Filtering Internet porn in SA: The Reality

[rpm]

Banning Internet porn in SA: The Reality

Government pushes forward plan forcing ISPs to filter out Internet porn in South Africa, but ISPs warn about the reality of implementing such a filter

[cda]

I bet Zuma likes porn. There's no way such a bill will pass.

[Tariq786]

As long as usenet and p2p exists i dont actually care what they decide to do.

[nakedpeanut]

nsfw is that for a reason

But ya doubt it will be passed.. Not that it would make a difference to me anyways..

[HavocXphere]

There's no way such a bill will pass.

I don't share your confidence. It'll pass & they'll stick the ISPs with the responsibility to implement their shtty plan. Same thing happened with RICA.

The people deciding this aren't exactly IT gurus. They just see an opportunity to score brownie points w/ the conservatives & go. By the time anyone figures out its a disaster nobody remembers who backed it & who did not anyway.

EDIT:
Keoma clearly wins the interwebs with this response:

Keoma Wright, founder of OpenWeb, suggested that the Deputy Minister should download a parental control application from Download.com to protect his own computer.

[devdev666]

i don't see why they find it so harmful they need to ban it, i mean seriously wtf?porn that bad for you...

[Gatecrasher]

i don't see why they find it so harmful they need to ban it, i mean seriously wtf?porn that bad for you...

It's those excessive semen emissions burning a hole in the ozone layer.

[Lycanthrope]

You'll permit unacceptable levels crime, corruption runs rampant, rape occurs more often than anyone would dare to think about and you have the audacity to try restrict and control a medium--the basis of which is global freedom of information and privacy--in the name of 'protecting children?!'

I **** you not. If this gets passed I leave this country because then there really is only one direction things can go in. I don't want to live in a China/UAE/Zimbabwe hybrid country, thanks. I actually have some standards.

I challenge this brainless, self-righteous, ignorant bigot of a minister to open her eyes long enough to learn about countries like Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, UK, USA and compare them to China and the UAE. What's the difference? Oh, right... liberalism. Liberalism isn't putting people in cages and feeding them what you think is best, it's leaving people to make their own decisions for better or for worse and tolerating the freedoms others wish to make use of so long as it doesn't infringe on anyone else's rights. You, minster, are infringing on my ****ing rights.

You intend to chastise the majority because of the ignorance of the minority. Do you intend to take knives and all other sharp objects away from us in case we poke out an eye? Accidentally trip, fall upon it and die? If not, why not? I guarantee you, whatever answer you give will relate to why controlling what other people expose themselves to is wrong.

Educate people, actually spend five minutes learning about what it is you wish to control and see outside your narrow-minded box and learn, for yourself, what parents can do to protect their kids from porn. Filtering the internet, I guarantee you, is not the solution.

Wake up, you stupid bitch and get a clue.

Edit: @ OpenWeb -- your response is part of why I support you wholeheartedly. Thank you.

[copacetic]

Good responses from the ISP's, I kind of missed the original thread, but I have to say it frightens me, the fact that this idiotic deputy minister thinks it's a good idea. What an absolute festering pillock.

*edit*

I am not feeling eloquent but Lycanthrope put it pretty well.

[quik]

Wake up, you stupid bitch and get a clue.

Nice.. couldn't have said it better myself.

If these moronic ministers could just wake up and do their ACTUAL jobs instead of screwing around in other portfolios we'd all be better off!

How exactly does the deputy minister of home affairs have any clue about the realities of the communications era.

There are many and multiple ways of protecting your children from inappropriate material, wtf would government intervention be required?

[alloytoo]

This strikes me as a solution looking for a problem.

Easily circumvented by tech savvy teens.

Of course given the ANC's desire to maintain Buntu education (v2) porn will only be the tip of the iceberg.

[AndrewAlston]

Wow, I could write an essay on why I think this is a bad idea, however, luckily for me, its all already been written in various forms.

Let me first of all state that while I am no constitutional lawyer and my legal knowledge is sorely lacking, I simply cannot see how they would get this through the constitutional courts. As I understand it (and I would really like someone like dominic to comment on this), the rights of children are paramount and we do not recognize the concept of explicit rights, however, that being said, I do not believe that parents lack of ability to regulate their children's behavior on the net results in a violation of the child's right.

Secondly, the technical impracticalities of this are completely bizarre, filtering at a content level at the kinds of speeds we need to get to would be insanely expensive from a hardware and a software point of view, and filtering at an IP level has its own implications which make it completely impractical.

Thirdly, let us consider our current situation in South Africa, where we have huge problems with rape and other crime. A study done at Chapman University demonstrated that access to pornography DECREASED the amount of sex crimes being committed. Since 1993 (When the internet really got going and porn on the net became a lot more wide spread), rape in the United States is down by 72%. When Denmark got rid of their obscenity laws, sex crimes dropped by 50%.

The information in the above paragraph was sourced from a very interesting article I found online that I wish the individuals proposing such a plan would read, it can be found at http://www.cybercollege.com/sexrsh.htm

This however leads to another point. One of the ways to combat crime is to understand it, and research into a subject requires access to material. As the link above shows, there is active research into pornography on the internet, so by censoring out the internet, you effectively not only censor the population, but you shut down the ability to research the subject and find better ways of dealing with it.

Bottom line, I find this entire thing completely ludicrous

I have to state at this point that the views expressed above are entirely my own and not necessarily representative of TENET or any other organization which I may be associated with.

[Johand]

While I agree that access to pornography by minors is a problem, this "filter" is not the solution. Frankly the fact that this is coming hot on the heels of the Protection of Information bill makes it look very suspicious. Implementing this technology can not be allowed, because it will provide the technology platform for wide ranging censorship. What if the powers decide that be that the filter will become a pornography AND WikiLeaks filter? People wanting to access pornography will be dedicated and find work-arounds. People looking for conspiracy will be able to find work-arounds. But the problem is that Joe Average will essentially be cut of from the uncensored version of the truth (WikiLeaks, not porn)!

They can maybe rephrase it so that "An ISP must provide a mechanism by which users can restrict content, but the mechanism is under the user's control". They can do things like have cool-down periods for changes etc. -- but as long as choice can be exercised by an adult in a reasonable manner. Simple solution - parents should be able to lock their kids phone to use a specific filtered APN, disable MMS,lock their ADSL line to a specific filtered ADSL account etc. As most legislation should just create ADDITIONAL options available to parents/schools/libraries.

I would however mention that additional options are really needed - because the "responsible" parent argument is nonsense. You cannot look over kids shoulder every minute of the day (and you shouldn't), and the "trust" argument is meaningless as well - because most minors do not have the capacity to make rational decisions regarding these type of materials (which is the reason they should not be exposed to it in the first place).

[e.cachucho]

I bet Zuma likes porn. There's no way such a bill will pass.

Ha ha, this is the best comment ever!
I'd rather not even get into this muddy affair, hopefully this gets stopped in its tracks very soon.
The mere talk of it smacks of ridiculous apartheid undertones "We know what is best for you".

[Renesongs]

Gauvament wants to call back the past does did, lets ban pornography confiscate their pornographs, in the interest of national security censor the press, bring back the mixed marriages act and of course ban the ANC again. Now that's what I call a level playing field, unfortunately we will have no balls to play with.