Child porn law sparks debate

Left: That´s "Censorsula", Germany´s conservative family minister, Ursula, who has pushed for a new legislation to index and block alleged child porn sites.

This has sparked a huge web censorship debate with the main arguments against it being:-

1. This is ineffective as one only blocks a mean of accessing these sites. However other means to child porn ie. newgroups, IRC filesharing, USB sticks, chat rooms etc. are still easily-accessible.

2. This law is against websites not criminals. No punishment is laid out for offenders either.

3.This is the first step to more censorship of the Internet in Germany, following the footsteps of China and North Korea - which is completely frowned upon in a democratic country like Germany.

For myself, coming from Singapore (a huge factor, since most things are censored in Singapore), I´m a strong supporter of censorship. There´s no 100% fool-proof way to protect the citizens of a country from pornography, but one has the social and moral obligation to protect especially the young. Of course, it won´t be possible to block ALL means of accessing child porn and if one really wants to access them, there´s no stopping them.

However, that doesn´t mean that we should sit back and do nothing either! Its the same story of if there´s millions of children starving everyday, should I not feed a single starving person anymore? If it makes a difference to one person, it should be done. If that means there´s one less mean of gaining access to child porn, that´s better than having 100% access.

What´s the price of freedom of information and electronic privacy? Is freedom worth everything? Even at the expense of a declining moral society? It bugs me that when the 100% freedom of an individual is infringed, people cry foul. Well, what about the freedom of children to grow up without falling prey to become victims of porn?

Its all a business. When there´s demand, there´s supply. When demand drops because its not easily accessible, stricter laws, stricter penalties are enforced etc, the supply will fall too.

Schaar, the guy who would oversee the efforts to close child porn sites said in an interview, "It has nothing to do with my responsibilities to ensure the freedom of information and electronic privacy." When is this indifference to individual moral responsibility going to end? If a politician is not willing to pick up this responsibility, who will? Or rather, who can?

So yes, thumbs up to Censorsula, you´ve gained yourself another supporter!

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