It looks like some Canadian ISPs are about to start censoring our access to the ‘Net. This had damn well better be an opt-in system.
I’m not in favour of child pornography, don’t get me wrong – but I’m against all forms of censorship other than self-censorship. If this system exists, then like everything else on the planet, it will be abused. Sites will be listed with little recourse for being removed, and inclusion on the list will lead to the automatic assumption of wrongdoing.
How exactly will this hurt, say, myself? Let’s say I’m trying to find some information on some FPGA programming, and find a site hosted in Russia. Another site hosted on the same server – maybe it’s a Geocities-style webhost – has been reported. Now the useful information I’m looking for is inaccessible to me.
Not only that, but depending on how this is implemented, I may not know that this has actually happened, and simply assume that the site isn’t working. At the same time, they may record my information as a potential suspect. And let’s not forget that delisting is going to be a problem – I’m sure that there’ll be an automatic assumption of guilt for even being listed (the old “If you aren’t guilty, why are you in Gitmo?” problem).
Further, this will do next to nothing to combat the actual problem. Those interested in this material will always find ways to get it.
So if this is optional, and provided as a serivce to parents who lets kids access the Web unsupervised, by all means, go ahead. But don’t force censorship down my throat.
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