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STATE AND THE MEDIA
Blocking Internet Content Saving Children or Censorship?
Reykjavik – January 2006Ola-Kristian, +47 2294 3210
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Media and Political Reactions
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Problem: A very short history
What is the problem with media anyway?• Gutenberg• Photography – film• Phones – radio – television – VCR
television free days• Xerox – copyright• Computers – personal computers• Networks – Graphic games• WWW – mobiles
Hmmm – we may just have lost control here...• Everyone can copy anything• Filth is everywhere• National legislation has limited effect• "watershed" doesn't work either...
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Problem: Back in the Wild West
"Cyberspace, in its present condition, has a lot in common with the 19th Century West. It is vast, unmapped, culturally and legally ambiguous, verbally terse (unless you happen to be a court stenographer), hard to get around in, and up for grabs. [...]
It is, of course, a perfect breeding ground for both outlaws and new ideas about liberty."
John Perry Barlow, Crime and Puzzlement 1, June, 1990
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Problem: Wild West sheriff's dilemma
"In fairness, one can imagine the government's problem. This is all pretty magical stuff to them. If I were trying to terminate the operations of a witch coven, I'd probably seize everything in sight. How would I tell the ordinary household brooms from the getaway vehicles? "
John Perry Barlow, Crime and Puzzlement 1, June 1990
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Problem: illegal and harmful...
Overwhelming amount of content poses no problem at all...
MATERIAL POTENTIALLY HARMFUL TO MINORSAccess by young children to content on the Internet that is deemed inappropriate by their parents
ILLEGAL MATERIALChild pornography and other material deemed illegal by current legislation
CHAT AND PAEDOPHILE PREDATORSWhere children are stalked while on the Internet
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Action: 90'ies – politicians wake up...
Bonn Conference 1997Technology neutral, clear and predictable, online as offline … Avoid unnecessary legislation … Encourage self-regulatory approaches: NOT TREAT DIFFERENTLY
EU Initiatives – Action Plan and RecommendationUS Children Online Protection Act (COPA, 1998)UK Communications White PaperCouncil of Europe, Committee of Ministers Rec (2001)8Safer Internet plus etc etc etc etc2006 – COPA revisited – data retention – patriot act etc
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Action: the race for adoption
16 Oct 96 Communication on illegal and harmful content23 Oct 96 Green Paper protection of minors & human dignity
6-8 Jul 97 Bonn Conference
18 Nov 97 Commission proposal for a Recommendation26 Nov 97 Commission adopts Action Plan proposal
24 Sep 98 Recommendation adopted21 Dec 98 Action Plan: promoting safer use of the Internet
Self-regulation and financial measures – because...No judicial powers, subsidiarity, time
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Action: EU Action Plan arguments
FINANCIAL PLAN, SPECIFIC MEASURES, 25 MEURo Provide and facilitate user/consumer protectiono Strengthen confidence in the Interneto Empower the user to chose protectiono Stimulate industry self regulationo Avoid unnecessary (ineffective) national legislationo Follow-up EU initiatives and input receivedo Build on and work with initiatives in Member Stateso Promote creation and use of European rating systemso European input to international accords - European specificitieso Censorship must be avoided, be it by Government or ISPso Fear of liability may cause private overreactiono Children know more than parents
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Status: Action Plan / Safer Internet plus
1998 Creating a safer environment 28 %2005 Fighting against illegal content 30 %
Hot-lines for ILLEGAL content (using existing law) ++1998 Developing filtering and rating systems 35 % 2005 Tackling unwanted and harmful content 12 %
European rating (self-rating / third-party rating) ++1998 Encouraging awareness actions 33 % 2005 Awareness-raising 50 %
multiplier effect of appropriate organisations... ++1998 Support actions 4 %2005 Promoting a safer environment 8 %
Assess legal issues, Co-ordinate with intl. measures ++
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Status: the law applies!
• Laws apply online as well as offline...o ..but they just don't work very well.
• Jurisdictions sucko ..where are the criminals anyway..
• Words don't come easyo ..difficult to describe problem, law takes time, human rights
• Investigationo mission impossible
• Judges are young and enlightenedo ..and can be expected to make wise decisions about such topics
as ephemeral copies and packet switched networks
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Concerns, self-regulation
Examples from EU discussions:• Needs international reach• Hot-lines must not become police• Different approaches to "hot-lines"• Removing material may not be enough• Censorship must be avoided, by Government or ISPs • Fear of liability may cause private overreaction• Children know more than parents• Cultural diversity• (The lesson from film rating)• (Judicial and democratic control?)• Shifting the monkey?
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Overview - current issues
• Illegal contento child abuse (includes expressions and simulations)o nazi propaganda / racist propaganda
• Harmful content – the battle continueso Free speech and content regulation, DOJ and Google
• Copyright and other legislationo mp3, copyright directive
• The war on terrorismo Communication control, human rights, data retention
• Child / youth behaviour
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DOJ and Google
1996 CDA – Communications Decency Act
2001 COPA – Children Online Protection Act
2001 C(H)IPA Children's Internet Protection Act
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War on terrorism
• General technology – lots of information...o electronic passports & IDs, number plate recognition,
CCTV, mobile traces, etc etc• Patriot Act renewal• Data retention
o data retention for the copyright industryo if the data is there it will be used
• Does it really work – wlan, cafes, anon,o Italy / China – ID for Internet cafés
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What is this anyway?
www.deiligst.nowww.hotnot.nowww.snyggast.sewww.hotornot.dewww.hotornot.nlwww.hotornot.lvwww.hotornot.comwww.ratemybody.comwww.rateanarab.com?
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Meeting people in real life...Have you ever met anyone in real life that you first
met/chatted with on the Internet? Yes
Filter: Have chatted on the Internet
17 %
26 %
18 %21 %
12 %
0 %
5 %
10 %
15 %
20 %
25 %
30 %
35 %
40 %
45 %
50 %
Norway Sweden Denmark Iceland Ireland
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..turning out to be adults...Have you experienced that someone who introduced themselves
to you as a child on the Internet, turned out to be an adult? Yes
Filter: Have met someone in real life that first met on Internet
18 %15 %
9 %
16 %
35 %
0 %
5 %
10 %
15 %
20 %
25 %
30 %
35 %
40 %
45 %
50 %
Norway Sweden Denmark Iceland Ireland
Filtering and blocking
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Filtering – who wants it?
It would be a good idea if users could set computers so certain content would be blocked automatically ...
Agree
73
80
82
77
78
80
Australia
USA
Germany
General PopulationInternet Users
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Filtering – what to block?79
58
61
60
13
10
63
26
39
59
43
14
60
0
41
53
26
39
Racist messages
Right-wing or left-wing extremistopinions, messages
Depiction of violence
Pornography and sex scenes
Nudity
Obscene language
GermanyUSAAustralia
Filtering – how?
Trouble with the Internet is that information is chopped and routed out of government control...
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Filtering – how, where, what?
HowWhite listsBlack lists
Text analysisImage analysis
Self-labelling
Where and whatHome filteringLocal network filteringISP filtering
Government filtering?Search engine filtering?
Filtering legal contentFiltering illegal content
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ISP Blocking - rationale
• Largest ISP and Police co-operated on experimental filter where all commercial child porn sites were blocked by the ISP
• The aim is to reduce the demand for child porn, thus strangling the financial incentive for the production of child abuse images
• The project was considered a success, but to be more effective, many ISPs must take part – preferably on an international level
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ISP Blocking – how it works
Commercial child abuse industry grows
Police maintain list of 500 websites
List is transmitted to ISP according to strict rules
Customer site requests are checked against the list
Illegal sites are substituted with information page
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ISP Blocking – why ISPs want it
Child abuse is one of the gravest consequences of net availability
Blocking can limit the distribution of commercial child abuse images
Customers want this – for legal and moral reasons
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ISP Blocking – the agreement
• Only applies to child abuse images! (1a)• Mutual co-operation and information (1c)• Police must take full responsibility for illegality and
keep documentation of blocked sites – if at all in doubt, a site will not be added (2a)
• Lists are updated and checked frequently• Encrypted transmission to ISPs frequently• Not used for investigation of individuals• No logging of individual hits - BUT
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ISP Blocking – the agreement
• Same agreement for all ISPs• Not used as competitive leverage (3a)• Transparency – information to customer• ISP can chose opt-in, opt-out, obligatory...
• AIM: to strangle traffic to commercial distributors
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ISP Blocking - Dagsavisen
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ISP Blocking – does it work?
• Nobody knows – yet• Something is very strange with the figures
• Covers most of domestic ISPs in Norway• and the transmission of illegal sites is stopped• Does not deal with p2p or private communication
• Political response (too) overwhelming...
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So how protect your kids?
• New media are good• No system of protection is perfect• Parents must learn• Spend time with your kids• If worried - place computer in living room• Setting a standard for what's acceptable• Recognise that they know and understand
• I think that is just being a good parent...
