Has the world/the internet gone mad?!
Now I'm as much against child porn & paedophilia as the next man, naturally.

But have been reading increasing numbers of stories recently suggesting that the legal systems of many countries are swinging too far in the other direction...

So, one to discuss: Is kneejerk violent reaction to possible child porn and abuse more important than freedom of speech and lack of censorship?

Seems like this could be the thin end of the wedge...

www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/05/liveleak_baby/
www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/07/brit_isps_censor_wikipedia/
www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/08/simpsons_supreme_court/
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 14:24, 8 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

What's completely over the top
Is the fact that the image seems perfectly ok elsewhere like pretty much the whole of the rest of the internet. Apparently it's also reproduced in lots of books too but I've heard nothing of those being banned.

I'd be more sympathetic about the censor if they had censored ONLY the image (rather than the whole page) and if they'd also censored every other page hosted outside the internet and taken down all the pages hosting it inside the UK. That's how I believe they deal with child pornography in (what I would call) proper cases.

What they've done is completely ineffectual in furthering their cause of preventing the proliferation of child pornography.
( Captain V, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 14:36, Reply)

Yep
I'm on Virgin.net here and have just written a very strongly worded email to them...

Took me 10 seconds to find the 'offending' image elsewhere.

It feels like I'm in an episode of Brass Eye or something!
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 14:42, Reply)

It just makes me laugh..
Shouldn't they be out catching proper paedophiles instead of just trying to make the numbers up?
(i should have joined myspace, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 17:39, Reply)

So I did an image search of
Scorpions Virgin Killer. Now if there hadn't been all this carry on I wouldn't have looked. So Virgin Media have made me look at kiddie pron.

And as for the Simpsons thing, have these people never seen Henti (or however it's spelt). We brought some back from Japan for a friend who is rather fond of a bit of grumble and he thought it was filth.
It is shocking but only drawn, you can be as mucky as you like in drawings because no one is having to do it. FFS
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Mon 8 Dec 2008, 18:20, Reply)

My dad actually has the album on vinyl
And I have Blind Faith, and we both own Houses of the Holy.

Better start a fire before the SWAT anti-paedo teams turn up in their black helicopters!

Who gave the IWF permission to act as judge, jury and executioner of internet censorship anyway?
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 18:36, Reply)

Lately
I feel as though I should read 1984 so that I'm better prepared for what's coming. *sigh*
( Captain V, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 18:41, Reply)

It's becoming more and more spookily prescient isn't it
I've also been re-reading Huxley and Philip K Dick a lot.

Sort of intertwines with one of my other big interests at the moment which is the proposed ID card/gargantuan government database scheme, I've getting more involved in activism on that front lately.
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Mon 8 Dec 2008, 18:50, Reply)

Two points
The argument against such images/media is that children are abused in the creation of them. If the images are solely drawings, cartoons or even 3D renders (such as with Poser software), a child is not harmed in any way.

Personally, I think it's all the same and is right to be illegal. But the argument used doesn't make sense in such instances.

Another talking point is that someone who gets convicted for pinching their secretary's arse is tarred with the same brush as Ian Huntley; ending up on the same register.

Or, you can legally have sex at 16, but don't be getting a camera out as that constitutes as creation of indecent images of children, possession and if you send your boy/girlfriend home with the pix, then you can include distribution.

Sex laws in this country are odd.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 9 Dec 2008, 1:02, Reply)