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recent decision by MNHQ

30 replies

NetworkGuy · 02/02/2011 23:33

Please, MNHQ, do have a read of this thread and consult your Tech people so they can give you the answers as to whether your support for this campaign and the Minister's plans are worth going on with.

I would hope you not only reverse your position but assuming you get sufficient technical reasoning in 'Plain English', that you go public and explain how unworkable the proposal is likely to be. I feel sure journalists at Computer Weekly and Computing will be able to provide confirmation that filtering is a hiding to nothing and can be very costly because of the millions of GB of data flowing through the bigger ISP networks.

For anyone baffled, and wondering if I'm a nut case, this concerns a proposal to get ISPs to "filter out" all porn, unless a customer "opts in". For numerous technical reasons the idea is never likely to achieve filtering without blocking access to legitimate sites or not blocking access to better than say 95% reliable, thus making it a costly exercise in futility, while parental vigilance and filtering software at the home would still be essential for peace of mind.

(Incidentally the wording of the campaign page implies the parents need to ask, at the same time as someone wanting not to have censored content needs to ask - it is one or other, but not both that would need to contact ISP. )

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MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 08/02/2011 14:16

By the by, we've just realised that apparently our registration email seems to have been blacklisted because it contains an offer for Nakedwines - this is absolutely not the desired outcome. Wine

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 08/02/2011 22:54

@mrsgordonfreeman

How do you think the filter would work, Justine? How will it know the difference between innocent boobies and hardcore porn boobies?0

You know what?

This makes my blood run cold.

Mumsnet should not decide whether or not I can look at willies.

Freedom is hard won and easily eroded.

If a 7 year old can operate a computer, you can too. There is no excuse for absolving yourself of the responsibility to protect them.

Whatever next?

Please drop this hysterical and misguided campaign.

I am ashamed to be a mumsnetter at the moment.

Evening MrsGordon - pleased don't be ashamed! Truth is we as a society make decisions all the time about what is and what isn't appropriate. Right now there's an organisation called the Internet Watch Foundation which sifts through everything on the net (not a jolly job) and slaps a label on a lot of very horrible illegal stuff which the ISPs then filter out.

I think there have been some really valid points about workability raised here but the "this is the thin end of the wedge on censorship" one doesn't make sense to me. We already censor loads of things in the name of child protection on the internet and elsewhere. Of course there are valid concerns about where you draw the line but you can't deny that we do draw the line already all over the place - we censor illegal images, we rate dvds, we have a tv watershed.

The issue of the blocking of harmless material in error because the mechanisms involved are insufficiently sophisticated have been raised here and we have said Ok fair point, we're not experts - some who are more expert than we are have told us it's possible and some others more expert than us, who have posted here, have said it's not. On that basis we are modifying our ask to reflect the issue but not pinning our colours to any method of achieving it. And in retrospect we should have certainly asked for input about this earlier, for which we apologise.

We certainly don't want to, nor would, back anything when a significant group of Mumsnetters object to us backing it.

And as a rule, we do try not to be hysterical. Smile

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 08/02/2011 23:40

@BaroqueAroundTheClock

"We already censor loads of things in the name of child protection on the internet "

Apart from the child sexual abuse (aka Child Pornography) what else is censored on the internet??

Any other illegal sexual practices which i don't like to think of.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 08/02/2011 23:45

@mrsgordonfreeman

Justine, I find the tone of your post patronising. I am quite familiar with the IWF and their work with "very horrible illegal stuff."

You confuse what is illegal with what is acceptable for a child to see.

I used the word "hysterical" because of the general Daily Mail tone of the campaign. If you are concerned about your children accessing porn on the Internet, it is your responsibility to control it. Perhaps that should be the direction any campaign should take.

I am not making a thin end of the wedge argument. I'm making a fat end of the wedge argument. The IWF, if you like, were the thin end.

I am arguing against legislative paternalism and censorship.

You are arguing that parents cannot be trusted to monitor what their children see. Perhaps they cannot. But then who can be so trusted? You are arguing that legislation should control this. You are taking the decision out of the hands of adults (that's adults) and placing them into the hands of questionable bureaucrats.

As for the other remarks about my DH, I'm afraid that you are hopping on his bandwagon. By "vested interest" perhaps you mean "knows exactly what he is talking about." He works at the sharp end of this.

I get the impression that a few posters on here have very little idea about what censorship and vested interests truly means.

Finally, I feel that focusing on the technical impracticalities is clouding some people's judgments about how serious this really is.

Interesting - do you object to the TV watershed then MrsGF because it's paternalistic and takes the decision out of parents' hands?

MNHQ

RebeccaMumsnet · 20/05/2011 10:37

Hi NetworkGuy,

Justine posted on a thread about this yesterday, here it is.

Best
MNHQ

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