BT sounds child web porn warning
If the new figures from the BBC are to be believed then -
The number of attempts to view illegal child pornography on the web has risen sharply since 2004, according to BT.
My problem with the Internet Watch Foundation BlackList - is that it is a secret.
How can we know whether all of these "35,000 hits per day" are really attempts at accessing "child porn" when the 'BlackList" is secret?
People could have been trying to access other sites in the .ru domain that have nothing to do with "illegal material" - these sites are blocked because, after all, "Russia is a popular location for child pornography"
No P2P file sharers in Russia trying to evade government restrictions on free speech then ...
These self-appointed site blockers could add a high profile site - such as Google - and claim that they have blocked 3.,000,000 attempted hits per day - but no-one can check their figures.
The "BlackList" is secret - and any attempt to reverse engineer the contents of the BlackList might be illegal under the DMCA - and no checking can be made of the BlackListed sites anyhow.
If you really do stumble upon a dubious site - and confirm that the BlackList is working - then you are open to prosecution for viewing the wrong kind of site.
Otherwise we have no idea who is "BlackListed" - as I said the whole .ru domain seems suspect
Is this just censorship via the back door?
How long before BT apply the same blacklisting technology to sites about "Tibet" for example - not that any really savvy nu-media company would restrict free speech in that way ... haha
The whole thing is bad - a secret blacklist and possibly inflated figures leading to yet more hysteria about pornography - and the inevitable call for more regulation for the Internet.
Now we have secret "BlackLists" and laws that prevent you from finding out if ithey are correct or not because you might become a criminal if you do so .
We are talking "Catch 22" here ...
BlackLists don't stop child pornography anyhow.
What are BT thinking? That by stopping kinky middle age pervs looking at dirty pictures from Russia that they STOP the abuse of under age children?
Children are still being abused - but now using the magical "BlackList" wand - it's not their problem any more.
If these companies were really interested in wiping out this type of porn then maybe they should contribute a small part of their profits to one of the many NGO's that specialise in this sort of thing - and not hype up the figures to make more money.
I could go on.
For a long time now the "child porn" scandal has been used to restrict the web more and more - even though Internet "old timers" remember a net free of kiddie porn - until mainstream media started telling everyone that the net "was a haven for paedophiles".
Old Media created this problem in response to Old Government requirements for control - using the old "self fulfilling prophecy" feedback loop.
This problem has been created out of thin air to satisfy the requirements of a bunch of control freaks who don't use the net, don't understand the net and don't want to share anything - especially the profits they could have made if they were a bit more net-savvy.
Yet the figures speak for themselves - 18 months ago there were 10,000 "attempted acesses" per day and this month the figures have gone up to 35,000 per day.
I don't call this success - none of these blocked accesses have prevented children being abused - I call it clever marketing and advertising.
I hate child porn - I just think there would be a lot less of it on the Web if Old Media and software vendors didn't keep hyping it to death to make more money - pervs wouldn't be so attracted to the web of it wasn't for this kind of marketing.
Companies that propagandise their services by demonising the web are destroying the web.
People who are attracted to their vision of the "Outlaw Web" help to reinforce the feedback loop that makes more money - it doesn't matter whether they are labelled as - "crackers", "hackers", "pirates" or "kiddie porn merchants" - there is s money to be made out of scaring the public to buy expensive software and services they do not need.
This constant media barrage attracts people who want to fulfill that niche in the web ecology - and they end up driving even greater profits for the companies who continue to demonise the web - who attract more people who abuse the web because they want to fill that niche in the web ecology ...
One of my smartest friends has given it all up - now he roams World of Warcraft wearing a wedding dress and spends his time beating up virtual people.
Given the state of the "CyberNation" I can't blame him.
If things get worse I might just join him - after all its a lot easier than worrying about how the "BigBrother" effect is going to kill the Internet - and I might have more fun.
Tags: censorship control internet filtering BT IWF child pornography kiddie porn