Detweiler clone at WSJ
The drumbeat against all those anonymous pedophiles continues.... _Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94 PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY by Walter S. Mossberg "Keeping Your Kids Away From Creeps As They Play Online" (...Talk about striking up electronic friendships online ...) But there's a dark side to this exciting phenomenon, one that's too rarely understood by computer novices. Because they offer instant access to others, and considerable anonymity to participants, the services make it possible for people - especially computer-literate kids - to find themselves in unpleasant, sexually explicit social situations (Sex-ed sessions led by Joycelyn Elders?) The online services all have rules banning bad conduct and, fearing possible government-imposed restrictions, have stepped up the policing of online abuse. But parents could do more to protect kids from these disturbing situations. And I've gradually come to adopt the view, which will be controversial among many online users (!), that the use of nicknames and other forms of anonymity must be eliminated or severly curbed to force people online into at least as much accountability for their words and actions as exists in real social encounters. (.. More talk about how your kid might [gasp!] download a "hardcore pornographic photo" [This guy should see the stuff on the newstands in Amsterdam!]...) Beyond that, I think it's time now for the services to jettison the long tradition of allowing members to hide behind "handles" or nicknames. In general people should conduct themselves online under their real names, or not at all. IN THE SAME VEIN, I THINK THE SERVICES SHOULD DELAY GRANTING NEW MEMBERS ACCESS FOR 24 OR 48 HOURS ...WHILE THEY VERIFY THAT THE APPLICANTS ARE REALLY WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE ... (emphasis mine). (And some folks thought that Brady-style fascism would only be applied to "gun-nuts"! Won't be long before you have to have a license to drive on the information superhighway.) (Article continues with more of same. Lambasts AOL. Talks about "the most dangerous forms of communication," etc.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- I didn't comment on NSA threatening Bidzos because dog bites man is not news. If you annoy the Nazis in power and they can get away with it they will kill you. BTW: The current _New Republic_ contains a story about an Oxford student being threatened by the Secret Service over a much more trivial matter.
_Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94
Beyond that, I think it's time now for the services to jettison the long tradition of allowing members to hide behind "handles" or nicknames. In general people should conduct themselves online under their real names, or not at all.
The sound-bite response to this: do you want your child's name, home address, and phone number available to all those lurking pedophiles worldwide? Responsible parents encourage their children to use remailers. Eli ebrandt@hmc.edu
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In list.cypherpunks, bdolan@well.sf.ca.us writes:
(And some folks thought that Brady-style fascism would only be applied to "gun-nuts"! Won't be long before you have to have a license to drive on the information superhighway.)
More than a year ago, there was a brief flurry of concern in the Twin Cities about porn on the BBS'. I actually attended a meeting with a bunch of ops and a state senator. It was kinda humorous... the senator really didn't have a clue what a BBS was, and the sysops had called her to inquire about any possible legislation. The down side was that licensing was mentioned as the first recourse from the state. When we complained of the financial hit, the talk turned to registration. But the sense was clearly toward proactive state control. There was a TV crew at the meeting. The bimbette made the state senator look positively well-informed. And they didn't interview me, either. - -- Roy M. Silvernail [] roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org It's just this little chromium switch....... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAwUBLhOPmhvikii9febJAQEzBQQAr0w9EG1ElGu6wRWG6fVsnAziEqr/1p2c 7CNvDcClwwQCSgEFGSmFwLWYTZZ0+EuZ2iLMIuUV2W5WTGIrAoFPHYbQ0DhQjXZI Msbzs0hwdzc4P/JXl5oNGrssoEmdFuyj+X/Aq4uzVhNjsMlLr61a36e51BHkUf6A HFZ+I4Nzwfo= =Hr7v -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Brad Dolan says:
The drumbeat against all those anonymous pedophiles continues.... _Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94 PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY by Walter S. Mossberg "Keeping Your Kids Away From Creeps As They Play Online"
They aren't the only ones talking about it. I've seen three articles about this in the past week. Perry
The drumbeat against all those anonymous pedophiles continues.... _Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94 PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY by Walter S. Mossberg "Keeping Your Kids Away From Creeps As They Play Online"
Does anyone have Mossberg's email address? I tried to guess a hostname, but wsj.com, dowjones.com and dj.com all do not exist. I'd like to suggest a couple of things to Mossberg to go along with his ban on anonymity: 1) Mandatory Caller ID. Not Calling Number ID, but Caller ID, where all new phones sold after January 1, 1995 are required to have a smart-card reader which verifies the identity of the caller and transmits that to the called party. 2) Mandatory licensing of print media, from photocopied fliers to scholarly journals. Licensed publications would agree to accept material for publication only when accompanied by either a notarized statement of identity or a digital signature from the same smart-card used for #1. 3) And, of course, to stamp out anonymity in face-to-face encounters, all subjects would be required to carry their smart-card at all times and present it upon demand by anyone. There! That should protect us from all the creeps in the world. Of course, there will be a few anarchist crybabies who will call these measures fascist, and a few victims of the new openess, but this is a small price to pay for the protection of our children from all the freaks and motherfuckers of the world. --- davehart@eskimo.com
On Fri, 1 Jul 1994, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
Brad Dolan says:
The drumbeat against all those anonymous pedophiles continues.... _Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94 PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY by Walter S. Mossberg "Keeping Your Kids Away From Creeps As They Play Online"
They aren't the only ones talking about it. I've seen three articles about this in the past week.
As somebody else has said, this seems to be the Clinton Administration's main focus of attack now. Since pedophiles/child abuse is such a hot-button issue, they're harping on it quite strongly. I'm almost tempted to try and get an anonymous survey started, to see if we can debunk this... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Brandt Handler <grendel@netaxs.com> Philadelphia, PA <mh7p+@andrew.cmu.edu> Currently at CMU, Pittsburgh, PA PGP v2.6 public key on request Boycott Canter & Siegel <<NSA>> 1984: We're Behind Schedule
participants (6)
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Brad Dolan -
Dave Hart -
Eli Brandt -
Michael Handler -
Perry E. Metzger -
roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org