A low-tech solution. But some of the
high-tech solutions are worse.
For some reason, the
news story that’s all the rage at the moment is how to stop children
looking at internet porn. I’m not sure exactly what’s happened to bring this,
but I can vouch it’s a tricky one. Not so long ago we were looking into testing
a website for, amongst other things, checking content was suitable for everyone
to access. It would potentially involve moderating everything posted, including
forums, applications and documents. And even if we could vet all of that,
what’s to say a linked page site will be suitable? And what about linked sites
from linked sites? And linked sites from linked sites from linked sites? Not
easy at all.
Now, I’ve always thought that the same rules should apply on
the internet as apply everywhere else. For adults, the basic principle, quite
rightly, is that you should have the choice to view what you want (bar a few accepted
limits such as paedophilia, certain depictions of rape, incitement to violence and
so on). For children, there are a few rules such as 12-, 15- and 18-rated
films, but it’s broadly viewed as the job of a parent to decide what they
should see, and that’s the way it should be. The internet, however, has made
this job harder. Yes, in the old days there was lying about your age when
seeing an X-rated film, or borrowing the mag your mate got off the top shelf,
but it’s now possible to view this stuff without even leaving your room, so it
must be taken very seriously.
