net filtering in Japan

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Rod Van Meter <rdv () sfc wide ad jp>
> Date: May 8, 2008 7:31:44 PM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: net filtering in Japan

> Dave, for IP, if you wish.
>
> The government here is proposing mandating filtering of the Internet  
> for
> child porn.  See an article about the proposal at
> http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080502TDY01304.htm
> and the WIDE Project's position on the proposal, attached below.
>
>                --Rod
>
>
> http://www.wide.ad.jp/news/press/20080429-e.html
>
> The Liberal Democratic Party has been discussing what can be
> translated as "the bill regarding prevention of browsing harmful
> information on the Internet for sound rearing of minors" ("the bill"
> hereafter) that may be submitted to the ongoing National Diet.
>
> Since 1988, the WIDE Project has been aiming for construction of
> public information infrastructure that can contribute to a wide
> variety of social activities including medicine, industry, education
> and government.  Through global connection among computers and other
> equipment, the construction of a distributed system on such  
> connections
> will serve a useful purpose from an individual and social
> viewpoint, and bring to the fore the relevant issues and problems
> in order to bring this to fruition. From this standpoint, we are
> strongly objecting to the bill.
>
> The bill states that the following measures will be taken for
> protection of minors from harmful information:
>
>   1. Setting of criteria for harmfulness by a cabinet council and
> ministerial enforcement of them
>   2. Mandating web site administrators to delete harmful information
>   3. Mandating cellular phone service carriers to install filtering  
> for
> minors
>
> The WIDE Project indicates their objections as follows.
>
> 1. Danger of the government's setting criteria for harmful information
> and having rights to enforce them
>
> The meaning of information is decided through interaction between
> senders and receivers of the information. The bill suggests that the
> government decides the meaning of information, and restricts the
> access to it uniformly, which will lead to removal of wide
> possibilities in the information space and prevention of sound
> development of the information society.
>
> 2. Danger of mandating deletion of "harmful information"
>
> If it is mandated for the administrators of online space for sharing
> and exchanging information to delete "harmful information" based on
> the governmental standards, situations will arise where people of this
> country cannot even discuss which information should be regarded as
> harmful by citing examples. This would endanger the sovereignty of our
> people.
>
> Also, from the viewpoint of security management, the bill will give
> attackers new opportunities for attacking information security. It
> would be possible for the attackers to deprive site administrators of
> their freedom to operate the sites or even of their ability to earn a
> living, by repeatedly posting "harmful information" on the target
> site, as the administrator will have to continuously respond to the
> posts, and will be punished if they neglect to do so.
>
> 3. Danger of mandating service providers to install filtering
>
> We have learned through experience that users need to be able to
> flexibly operate on filtering.
>
> Among widely used filtering technology today are spam filters to
> distinguish nuisance e-mail messages.
>
> Although natural languages such as Japanese or English have polysemy,
> today's filtering programs are not intelligent enough to handle this
> property of the languages. Day to day, many useful pieces of
> information are filtered by spam filters so that they do not reach the
> correspondents who need such information.
>
> We are afraid that this type of problems will be promoted by the
> mandated filtering by the cellular phone service carriers that the  
> bill
> requires.
>
> Filtering is an important and useful technology for improving
> productivity of individuals by automating selection of incoming
> information. However, if users cannot turn on and off the feature
> accordingly to their present needs, or if they cannot access the
> filtered information when needed, their productivity will inevitably
> deteriorate.
>
> Towards sound social application of digital technology
>
> The Internet has proliferated as both a technically and a socially
> distributed system where many computers and other pieces of equipment
> can be connected and where various individuals and groups can
> participate in a personal manner.  By fully utilizing the
> characteristics of digital technology, becoming indispensible
> infrastructure. The best way to tackle problems in this distributed
> system is to do it in a distributed manner. If a central entity
> tackles those problems in a uniform way, it might lead to loss of
> advantages of digital technology or distributed systems themselves.
>
> We cannot expect minors to learn if we do not solve problems
> surrounding them where the problems arise.
>
> If we are to think that sound rearing of minors will be achieved by
> the central force that silences information and controls inputs for
> the minors, it would mean that we are neglecting the power of
> families, the power of education and the power of industries.  Should
> this be realized, the power of families, education and industries in
> this country will continue to be lost.
>
> It should be our principle that problems are to be solved where they
> arise.
>
> Otherwise, the people of Japan will not be able to competitively
> survive in the world by improving their problem-solving abilities as
> the global environment in the 21st century changes rapidly.
>
> The WIDE Project will by all means cooperate in applying the digital
> technology's characteristics as being an infrastructure for solutions
> in a distributed manner against social problems happening in the
> distributed system, and contributing in planning and executing such
> solutions.
>
> The WIDE Project members

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