From the Ministry of Culture ...
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Andy Burnham says he believes that new standards of decency need to be applied to the web. He is planning to negotiate with Barack Obama’s incoming American administration to draw up new international rules for English language websites. The Minister of Culture describes the internet as “quite a dangerous place” and says he wants internet-service providers (ISPs) to offer parents “child-safe” web services.
Giving film-style ratings to individual websites is one of the options being considered, he confirms. When asked directly whether age ratings could be introduced, Mr Burnham replies: “Yes, that would be an option. This is an area that is really now coming into full focus.” ISPs, such as BT, Tiscali, AOL or Sky could also be forced to offer internet services where the only websites accessible are those deemed suitable for children.
Mr Burnham also uses the interview to indicate that he will allocate money raised from the BBC’s commercial activities to fund other public-service broadcasting such as Channel Four. He effectively rules out sharing the BBC licence fee between broadcasters as others have recommended. His plans to rein in the internet, and censor some websites, are likely to trigger a major row with online advocates who ferociously guard the freedom of the world wide web.
However, Mr Burnham said: “If you look back at the people who created the internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that Governments couldn’t reach. I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now. It’s true across the board in terms of content, harmful content, and copyright. Libel is also an emerging issue.
“There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it.” You better read the rest ...
In case you missed it, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered his 'Christmas' message to the World on Channel Four, despite universal protests. And note, please. this man's 'job' - Minister of Culture. I am all in favor of protecting children from the Internet - I believe parental control and some sort of rating system or hardware modification is called for. However, what this man is suggesting goes far beyond protecting the children - he wants to protect us from ourselves - the central motivation of the Left. And while they scream bloody murder about the Patriot Act or Guantanamo, those on the Left happily embrace CCTV camera saturation in Britain which currently photographs every Briton at least 300 times per day and they gladly support and elect socialist ideologues such as Mr. Burnham - he with his 'high-minded' meddling and Ministry of Culture. There's a reason for that. As long as the Left can make enough noise to keep the useful idiots of this world focused on non-issues like the Patriot Act and 'warrantless wiretaps' - they can implement their own tyranny and its trappings. The Left is quick to call any intrusion they find counter-productive -'fascism'. But what they are really up to is far worse - totalitarianism.
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