“Government Regulations”- Does it really work?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeyaraj Karnaraj (Rajeev) on August 11, 2009 at 4:37am

Yes blocking porn sites form ISP (Internet Service Provider) server room is one solution, Many governments have started instructing their ISPs to block selected porn sites,

Why block porn sites in first place?
1.Internet or www (World Wide Web) is BIG, widely spreed and easy to access by all age groups.
2.Internet cafe / cybercafes are mostly busy with school students (teenagers) and most of them are visiting porn sites.
3.Parents / guardians have less internet knowledge than their children (in most case) so parents find difficulties on blocking porn sites on their PC! so its effective to block target porn sites from ISP side.
4.When comes to blocking sites from ISP side! its a bit complicated procedure, so a powerful body (government) should take necessary steps.

this will not put a full stop to porn website, but will reduce the viewers ...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shoaib Hamid Khawaja on August 11, 2009 at 5:37am

Dear Seuwandi

I must say you did a remarkable start especially for innocent children.

Congratulations and please keep it up, we are all with you.

Government Regulations can only be implemented with participation of community.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Subir Dey on August 11, 2009 at 5:45am

I am not sure if porn (or any kind of content) can really be 'blocked' all countries have tried this but none of them have been very successful for long.

Now, in your post, I find a few points that I would like to highlight.

1) Child pornography is unacceptable and also illegal - blocking content online is just one way of stopping this menace. The governments will need to wage a battle offline too in order to catch and prosecute those who are in the business. Thats where the real problems lie, by virtue of the nature of the Internet a lot of these crimes are trans-border in nature with children being picked up/used from the third world countries (many of these countries do not have strong enough laws against paedophilia/child pornography), governments have always found it hard to bring these perpetrators to justice.

2) I haven't been able to find much info about the 'Housekeeper 2008' software but based on my experience with how these software work and how 'enterprising' children can be, I think the parents will still need to keep a close eye on their children.

3) Similarly, with ISPs trying to filter out content, the people behind porn sites will also find ways to circumvent these filters as also all the software that act as net nanny.

It is imperative to keep children safe, but it's gonnabe a long road ahead...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anusha Raman on August 11, 2009 at 6:58am

dear seuwandi
it is an important topic.Indian Penal Code Section for cyber crime is punishnable and 10 years for improsonment.The following Sections Sec 383 of indian penal code(IPC) Extortion-Web Jacking Section 420 of IPC -Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property ,Bogus,Websites,cyber frauds. Section 463 IPC -Forgery of electronic records , E-mail spoofing.Section 499 IPC -Defamation-sending defamatory messages by E-mail,E-mail abuse. Section 503 IPC- Crimiinal intimidation applicable to sending threatening messages by E-mail. NDPS Act- on line sale of drugs. Arms Act- on line sale of Arms
There is a separate wing for cyber crime activities in India.Parents also should take care of the child.In India Airtel broad band if we request the provider they will banned the sites.
thanks and regards
Anusha Raman

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Seuwandi Yapa on August 11, 2009 at 7:12am

Thankx a lot for Jeyaraj, Shoaib, Subir, and Anusha :) for your comments. I would like to further highlight one point that Subir has raised on the filtering of the porn sites. It is true that although we get local Internet Service Providers to block access to those portals, there is still have the possibility to access those sites by using proxy servers abroad. Further, Filtering systems can be easily circumvented by those actively seeking filtered content. There are numerous techniques and services through which users can access blocked content. Open proxy servers and private circumvention systems allow users to easily bypass internet filtering by browsing through computers located in non–filtered locations. Anonymous circumvention systems allow users to bypass filtering anonymously and securely. While efforts can be taken to block common, publicly known circumvention systems, private circumvention systems remain effective and undetectable allowing users to freely browse any internet content regardless of filtering. In such circumstances its obvious that government regulations will not support the main objective. So what do u think?
Thank you.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Francis Mwathi on August 11, 2009 at 7:43am

Hi Seuwandi

There are softwares like Whitebox that can be used by governments or internet service providers to block any information about illegal programming, like hacking and software piracy or sensitive content like pornography and politically sensitive content. Basically the software compares users' site requests with a list of banned links. If a match is found, the request is denied. The softwares can be configured to even monitor e-mails, file sharing e.t.c.

The Internet totally encompasses our lifestyles. Be it entertainment, information, shopping or communication. Today, it has become the global businessman’s tool, the lonely person’s companion and sad to say, the criminal’s playground. Internet filters are actually a very good idea, if implemented properly. First off, the proper kind of Internet filter keeps the Internet world safe from the Internet underground. However one disadvantage of filtering is that if the filter is not properly prepared, it may end up blocking websites and material it was not actually supposed to.

The most common reason given for internet filtering is to curb access to pornography. In my view filtering such sites would only force the people who search for such content to look for other channels to access it. Instead I think authorities should look at what make people seek such sites and address the issue there.

That is what I have for now but am looking forward to contributing further.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Seuwandi Yapa on August 11, 2009 at 7:48am

Thank you Francis :)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ezekiel Nyangweso on August 11, 2009 at 9:19am

Thanks for the topic.
Its so unfortunate that pornography is slowly eating into our communities and it seems that there is nothing we can do about it. on the other hand, i dont think governments are capable of controlling or preventing it because if most of them are unable to control obscene DVDs, CDs, magazines etc, which come into the country under its watch, how are they going to stop online porn that is very rampant and hard to monitor. Therefore, its a tough war that needs support by all stakeholders and above all our greed for money has to stop because many people use it for financial gains.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Gelly on August 11, 2009 at 1:24pm

Dear Seuwandi,

Thank you very much for tabling this topic. I believe no government policy regulation will work without the political will of government and actvie involvement and participation of the community. Yes, I say government regulations work when properly implemented and monitored.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Seuwandi Yapa on August 11, 2009 at 11:09pm

Thank you Ezekiel and Gelly for your inputs :)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Subir Dey on August 11, 2009 at 11:43pm

At a personal level, I have problems with any kind of censorship being imposed on adults, but this is not about my personal opinion. Most governments are too busy blocking access to (social media) sites like youtube and blogger (we know a lot of countries that do this very often), instead of focusing on keeping children safe on the Internet.

Hmmm NetClean's Whitebox seems interesting (I got their presentation). Lets hope it works well.

One of my major concerns here is to bring the perpetrators to justice. Can that be reliably done? The Internet's anonymity allows us all to seek out 'resources' that we may never have done. Your quiet and seemingly 'normal' neighbour next door could also be a paedophile and you would never know. I am not saying that the Internet should be big brother-ified that's against the founding principles of the Internet but there is a need to find a way that controls illegal activities without infringing up on my privacy. Has anything like that been done anywhere?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shoaib Hamid Khawaja on August 12, 2009 at 12:50am

As suggested or recommended by Francis, we can control through technology but we must develop mechanism to educate our parents, elders, guardians to learn the technology and then we must create opportunities for children to use internet for some good reasons but with friendly attitude.

▶ Reply to This

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page