🚀 go-pugleaf

This article is from MJackson.Wbst@Xerox.COM
 and was received on Fri Sep 12 15:25:17 1986
 

UPI wire story from /The Buffalo [NY] News/ of September 7:

FRENCH LOVE EROTIC MESSAGE LINE, BUT CRITICS CALL IT A DIRTY SHAME

Paris - Sex by computer has arrived in France, and the government is
helping to pay for it.

Take a home computer the government will provide free, dial the number
3615, type in one of several special codes and you can talk dirty to a
multitude of people for a small fee.

Some people make dates.  Others simply exchange erotic messages.  There
are reports the system has been used for prostitution.

One Nice woman found a man she liked by exchanging computer messages
with him, and they agreed to a date.  Her new friend turned out to be a
multiple sex offender.  She told police she was held captive, raped and
tortured for several days before escaping.

It all started in 1979 when the government introduced the worlds most
modern home somputer service, Minitel.

Anyone with a telephone can have a Minitel computer unit.  It doesn't
cost anything.  The state-run Post, Telegraph, and Telecommunications
agency makes its money by charging for use of the Minitel on an hourly
basis.

Nearly 2 million Minitels are in service nationwide, and the agency says
message services represent nearly a fourth of the system's traffic.

[blablabla]

The state agency, meantime, is profiting.  the computer costs about $10
an hour to use, and more than half of that goes to the service, the rest
to the utility.

With a Minitel one can reserve air flights and hotels, check the weather
or the news, have a virtual library of information at the fingertips and
engage in computer conversations with politicians.

[blablabla]

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Having gotten your attention with the subject header and the first few
paragraphs, I've elided the rest of the predictable details of the
problem and arguments on what can, or should, be done.  What *really*
interests me is more detail about this French experiment in nationwide
computer networking - hardware, services, and experience.

Can anyone on these lists provide information?

Mark

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