The recent news has featured two main stories, both of which have already been discussed to death. There was the futile efforts at keeping the royal baby news going while Kate had the baby, recovered and walked outside with him in her arms and there was the huge trumpeting of Internet safety from David Cameron. The latter, which the Prime Minister set out as a way of stopping child abuse and guarding children from viewing adult content in one fell swoop, irritated me quite a lot. There were a number of reasons for my irritation…
TL;DR
- Blacklisting search terms doesn’t stop any target audience from finding the adult or illegal material.
- Parental controls at the ISP level are good, but the way they’re implemented should be regulated and the way they’re used should be determined by the account holder.
- Parents don’t want their children to see this damaging content, so tell them how to guard against it.
- Mainstream media is just as damaging as hard to find, extreme material online.
- Aiming the blame at tech companies is lazy, and doesn’t attack the root cause.
Paedophiles don’t Google “child abuse”
Mr Cameron also called for some “horrific” internet search terms to be “blacklisted”, meaning they would automatically bring up no results on websites such as Google or Bing.
– BBC Technology News
This calling for search companies to provide a blacklist is actually popular with a lot of people, with the idea that “if you can’t Google it, it won’t be there”. The problems with this method are pretty easy to see, while its effect is pretty minimal:
- Those who actually want to find the horrific parts of the Internet certainly won’t be using Google in the first place, and even if they were, they wouldn’t be using any of the terms on that blacklist.
- Kids aren’t just going to accidentally stumble upon the keywords and innocently type them in, it’s not something that grabs their curiosity.
- Google and the other search engines already have filtering and guarding against sites with adult themes.
- Because neither of the target audiences will be affected by the change, the only loss is to researchers or those with genuinely innocent searches which somehow fall into the blacklist.
- Finally, blacklists are easy to get around, mis-spelling words, using acronyms or replacements for words, sites would simply target keywords which simply couldn’t be blacklisted.
The “accidentally stumbling” scenario which is often painted out is also well guarded against nowadays, with further, definite steps being required to access content which is deemed inappropriate for some audiences. That is already provided for, many companies do in fact have whole departments devoted to ridding their services of this type of content, or at least flagging it as such to the user.
ISPs are not your babysitter
He told the BBC he expected a “row” with service providers who, he said in his speech, were “not doing enough to take responsibility” despite having a “moral duty” to do so.
– BBC Technology News
The blame was also passed on to ISPs because they weren’t doing enough, with Mr Cameron insisting that they filter the Internet service which they provide. This is where many who care about freedom and worry about censorship begin to get panicky because:
- What organisation is maintaining the filter, suggesting what is adult content and what is not? Is it down to the ISPs? Is it a government enforced thing? My bet is that it won’t be a free, open body that decides these things, unlike the rest of the Internet.
- There is a worry that these filters will be leaned on too much, rather than parents learning about the service they have, and how to control it so that it is child-friendly in their opinion. Why is it the ISPs job? You won’t find Freeview users being asked whether they’d like adult content on their TVs, there are instead tools which are set up by each end-user which filters the service at their end?
- For many, including myself, there is a sense that, despite not viewing any of the adult content which would be blocked, the restriction on my service is unwelcome and quickly feels like a policed, monitored service is being provided, instead of the fully-fledged, free Internet that we currently use.
On speaking to my family about this point, it was quickly mentioned that “It’s just like any other law, you wouldn’t complain about not being allowed to drink and drive”. Immediately this argument is flawed, because I still have the ability of having a few too many beers and walking out to my car and driving it, there isn’t a breathalyzer test which I must take before driving, or a guard which won’t allow me to get behind the wheel when I’m over the limit – I still have the ability to commit the crime.
To make this point worse, after the announcement from the Prime Minister, many ISPs came out and described the parental tools which are already supplied by their service, and alluded to the fact that David Cameron’s jubilance, was simply taking credit for work that had already been done.
For the record, I’m actually all for parental controls at the service level, it provides a service wide coverage for the filtering of websites, which means most children will be unable to get past the filters (as most mobile networks impose filters, as do all schools and colleges), especially if the filtering includes proxy servers and websites. However, it certainly doesn’t stop anyone who is over 18 from removing the filters and accessing illegal content online. The idea is to also provide the filters automatically, passing over the parents heads and assuming their computer illiteracy, which leads me on to…
Work with parents, not for them
Most parents are probably quite concerned at the thought of their child being exposed to adult content online. Many will actually ensure that a child’s Internet use is supervised at an early age, and any filtering which the parents should be applying to their Internet connection is not absent through choice. Technology companies and the government (as they’re so interested) should be working with parents, providing support, training and user-friendly tools to parents, rather than just applying a blanket filter to all their account holders and patronising them. Clearly this is happening to some extent already, but the level of involvement could certainly do with raising.
As much as many people protest, the parents do have a huge responsibility when they allow their children to use the Internet, just as they do in not allowing them to watch films with an age rating which is too old for them or watch TV channels which are specifically intended for adults. They should be provided with the necessary information to fulfil this responsibility, but otherwise it should be up to them.
Realise that mainstream media isn’t squeaky clean
The other point that has annoyed many people is the fact that much of the mainstream media now has strong sexual, violent or addiction promoting themes, which have been entirely overlooked in this review.
Examples aren’t possible to count, but obvious examples can be found in most tabloid newspapers, gossip magazines and adverts (that’s printed, televised or digital). These slightly softer images are just as damaging as those more extreme images on the Internet, because they are in publications or media channels which contain everyday information alongside them, normalising them and sending similarly bad messages to children. If the Internet is going to be filtered, the filters already in place in other forms of media should be reviewed as well.
The tech companies don’t produce the illegal content
The final, and most concerning thing, is that the government seem to be aiming their efforts at the wrong end of the whole issue.
- The ISPs provide a service, plain and simple, they serve up whatever is available on the Internet – that’s what they’re meant to do.
- The search engines are tools which find relevant information on the Internet in relation to a selection of keywords entered by a user – that’s what they’re meant to do.
They do not produce illegal material, nor do they promote it. Asking them to do something about that material is already too far along the line, because by then the illegal act has occurred, been filmed or in some way documented, uploaded publically and then is accessible to anyone that knows where and how to get the content.
It’s like those weed killer adverts, the competitor product always just kills the weed at the surface, not at the root – the material can easily be hidden from view, but that doesn’t stop the root cause.
What really needs to be done is further investigation, more of a focus on finding those that cause harm to others for personal gain, unfortunately Mr Cameron’s budget cuts are actually doing the complete opposite – that’s what makes me quite so irritated.
The whole issue is huge, and calls into question the privacy of Internet users and the freedom of the Internet itself, as well as the degree to which the government are misguided when the word “technology” is mentioned. What David Cameron has suggested will detriment normal Internet users, bastardise the Internet and completely fail to achieve most of the aims which he has set out.</rant>
andrewBridge 