Somebody Think of the Children
International

Report on New Zealand net filtering trial

New Zealand blogger Thomas Beagle has obtained a copy of the NZ Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) report (PDF) on their trial of an Internet filtering system (in this case the Netclean Whitebox). Beagle writes: The second half of it [the report] is more interesting as it has some results from the DIA’s testing. This...

Porn and vulgar content threaten physical health of youth: China

If the Chinese government’s claim that Internet pornography and vulgar content seriously threaten the mental and physical health of youth is true, then perhaps looking at too much porn really will turn you blind? I’m no doctor so I’ll refrain from further speculation on the physical effects, but reports are in that the Chinese government...

My visit to the Atami Sex Museum – Atami, Japan

I’m currently holidaying in Japan and today I finished my brief stop over in Atami with a visit to the Atami Hihokan – or as it’s better known – the Atami Adult or Sex Museum. An excellent place to spend an hour! Not only does it offer three levels of exhibits on mainly Japanese sexuality,...

Thailand’s secret Internet blacklist published online

WikiLeaks has published a list of over 1,200 websites recently added to Thailand’s Internet censorship blacklist. Wikileaks says every blocked site has the internally noted reason of “lese majeste” — criticizing the King — however, it is obvious that many sites were blocked for quite different reasons. It would appear, in fact, that the judiciary...

Spiked Online ramps up UK coverage of Aussie filter

Spiked Online, a UK publication with the modest ambition of making history as well as reporting it, has published three articles on Australia’s net censorship plan. Guy Rundle gives a detailed run down of the proposal and its conservative connections in his article, Tear down Australia’s Great Firewall Reef (c’mon Guy, it’s Great Barrier Web). ...

Sunday wrap up: Image filter mistakes Conroy for porn

LogiPik, a PHP image filter for websites which supposedly uses a number of advanced detection layers to accurately classify a pictures level of appropriateness, thinks this picture of Stephen Conroy is porn. Actually, of the five photographs of Conroy I tried, three were considered porn and the one to the right ‘erotic’. Cheers to Eddie...

New Zealand OFLC teaching kids how to censor

New Zealand’s Office of Film & Literature Classification is teaching school students the fine art of classification and censorship. Michelle Baker from the OFLC said their Censor For A Day program is an opportunity for students to learn how censorship really worked and to apply it to future films. Bay Of Plenty Times writes: Around...

Inflight Internet access leads to inflight porn hysteria

American Airlines is under fire from customers and flight attendants because their inflight Internet service will give passengers access to pornographic websites (despite no recorded incidents of it happening). They want filtering software installed to keep all naughty stuff out of the air (Die Hard 4 as inflight entertainment not a problem though). If people...

New Zealand talks Aussie clean feed

Now New Zealand is making fun of us because of our looming clean feed. They’ve even reminded us that ex Tasmanian Senator Paul Calvert once said you have only got to press P on the Internet to get porn.

Should there be a global Internet Bill of Rights?

In November 2007, The Pew Internet & American Life Project surveyed attendees at the second Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro to find out their views on how governments and other regulators should structure policy about the internet, amongst other things. The results? Respondents indicated strong support for the establishment of a global internet...

Interview with 2channel founder on website responsibility and crime

Here’s an interesting interview with Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Founder of Japan’s largest online discussion forum 2channel. In it, Nishimura talks about his website’s responsibility in the Akihabara stabbing rampage, the distribution of controversial material online, filtering, and online anonymity. Hiroyuki Nishimura: ‘Is there any evidence that the Internet has led to an increase in crimes?...

Boobs on Bikes and porn fuel violence

Porn fuels violence. Porn fuels rape. If only porn could fuel my CAR! That was the message protesters at Auckland’s 2008 Boobs on Bikes parade were sending out today (well the first two at least). Seriously though. If people object to pornography, that’s their right and I respect it, but c’mon — The porn fuel’s...