herdivineshadow from tumblr
[John Vanderslice] said, “If you think the Internet is making us lonelier, then you were never lonely before 1995.” That’s fucking deep, right? You know what you no longer have to do? Sit in your room with nothing. There is someone, even if it’s just some dude arguing about Alien Vs. Predator, right?
“Are you a consenting adult? Wish to look at pornographic, adult or ‘harmful’ material? No problem. Please tick the pervert box over here. Oh, it’ll just be stored on our system. Nothing to worry about. I mean, it’s not like you hear about security breaches.”
Ah, the beautiful future the Government hopes to impose on us! A world in which adults are obliged to opt-in to see the whole of the internet or find themselves surfing in a “safe zone” imposed by their ISP and helpful ministers.
The coalition is launching a national consultation today on an idea which would, they claim, “give parents more control over material their children view online”. Well, guess what? Parents already have that: it’s called the off switch.
Porn filter ‘censorship by the back door’ – Mic Wright – The Kernel
This makes me SO angry. I’ve been online since I was about 14 or 15. My parents didn’t supervise me at all. They had no idea what I got up to online and really, my mum still doesn’t. To a certain extent, the internet was still kind of young then, a PC in every home was still pretty new, and my parents, like most people over a certain age, weren’t that quick to understand technology at all.
My mum still isn’t, though now she knows about things like facebook and smartphones and twitter and I have to explain to her how, realistically, there’s no point in her getting a smartphone or an ipad or whatever, because she will never use it (I admit to being something of a technologically-literate luddite though – my laptop and phone are both 10 years old, my ebook reader about 4 years old… I don’t upgrade for the sake of upgrading).
They did, however, teach me right from wrong. They gave me access to knowledge and information and told me that certain things were aimed at adults and that I’d be ready for them when I was older. I knew not to give out personal information online (although I have no idea where from – might just be my own personal paranoia). I didn’t meet any of my internet friends without taking someone else with me (in fact, I think I met a fair number at music festivals IRL with my Dad). They took the responsibility for being my guardians seriously and didn’t expect anyone else to do it instead of them.
And filters will do nothing to stop determined teenagers from getting at what they want to online. Just stop their parents from knowing what things they’re exposing themselves to and remove the opportunity for discussion about the subject.
Harriet Harman, deputy leader the UK Labour Party, has explained her party’s programme for the British Internet: “implement the Digital Economy Act under a clear timetable including getting on with the notification letters.” “Notification letters?” Why yes, those would be the letters notifying you that you have been accused, without proof, of downloading copyrighted material without permission, and that everyone in your household is now at risk of being disconnected from the Internet, without a trial. If that costs you your job, if that costs your children their education, if that makes it harder to engage with politics, civics, and your community, well, tough shit. Thanks for sticking up for the little guy, Labour. And thanks for passing the Digital Economy Act without Parliamentary debate, over the howls of protests of your own veteran MPs, even after music industry lobbyists were caught rewriting portions of it to suit their corporate masters. (PS: she also wants all the worst stuff in SOPA to be taken on voluntarily by Google).