Won't somebody please think of the children?

Two stories came out in the UK last week that dealt with risks or threats to 'our children'. Both mooted solutions to are censorious in character.

In the first, the Professional Association of Teachers demanded, at their annual conference, that YouTube be banned on account of 'cyber-bullying'. Some people evidently have more sense, such as the head of the BeatBullying charity (who no doubt has added to the bullying paranoia itself) who proclaimed, 'calls for social networking sites like YouTube to be closed because of cyber-bullying are as intelligent as calls for schools to be closed because of bullying.'

Secondly, following the implementation of the junk food advertising ban, The Guardian reports that marketers are following kids online, sometimes using social networking sites to created branded 'friends'. Although Ofcom's remit doesn't stretch to online advertising, The Guardian notes that, 'the Advertising Standards Authority's code of conduct was recently extended to include online marketing to children, [but] it has left open a loophole that many brands exploit. That is that anything classed as 'editorial' is exempt from the ASA code.' One fears that calls to extend these regulatory bodies' purview are not far away...
[NB: Against the contention that advertising is not a free speech issue, see this article by Brendan O'Neill].

Not to be outdone by the poms, the Australian Labor party is seeking to stop marketers using cartoons to advertise their greasy/sugary wares to children. For an attack on such nonsense, read the Manifesto Club Interest Group in Australia's blog on the subject.

Alex Hochuli

Making Offending An Offence

Enough has been said, on speaking our mind and elsewhere, about the 'blogging code of conduct'. Tim O’Reilly’s proposal will undoubtedly remain a point of discussion as it gets taken up by bloggers and commentators around the world. Most recently, Tessa Jowell, UK Minister for Culture, endorsed the idea in a (very lightweight) speech to Progress. She then elaborated on it on the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog on Wednesday 2 May. It is easy to dismiss this: firstly one can ridicule her air-headed effort to re-brand the public sphere, including the new virtual space provided by the internet, as ‘Ourspace’ (yes, she is soooo 'in' with the kids). Secondly we can mock her attempts to legitimise the call for speech codes: on the Guardian blog, she unfavourably compares degenerate online discussions to the ‘boorish’ House of Commons, thereby evading any charges of elitist condescension (‘us lowly MPs ain’t perfect either’) or hypocrisy. But both these approaches miss the point. What is at issue here is a more profound discomfort with incivility.

Witness the recent attempt by five MEPs (from all sides of the political spectrum, harmoniously united against 'hate') to coerce internet service providers (ISPs) into including an injunction on hosting ‘hate sites’ in their terms and conditions. Never mind that such a policy is bound to fail and will never eliminate 'hate sites' (or indeed hate/prejudice/discrimination itself). What is at issue here again are two separate, but connected, ideas. Firstly is the idea that 'consumers' of information cannot cope with offensive material. This has been widely commented on here at speaking our mind. Secondly is that 'producers' of information, or indeed anyone engaged in online person-to-person or group discussion, has an obligation to behave 'reasonably'. The concomitant idea to this is that discursive activity online can (and should) be regulated by some external authority or by a pre-determined compact between participants and the host. This is incorrect: it is high time we stood up for our prerogative to be uncivil.

There is no a priori code that must be adopted before entering the public square. A truly free public space means we can be uncivil, disruptive, unpleasant, subversive or aggressive if we want to. Of course, I do sincerely hope that the standard of discussion on the internet improves beyond the name-calling and harassment we find today. But faced with establishmentarian exhortations to 'be nice', I think I'll politely decline. Faced with the prospect of a placid and passionless public space, give me puerility and pugnacity any day.

Alex Hochuli

Codifying conduct on the 'net

A blogging code of conduct has been devised by Tim O'Reilly, the digital media developer, which aims to restrict any content deemed to be abusive, harassing or threatening to others from appearing in blog spaces. Although, the report begins with the phrase, 'we celebrate the blogsphere because it embraces frank and open conversation,' it then goes on to say that any unacceptable content should be deleted. The new code could possibly be implemented after it has been amended by other bloggers.

The idea of online censorship follows complaints from a prominent blogger, Kathy Sierra, after she received death threats on her blog. Let us leave aside for a moment the fact that Kathy may just be oversensitive and lack perspective when it comes to online banter. Surely we must challenge the idea that we are not robust enough to handle the occasional insult or bad-mannered blogger in the name of a more open online dialogue.

Although one can make the case that you don't have to be insulting to get your point across, how long will it be until certain unpopular ideas, such as opposing the ‘green’ agenda, are deemed ‘insulting’? It is not right that blogs - which enable discussion between millions of people on the internet - should be censored to prevent a small number of people from being offended.

So much for the web being an open forum for discussion and debate...

Suzy Dean