Proposed Garda internet filtering

Johnmb

Well, in fairness my initial post's reference to "idiots" was aimed at the bright sparks who came up with this idea, not a poster. And I think that reference is a valid description, not an insult. They are starting years after other countries have tried to solve the problem, but instead of starting from the current level (i.e. learning from what those other countries have done), they are starting from scratch, and repeating the same mistakes needlessly. Not only is that a waste of time and money, but it protects the people who are involved in child porn. The Gardai are taking a course of action that will actually make it easier and safer for people so inclined to get involved in child porn. That is a disgrace. There is a reason such actions have been deemed failures in other countries, that reason is that those actions don't achieve anything. They don't catch those people, and they don't stop those people. So the Gardai are helping to protect those people by wasting resources on things that won't catch or stop them. I'd be hard pushed to come up with a better example of actions that would satisfy the definition of idiot than that.

vibe666

if china can't stop it's citizens getting round "the great firewall", i very much doubt that the garda can implement anything that is going to stop perverts from accessing dodgy websites.

as has already been said, all its going to do is push them further underground and make them harder to catch.

it would be a much more effective solution to keep net access open and use the money saved to improve the tools and resources used to catch them in the act, so that the first they know if it is when they get their front door kicked in.

dub45

I realise this is not directly related to the thread but I do think it needs airing.

There is far far too much information being held by companies in god only knows what circumstances. It is only a question of when rather than if data is stolen.
In the last couple of days alone there have been two very serious data breeches.

I was appalled recently to discover that there are now over 4,000 firms in Ireland in the direct debit system. Each of these firms is allowed hold bank information etc. Can you imagine how many of these firms are actually secure?
I doubt very much if there is a security audit as part of being admitted to the direct debit system. How many companies are holding credit card details in non secure circumstances.

There used to be a link on the bbc website to the story of a man who lost everything because he bought a book on line and his cc details were used to buy child porn.

TJM

For those of you who are concerned by these proposals - please take a minute or two to contact the Minister for Justice, Minister for Communications and your local TDs to let them know why this is flawed and will not in fact protect children.

Contact details at the bottom of this post:
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2011/03/29/garda-plans-to-introduce-web-blocking-in-ireland/

and a sample letter / email is here - feel free to cut & paste or modify:
http://www.stochasticgeometry.ie/2011/03/29/garda-siochana-seek-implement-website-blocking-legislation-oversight/

Disclosure: I am the chairman of Digital Rights Ireland