There are three certainties when you deal with censorship in Western countries. (a) Censorship never goes down well in Western countries. (b) If you try to impose censorship, refer to certainty (a). And (c), Orwell has to be dragged in there somewhere.
So after the Australian government proposed in January 2009 to impose some compulsory Internet safety filters, the headline "Big brother plan insults parents" summed up all three certainties in one.
The debate begins. In this corner, Communication Minister Stephen Conroy suggests that filtering Internet use is a vital part of making the vast world of the Internet a safer place for children. Like CyberSitters, the government wants to impose restrictions on Internet use in order to make sure children are not exposed to explicit or "unwanted" material.
But in this corner, passions are even more fierce. As Nick Minchin - author of the above mentioned Big Brother article - intones:
There is no technological substitute for adult supervision and it's
irresponsible and misleading to infer otherwise.
Three guesses whose side he's on. Minchin charges the government with ignoring expert opinion, which consistently shows that filters can be easily overcome by a technology-savvy user, and that adult supervision and law enforcers should not be usurped by CyberSitters. The $40 million proposed to be spent on this project, Minchin argues, could be better spent on funding for law enforcement, which he suggests would crack down on such explicit Internet material at its source.
While Minchin raises some good points, there are a few problems with his arguments that I could see. Firstly, adult supervision is definitely better than government censorship, for sure, but parents aren't omniscient. Think of the number of things you've slipped past your parents. While little kids may not be as adept at this, older kids certainly are; it's in the nature of childhood. Even the best parents can't possibly know everything their child is up to, and especially not on the Internet. Is it the old adage that you need to raise your children right and then hope they know the difference between right and wrong? Or is surveillance more necessary for one age over another? Where do we draw the line between censorship and protection?
And secondly, law enforcement won't solve all the problems on the Internet. While child porn is illegal, there is plenty of other objectionable material on the Internet that is perfectly legal - the dark side of free speech and general freedoms that we can take for granted in Australia. You can't legislate against a lot of what goes on on the Internet. While law enforcement is definitely a good step, it won't solve everything.
What are your thoughts on Internet censorship/filtering? Would you want to filter the Internet for your children?
Hey-
ReplyDeleteParent supervision would be much more effective than a computer making sure children are not exposed to damaging material - however, these days many parents are both working, organising the household and younger and younger children have access to a vast range of technology that not even I had access to 5 years ago. They are all on the Internet at super young ages (single digits) unlike me and my friends who only knew msn and hotmail at the age of 13 (year 7) because our IT teacher told us to make an 'e-mail' account which we had no purpose for at the time. If you are going to allow your six year old to sit in front of a computer that has Internet access and navigate wherever he likes then you sit next to him - the same as if you are helping him with some homework or having a chat. You do not send your six year old down to the shops that is 10km from your house alone to buy some milk - after all - didn't your mum ever tell you not to talk to strangers. As we have discussed in many classes - the Internet is a very dangerous place with identities being withheld and info all over the place it is hard to keep track what is going on - that is why especially with innocent kids jumping online - as much supervision as possible should be taking place if the Internet can be accessed. Being fairly tech-savvy, I find myself being confronted with various links and flashing screens that bombard me with unnecessary info and sometimes I still find it a bit tough to get out of the one billion screens filling my laptop - I can't really imagine a six year old successfully understanding or knowing how to prevent dangerous Internet activity and if pressing "OK" really is the 'ok' thing to do...