IP: CR&CL UK Releases new Report, Who Watches the Watchmen

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Dave:


I was sent this out of the blue - and have not before heard of this
group/idivdual, but thought you might find the message of interest.


Cheers


Brian


=======


Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)
<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm>


For Immediate Release, 11 November 1997


Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) Report, `Who Watches the Watchmen:
Internet Content Rating Systems, and privatised censorship.'


The full report is available at:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/watchmen.htm


Leeds, United Kingdom - Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK), a non
profit civil liberties organisation launched a new report entitled,
Who Watches the Watchmen, on the implications of the use and
development of rating systems and filtering tools for the Internet
content.


Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) insists that the debates on
regulation of Internet-content should take place openly and with the
involvement of public at large rather than at the hands of a few
industry based private bodies.


Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) report suggests that:


There is no pressing need in fact for new national legislation for
content regulation National Legislation would be the wrong response
There is confusion between illegal and harmful content Adults should
not be treated like Children


A self-regulatory model for harmful content on the Internet may
include the following levels and in this model `self' means as in
`individual' without the state involvement :


User or Parental Responsibility
Parental Software


Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) argue that a radical
self-regulatory solution for the hybrid Internet content should not
include any kind of rating systems and self-regulatory solutions
should include minimum government and industry involvement.


According to the UK report, child pornography is often used as an
excuse to regulate the Internet but there is no need to rate illegal
content such as child pornography since it is forbidden for any
conceivable audience and this kind of illegal content should be
regulated by the enforcement of existing UK laws.


Yaman Akdeniz, head of the UK group stated that:


`The current situation at the UK does not represent a self-regulatory
solution as suggested by the Government. It is moving towards a form
of censorship, a privatised and industry based one where there will be
no space for dissent as it will be done by the use of private
organisations, rating systems and at the entry level by putting
pressure on the UK Internet Service Providers.'


With rating systems and the moral panic behind the Internet content,
the Internet could be transformed into a `family friendly' medium,
just like the BBC. But it should be remembered that the Internet is
not as intrusive as the TV and users seldom encounter illegal content
such as child pornography. Like other historical forms of censorship,
current attempts to define and ban objectionable content are vague and
muddy, reaching out far beyond their reasonable targets to hurt the
promise of open communication systems.


Government-imposed censorship, over-regulation, or service provider
liability will do nothing to keep people from obtaining material the
government does not like, as most of it will be on servers in another
country (as happened recently with the availability of the JET Report
in 37 different web sites on the Internet outside the UK).


Yaman Akdeniz also stated that:


`If there is anyone who needs to be educated on Internet matters, it
is the government officials, the police and MPs together with the
media in the first place but not online users, parents and children.
We do not need moral crusaders under the guise of industry based
organisations to decide what is acceptable and not acceptable.'


When censorship is implemented by government threat in the background,
but run by private parties, legal action is nearly impossible,
accountability difficult, and the system is not open and becomes
undemocratic. These are sensitive issues and therefore, before
introducing these systems there should be an open public debate
possibly together with a consultation paper from the DTI.


Notes for the Media


Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)
<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm>


Mr Yaman Akdeniz
Address: Centre For Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, LS2
9JT. Telephone: 0113-2335033 Fax: 0113- 2335056 E-mail:
lawya () leeds ac uk Url: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm


Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) is a non-profit civil liberties
organisation founded on January 10, 1997. Its main purpose is to
promote free speech and privacy on the Internet and raise public
awareness of these important issues. The Web pages have been online
since July 1996. Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) started to become
involved with national Internet-related civil liberties issues
following the release of the DTI white paper on encryption in June
1996 and the Metropolitan Police action to censor around 130
newsgroups in August 1996. Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)
recently criticised the attempts of the Nottinghamshire County Council
to suppress the availability of the JET Report on the Internet.


Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) covers such important issues as
the regulation of child pornography on the Internet and UK
Government's encryption policy. The organisation provides up-to-date
information related to free speech and privacy on the Internet.
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) is a member of various action
groups on the Internet and also a member of the Global Internet
Liberty Campaign (see <http://www.gilc.org>) which has over 30 member
organisations world wide.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yaman Akdeniz <lawya () leeds ac uk>
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) at:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 








**************************************************
"Photons have neither morals nor visas"  --  Dave Farber 1994
**************************************************