UK Culture Secretary Wants Web Ratings, Censorship

[thegoodnessisgood]

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| UK Culture Secretary Wants Website Ratings, Censorship |
| from the since-the-aussies-seem-so-excited-about-it dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday December 27, @09:37 (Censorship) |
| http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/27/1252255 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

kaufmanmoore writes "UK culture secretary Andy Burnham calls for [0]a
website rating system similar to the one used for movies in an interview
with the Daily Telegraph. He also calls for censorship of the internet,
saying, 'There is content that should just not be available to be
viewed.' Other proposals he mentions in his wide-ranging calls for
internet regulation are 'family-friendly' services from ISPs, and
requiring takedown notices to be enforced within a specific time for
sites that host content. Mr. Burnham wants to extend his proposals across
the pond and seeks meetings with the Obama administration."

[thomps1d]

This is actually an idea that's not horrible if implemented properly. Content ratings on websites would greatly simplify parental control web filters.

It's like parental controls on a digital cable box - they can be a helpful tool in a parent's arsenal to be aware of what their children are watching. More to the point, they also can teach children to bypass and overcome the censorship put in their way by "the man". :D

The downside is that it sends a message - the government doesn't even want to pretend that it's not engaging in censorship on a massive scale, and trying to decide what we should and shouldn't see. For people that don't actively work to overcome that sort of message, this is dehumanizing and can crush the general populace's curiosity and will to explore (this being the point of this sort of program, of course).

[fantomcat]

Why would you want to censorship it for kids?
Do you think that covering the up with cotton wool will make all the problems go away, or will they just kick off at being repressed?

As far as im concered, you may as well let them see what ever they want, you cant hide the worlds real face forever!

The whole point of this forum is that you can see whats going on, in an uncesored way, are you ok in the head?

Not to mention the fact that "you may" belive censorship is a good thing, cos thats what the governments been working on since the 1970s!!!!!

[bemore]

If parents watched what there kids were viewing on the internet then a lot of problems wouldnt arise.

Censorship is allready available, its called parental controls and being the administrator of your own computer.

Wasnt it one of labours policys that all households be connected to the internet????

[thomps1d]

The whole point of this forum is that you can see whats going on, in an uncesored way, are you ok in the head?

Did you even read what I wrote? The only way that I even implied that this would be positive is as a tool for parents (and, by extension, the children who the tools are used on).

Censorship in any form is a bad thing - but frankly, parents employing things like this will strongly encourage curious young minds to find ways to bypass the filters, which make them both more technologically savvy, and more aware of the controls that are being enforced upon them. In other words, it's less to do with the censorship itself and more to do with the awareness that censorship is happening.

Any kind of censorship is ultimately doomed to failure. However, having that censorship out in the open makes it that much easier to defeat - and frankly, if a child isn't mentally prepared for the challenge of defeating protective measures that are basically powerless in and of themselves, they probably aren't prepared to find the knowledge that lies beyond those measures.

What it boils down to is this: you have the choice of children who are used to being spoon-fed information without any restrictions, and who are thus more likely to be apathetic to the presence of that information (which they never had to fight to gain access to), or you have children who are aware that there are obstacles out there to their unfettered access to knowledge and information, and who are prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to bypass or defeat those protections. These are the children that will value the information they find, and who will be truly interested in the world around them.

As someone with children on the way, I can safely say that I'd much rather have it in my control to ensure that my children will have the opportunity to prepare themselves for the blinders that society wants to place over their head; by putting simple roadblocks in their way, they learn to overcome them.

As far as im concered, you may as well let them see what ever they want, you cant hide the worlds real face forever!

Again, I'm not sure who you're replying to, since I never in any way advocated trying to "hide the world's real face forever". I do believe that very young children aren't prepared to understand some of what they'll find, and that it is a parent's responsibility to protect them until they are ready for it. It's also the parent's responsibility to make them ready for it, which ties in to bemore's comment about actually supervising what your children do on the internet.

Since my original post must not have been very clear, here's a simple, concise breakdown of what I think on this:

Children develop gradually, as does their ability to understand the world around them. It is the responsibility of the parent to protect them and ensure that they are able to understand the world properly. Things like effective parental controls (which this web-rating scheme would allow, and which current parental control software simply doesn't do) are an important tool for parents to do precisely that. As the children grow, the presence of those tools will both make them aware of the fact that there is information they aren't already privy to, and will facilitate the development of the technical skills necessary to gain access to that information. Once this goal is accomplished, there is no further need for such protections, and the role of the parent shifts to an advisory one, providing feedback on the more esoteric or frightening concepts out there, while still allowing their children to make up their minds about what they see and read.

[guuna]

This is just internet censorship by the back door.

I bet that sites such as this one and Alex Jones' one will soon be in their line of fire.

[fantomcat]

If parents watched what there kids were viewing on the internet then a lot of problems wouldnt arise.

Censorship is allready available, its called parental controls and being the administrator of your own computer.

Wasn't it one of labours policys that all households be connected to the internet????

well i rember finding porn mags in the bushes when i was young, you dont see that now do you- it moved to the net, better than littering the place surely? - KEEP BRITAIN TIDY, remember that?
in any case, you are never gonna stop kids from seeing porn, we used to pinch my mates older brothers mags, sorry for the "open subject" but lets be honest, if you wanted a child for a robot, you should have spoken to an engineering company!!!

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