This one time, at band camp, SMITH GARETH wrote: > I think censorship is a great idea. Young children need to be censored > from harmful content. They don't need to be exposed to potentially > damaging websites and now with internet on a mobiles, kids are being > exposed to harmful content that they shouldn't see.
1. It doesn't work. 2. Who decides what is appropriate and what isn't? "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." - Attributed to Mark Twain The task of deciding what is appropriate for children is the job of the parents. All filtering systems have faults -- over or under blocking, so aren't a perfect solution. A much better option is to have the computer in a public location. > I think home internet plans should be filtered and business plans can be > unfiltered. Feel free to install whatever filtering system you would like on YOUR internet connection. The government even provides the software for free. Me, I'll stick to my own thanks! > China filters the whole internet to the country and this works for them No, it doesn't work. What it blocks is trivial access to sites like CNN, BBC and ABC. A few obvious porn sites (playboy, penthouse) are blocked, while the rest are open. It is trivially easy to get around the censorship -- I set up just such a system for a friend when he lived in Shanghai. How the Chinese firewall works is through fear of being noticed. My friend was okay running a VPN to my server because, as a westerner, he would have been deported. A local would be locked up in a prison for ideological offenders. This is the model we want for Australia? > so it's feasable to do this technically. Censoring the whole internet is > stupid but censoring HOMES and Schools is a great idea. Sure, a great idea. Except it doesn't work. Internet Filtering - It's like WorkChoices for your computer: You never asked for it, you've repeatedly said you don't want it, but the Government is determined to ram it down your throat, all the while smirking, and telling you what a great favour they're doing you. -- Rev Simon Rumble <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> www.rumble.net The Tourist Engineer Because nerds travel too. http://engineer.openguides.org/ If the designers of X-windows built cars, there would be no fewer than five steering wheels hidden about the cockpit, none of which followed the same prinicples -- but you'd be able to shift gears with your car stereo. Useful feature, that. -- From the programming notebooks of a heretic, 1990. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
