Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday March 09 2018, @02:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the going-to-need-lots-of-volunteers-to-build-the-block-list dept.

Rhode Island is the latest US state to discuss mandatory censorship of web content, at first targeting pornography:

Rhode Island Democratic state Senators Frank Ciccone (@senatorciccone) and Hanna Gallo (@hannagallo27) have proposed grandstanding, unworkable legislation, "Relating to Public Utilities and Carriers—Internet Digital Blocking" which would mandate the state's ISPs to identify all the pornography on the [I]nternet, and then block it for all Rhode Islanders, unless those Rhode Islanders specifically requested their porn to be unblocked and paid $20 for the privilege.

These proposals fly in the face of the observation that automated pornography filters don't work and that even the manual ones are neither practical, reliable, nor scalable.

Source : Rhode Island proposes blocking all online porn and charging $20 to unblock it. Boing Boing.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Friday March 09 2018, @02:41PM (3 children)

    by looorg (578) on Friday March 09 2018, @02:41PM (#649971)

    What is Ciccone and Gallo doing on the internet? He hasn't updated his twitter-feed since September'16 and she hasn't updated hers since March 2017. Are they to busy watching all the porn before they take it away?

    I don't see any kind of solution on their part on how this great Rhode Island pornblocking wall is going to work. What if I live right next on the border (shouldn't be hard considering how small Rhode Island is). What if I'm just passing thru the state and feel the urge? Will it only be for people that are residents of Rhode Island? Are tourists exempt?

    The required digital blocking capability could only be deactivated by the ISP after a consumer does the following:
    1. Requests in writing that the capability be disabled;
    2. Presents identification to verify that the consumer is eighteen (18) years of age or older;
    3. Acknowledges receiving a written warning regarding the potential danger of deactivating the digital blocking capability; and
    4. Pays a one-time twenty-dollar ($20.00) digital access fee.

    So I have to apply IN WRITING to have the filter removed. I have to ID myself when I do that so I'm old enough. Can you technically sign up for internet access without being old enough? Are contracts with minors legally binding? I would assume #1 and #2 are there to try and scare people away, making them feel to embarrassed. I'm getting a written warning to that deactivating (or bringing back the porn) could be potentially dangerous? Spanking accidents are on the rise? Right, it's to stop all the underage hookers from being trafficked ... right.

    Is there any way in hell this thing is ever going to pass?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by lentilla on Friday March 09 2018, @03:02PM (2 children)

    by lentilla (1770) on Friday March 09 2018, @03:02PM (#649986)

    Are they to busy watching all the porn before they take it away?

    No, they are removing porn from websites by first downloading it, and then burning the hard drives.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @05:02PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @05:02PM (#650057)

      That's excessive. A 3-pass, random bit disk overwrite should suffice.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @05:34PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @05:34PM (#650100)

        Well crap. I thought it was good enough to just run: wget https://www.pornhub.com/ [pornhub.com] -r -l inf -p -O /dev/null