourself and other millions of people like us because you have no rights to do so n because i believe our government (or alike) will follow your lead and that'll be the second worst thing ever happen to my life. You should learn something from your dying patients. They'll give you the very best of knowledge you'd ever thought of. If you are tired of them then get rid of them, its so simple. Despite funding on the censorship just fund for a better customizable system on this existing system...say a system that could know the user... (or...just get some free mind good intellectual people around the world and talk about it, they'll loose their sleeps for this... n if they can't we'll solve this altogether) because its too good and too young to die. After all its only the switch you don't want why cut the line. And mr. parents, keep the good things going on. Never quit guarding your children from the evils. But let them have chances to know the worst parts of the humanity and the world despite your loving eagle eyes and best inspirations. Because this is the only way for us to go on and make this world even better.
I am a U.S. citizen living in the UK - I am also a Christian, I do NOT support the notion of censoring the internet. It's not the Government's responsibility, but parents. Andy Burnham must be stopped,,,first of all, we are NOT his children NOR is it his responsibility to CENSOR us. Just who does this clown think he is? He is 100% powerless. I am also shocked at the UK citizens, why don't they speak up? Are they scared to do so? Are they scared the Queen will do something to them? IF the UK citizens DON'T speak up, you WILL lose ALL your rights as the Labour party or whatever party is in office walks all over you guys.
why not bann the internet altogether!...
Then they wont have to waste billions making a database to record all our traffic and emails.
And the knock-on effect will be to save the publishing industry, the movie industry, the music buisiness to boot.
better yet, why not ban all technological improvements that have been invented since... say 1976?
woohoo no more M$ ;p
though driving about in a dinky mini is something i would avoid...
The Anglo Three already have great difficulty competing with the rest of the world, especially the Yanks, why shouldn't they just make it even more difficult for their children? I'm sure all the Teachers of Mandarin in the U.K. are looking forward to the increased income when all the Brits will be required to learn Chinese to be able to ask their bosses for a pay raise.
Bush is history so why haven't the British been told?
Vote him and his looser chums out next election so that he can purify the dustbins at the jobcentre plus offices.
citizen
Gee. When a young kid comes across a check box which says 'Are you over 18?', I guess we can trust them to do the right thing.
...it puts any really bad ideas your colleagues may come up with in perspective. Yay corporate bonding.
I used to use one of the early content rating systems - around 1996 - for my own web sites; I thought it was PICS, but the syntax doesn't look familiar now I look at it. I (conservatively) gave myself an adult rating for one page on my web site, which showed (non-explicitly) how a (non-anthropomorphic) cartoon character I doodle might procreate as part of a fictional discussion of its life-cycle - topical, I know... After a year, the organisers inadvertently mailshotted every user who had signed up with their entire mailing list, which started the spam I've been receiving ever since (I still have that email address). I removed all references to the scheme, but Vodafone seem to have a history and still won't let me access any of my own web site from my mobile.
It's possible that things are better these days, and I should go back to it.
Funny how "I don't know how to keep my children safe on the internet" always translates to politicians as "we must control the internet", not "we must teach people how to keep their children safe". I heard some comment about how we "shouldn't just claim it's too technically difficult" or some such, and comparisons with the BBFC; nice to see someone volunteering to read every site and every comment that people post on the internet (and such a clear understanding of how the internet works).
On the other hand, a large number of civil servants may just have discovered that their job is to look at porn sites all day. Happy Christmas.
The framework for Internet content filtering by age (or other criteria) has been available since (at least) 1995: all my websites have always used it.
Just look at http://www.w3.org/PICS/
There's also a later framework that is more capable: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/
So why are the Government pontificating?
Are they stupid?
Do they do any research?
I leave the answer to these questions to the reader as an exercise.
but this is how it starts, a noble cause to make our children safe, is just an excuse to block bit torrent and other P2P, WE HAVE GOT TO WISE UP! we let the government walk all over us, it started with the smoking ban, and has escalated from there, now we cant sing the hoky koky(if thats how you spell it)
we would do well to remember the words of franklin (1775): he who sacrifices freedom of the internet for temperance and security deserves neither, and will lose both...
HAH! The web will only be purified when politicians have been removed completely from the equation - which will never happen.
You know, Labour really are doing a good job of making sure that absolutely nobody votes for them at the next election. Unfortunately, a large percentage of ex-Labour voters will end up turning to the Tories. Short memories, eh.
While some curious yoofs will eventually look where they shouldn't, the majority will censor itself. I mean, how many of us see a disturbing image and keep it for later viewing? people have boundaries and will learn their limits.
Perhaps instead of caging everything the UK can do something truly revolutionary; mandatory parenting classes.
We do not need to force parents to raise their children a certain way, all we need is for parents to be INFORMED about tried & true best ways to raise their child. I have no doubt that the majority will become better parents & thus their children will become better people.
OR
Let's just put & lock over everything & hope clever yoofs won't break in.
Further reading; the great firewall of China.