Saturday, June 19, 2010

Filtering the Internet

The recent controversy over sex video allegedly starred by celebrities i.e Ariel, singer of  pop band Peterpan, his girl friend model/presenter i.e. Luna Maya, and model/presenter/actress Cut Tari has re-inspired the government to regulate the use of the internet.
 
Last Thursday, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology Tifatul Sembiring told news reporters that he plan to draft of new decree in consultation with members of the House of Representatives (DPR) after his earlier draft was canceled due to widespread protests.

Further, President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) has stated that Indonesia should protect itself against the Internet

I am not really sure whether such decree would be effective to prevent Indonesians from downloading and/or uploading pornography from the internet considering the internet is almost a border-less territory.

Related news report :
- Indonesia needs Internet Blacklist to stop Porn : Tifatul

8 comments:

colson said...

OMG. This announcement of a patronizing state is proof mr Tifatul Sembiring suffers from a touch of fuzzy logic. Let's hope he will recover soon.

Unknown said...

Hi Colson,
I agree with you, many of his statements are controversial. One might think that the duty of Communication and Information Ministers is not just to inform the public but also to disinform by distracting attention from more important issues.

pj said...

The minister has had this particular porn fetish for some time now. I'm surprised that he managed to convince the president. I can't wait for the new legislation (insert sarcasm here).

Unknown said...

I hope that some sense is applied here if and when any legislation comes into effect.
Things like panic buttons on social networks, filters to remove any site focusing on exploitation of children and women and maybe more information about sites that might cause offence or distress but could educate at the same time.
One idea is TV advertising to educate parents and net cafes of the dangers with in the internet but presented better than ones for condoms!!!!
Prevention is better than the cure.

Mike Peñaranda said...

True. The internet is such a broad medium which I think, quite apparently, is hard to regulate. Everything's got its loop holes, if such decree is to be implemented, perpetrators will only seek a way around it - it won't stop them. I agree with Luke, we should better educate the people, or warn them, rather than waste our time stopping these immoral acts which is really hard to combat.

Unknown said...

@PJ,
I hope that the minister's focus
on porn stuffs would not make him forget his other obligations as minister of Communication and Information, which I am very are far more important.

@Luke,
I agree with you, preventive measures would be a lot much better and effective if repressive ones.
But that seems to be the problem with the local and central govt. They tend to 'ignore' people who violate the law and wait wait so many people violate.
Like the recent Tanjung Priok riot, actually the grave has been empty for so many years, but the authority let people built monument and visit the empty graveyard. If this fact has been socialized, such riot would not have happen.

@ekiM,
Yes, it would be much better and effective to educate people and warn them about the bad effect of porn stuffs for their children.

Unknown said...

Don't know how succesful they would be. When it comes to child porn countries work together to find these creeps. Interpol, the FBI and individual police forces work together. But adult porn? Its supposed to be the W.W.W and adults are just that -adults!

Unknown said...

Peter/Kiwi,
I remember when Iran shut down internet providers there but
people can still send messages outside through Twitters.
Indonesia would not be that extreme therefore very difficult to filter the net.