🚀 go-pugleaf

David S. Maddison (maddison@SSMD.MRL.DSTO.GOV.AU) wrote:
: This is from "The Australian", 14-6-95.

: I offer it without comment.

: "Internet rape guide sparks call for control of 'male plaything'".
: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

: Reporter: Scott Coomber

: Former Victorian premier Ms Joan Kirner yesterday called for government 
: intervention and control of material available on the Internet after 
: revelations that a "rape guidebook" could be called up on the computer network.

: Ms Kirner said yesterday that the Internet had become a male "plaything", 
: remarking on the discovery of pornographic material, including a guide to 
: rape, on the network and the ease with which children could access the global 
: system.

: "What we need on Internet is to hold effective discussions about control of 
: Internet and we need more women using it so it's not basically a service for 
: men and the profits going to me," Ms Kirner said.

: "It's got to the stage where I think if it's going to be the major means of 
: information exchange in a decade, then we have to look at control.

: "What's happening is that males are the main users of Internet and I think 
: that women have to use Internet more but more importantly we have to take 
: control of it because it's currently a male plaything."

: As use of the Internet and electronic mail systems continues to expand around 
: the world, concerns are being raised about the material that can be accessed 
: using an ordinary home computer.

: Authorities in the United States have already prosecuted men who had molested 
: children they had contacted by e-mail.

Cite? I haven't heard of any specific cases of children being physically 
molested after being contacted over the Internet. This sounds like urban
folklore.

: Ms Kirner said any government involvement should not be in the form of total 
: control but focus on ownership of the system.

As in? Licencing for nodes? Background checks on "political correctness" of
licence holders? Gender quotas for ownership? Mandatory 
political commissars^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hequal opportunity
officers on all sites?

: "It's going to be like any other media - there should be private and public 
: ownership but I think it is too important in the longer term to be only held 
: by private profiteers," she said.

That I can agree with. There should be some government-created infrastructure.
But there should not be any state monopoly on Internet connections.


It is clear that Ms. Kirner has never used the Internet and does not know
the first thing about how it works. Still, that has never stopped a 
censorship-happy politico from using it as a bogeyman and getting votes,
as is being shown right now in the US.


-- 
    Andrew C. Bulhak  "We have trolled ourselves. We have lost."
acb@cs.monash.edu.au   -- John William Chambless, on the death of a.r.k