The free internet we all use might very well be a place of the past to freely see the good, the bad, and the ugly.
 
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/un-seek-control-internet_664018.html
 
more details here: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-uns-internet-grab/
 
Whether they can implement this, might be a different story........

I take the bus past the UN every day and I always make sure to blow it a big raspberry out the window. 

sharke


I take the bus past the UN every day and I always make sure to blow it a big raspberry out the window. 

LOL!!
 
I had to look up "blowing a big raspberry" to see what you were talking about......(my exact sentiments)

I heard something on the radio today about trying to get the internet service providers to somehow make pornography an opt-in option on their packages.

SteveStrummerUK


I heard something on the radio today about trying to get the internet service providers to somehow make pornography an opt-in option on their packages.

Isn't this the campaign the Daily Mail is currently championing? I've read some of their articles on the subject and it's interesting to read the comments under the article, which are almost unanimously against it! 

Not all countries like this freedom of speech thing. 

China uses a massive firewall as do a number of middle east countries to keep certain web sites out and the thought police in,  watching the people and reacting quickly to anyone who violates what THEY deem to be appropriate use of the medium. They usually put them in prison for their "subversive" views. 

It's not a good idea (IMHO) to allow governmental bodies or collectives thereof to have a say on what can and can not be said on the net. While I think personally, that much of what is on the net is disgusting, I am not a proponent of censorship of the net. As an internet user, I decide what I want to see and not see. I don't need a council of third world nation's dictators deciding what I can see and do. 

the net should remain open and free of international control. 

Speaking of China...... (quoting from the second link above)

"Given that Russia and China are prime movers in the bid to wrest Internet oversight from the United States; that their allies include Iran, Syria, and Venezuela; and that ITU’s Touré was trained and taught by Soviet apparatchiks, it’s hard to resist the feeling we’re watching a replay of the North–South debates of the 1970s, when totalitarians used the issue of the inequality of nations to push their real agenda of undermining the power of the United States and the West—not because they were barriers to prosperity, democracy, and free expression, but because they were their chief exponents." 

Yes, China reads email, incoming and outgoing in their country.  I have personnally experienced this. 

When I addopted my daughter 13 years ago, I was transmitting emails back to my wife, while waiting for the paper work to be processed.  I stayed inside China for 19 days.  Appearently my emails were not protraying China in the way that they wished to be percieved.  Our guide and interpreter knocked on my hotel room door one evening and told me that I needed to tone my emails down and make sure that I only said "good" things about China.  I looked at him very puzzled....and he said to me, "The Chineese Government monitors ALL email, here."

As much as I dislike some of the content on the internet, FREEDOM is precious.  We are slowly losing small amounts of our freedom in this country and we need to wake up to this. 

MakeShift


Yes, China reads email, incoming and outgoing in their country.  I have personnally experienced this. 

When I addopted my daughter 13 years ago, I was transmitting emails back to my wife, while waiting for the paper work to be processed.  I stayed inside China for 19 days.  Appearently my emails were not protraying China in the way that they wished to be percieved.  Our guide and interpreter knocked on my hotel room door one evening and told me that I needed to tone my emails down and make sure that I only said "good" things about China.  I looked at him very puzzled....and he said to me, "The Chineese Government monitors ALL email, here."

As much as I dislike some of the content on the internet, FREEDOM is precious.  We are slowly losing small amounts of our freedom in this country and we need to wake up to this. 

+1
 

MakeShift


Yes, China reads email, incoming and outgoing in their country.  I have personnally experienced this. 

When I addopted my daughter 13 years ago, I was transmitting emails back to my wife, while waiting for the paper work to be processed.  I stayed inside China for 19 days.  Appearently my emails were not protraying China in the way that they wished to be percieved.  Our guide and interpreter knocked on my hotel room door one evening and told me that I needed to tone my emails down and make sure that I only said "good" things about China.  I looked at him very puzzled....and he said to me, "The Chineese Government monitors ALL email, here."

As much as I dislike some of the content on the internet, FREEDOM is precious.  We are slowly losing small amounts of our freedom in this country and we need to wake up to this. 

indeed...! +1