Many Britons I know are in an uproar about Prime Minister David Cameron’s threat to force Google to block certain searches. He’s riding on a massive wave of anti-pedophilia hysteria that has gripped the UK for the past 8 years, fed by an obsessive press that can’t get enough of reporting the titilating details of abominable offenses against children, and more laughably, the high drama of the 15 year old who ran away to France with her idiot 30 year old teacher.
Google does its level best to track down and block pedophilic images where it can. Furthermore, any expert in the field will tell you – pedophiles don’t find their porn searching on Google.
Allowing a government to legislate what can and can’t be searched on the only search engine in the universe that counts anymore is a dangerous thing. What terms will be considered ‘offensive’? Hot young pussy? I did daddy?
Not exactly up my alley, but here’s the problem: governments NEVER relinquish invasive powers once they’ve gained them. So perhaps age-play offends you and you don’t give a shit if “those” search terms are dropped. But think about how easy it would be block other search terms? Do you really think once a government can force a search engine to block terms that are offensive to you now, they won’t block others in the future.
When the Democrats were elected to the White House in the US, many people thought that covert surveillance of their private communications would stop, but it didn’t. This isn’t a party thing – it’s a power thing. Once you allow a government to determine what is good for you to read, to look at, to search for… it is almost impossible to curtail the depth of that censorship.
There is no freedom of speech, of expression, of congregation without risk. And the risk is that there will be highly offensive things floating around. Of course, if they ARE floating around, there are laws that can be used to prosecute them.
But let me remind you that there were pedophiles before the internet and they’ll be there after Mr. Cameron has his way with your search engines. They’ll still do the appalling things they do, and you will have no freedom to search what you want.
You’re living in a democracy. Write to your MP, donate to organizations that lobby for and stand up for a free web. Because he who controls information controls everything. Including you.
There is a formal petition to the Government in the UK NOT to filter search engine results HERE. Please sign it. https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/51746
Petition: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/51746
Standing up for things that are transgressive is extremely wearing and difficult. In this case, people will presume that if you’re against internet controls you must be for child sex. It’s ridiculous, but the panic and hatred around it makes standing up an act of masochism.
I hadn’t even heard about this latest proposal. Ridiculous, and dangerous.
Grim’s point is very cogent. It’s like the ACLU supporting the rights of the Ku Klux Klan. Yes, their philosophy is abhorrent, but they have the right to SAY anything they want.
People are of course far more emotional about sexual issues than they are about racism and violence.
and of course it will not stop there. The ‘anti child porn’ argument has been used many times to block access to transgressive and dissenting political views and record the details of those who try to access them.
I feel revolted by the way child abuse is used to marginalise dissenting voices.
Sure I get caught up in the wave of anti-pedo hysteria but I don’t imagine I talk very freely on twitter anyway, if I talked as though I were free, I was just begging the questions my superego was asking – the direct messages containing the gravity of my sin rode my conscience into the depths of a self-satisfied mind game with other gamers online. That night I abuse my child (Stephanine, 16), but not before I delete the cookies YUNGGIRL and BLUBOY on my computer… This is how I marginalize politicians playing superego over the internets – I got no need for those kinds of things, have I found my desire?
Embrace the symptom? What if you were afraid of your own touch… if you were a narcissistic little shit head who grew up to touch he daughter, his OWN FLESH AND BLOOD (the monster!) Look at my stain
– 2008
Sadly, I find myself agreeing with the major points you make.
“This isn’t a party thing – it’s a power thing. “….Wise words indeed! Some of the things Labour did (or tired to do) when they were last in power really rammed this home for me. The ID card, etc, all justified another wave of mass hysteria, as though there terrorists hiding behind every bush!