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Comments: 434 +- Your Rights Online: Australian Govt. Proposes Internet "Panic Button" For Kids on Wednesday November 25, @01:22PM
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CuteSteveJobs writes "Children who feel they are being bullied, harassed or groomed online could call for help instantly using a 'panic button' on their PCs under a plan by the Australian Government's cyber-safety working group. The button shall look like a 'friendly dolphin,' who will connect the child victim instantly to police or child protection groups. Australian Internet Censorship Advocate Hetty 'Save the Children' Johnson says the Internet needs something like 000 or 911. Will this be another scheme wasting taxpayer dollars in lieu of parental supervison, or could it actually work? Are 1 in 4 children really sexually abused by the Internet? Can flaming and trolling be classified as bullying?"
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Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Funny)
Will this be another scheme wasting taxpayer dollars in lieu of parental supervison, or could it actually work? Are 1 in 4 children really sexually abused by the Internet? Can flaming and trolling be classified as bullying?
I'm sure there are plenty of experts on Slashdot that are very qualified to answer. ;)
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the police don't need to respond instantly, wouldn't it be better for the kid to tell his parents what happened, as opposed to wasting police resources on a non-emergency situation.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I was hoping the dolphin would be the power button...
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Funny)
Show me where on the dolphin he touched you.
Parent
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Insightful)
"99% of use would be a child scared by something which is not actually illegal or dangerous and the responder simply explaining what happened and closing the problematic content."
And who exactly is going to provide this handholding/babysitting service? And take the liability for when (not if) they brush something off that turns out to be serious?
This would be the electronic equivalent of a kid yelling "mom!" every time something happens they don't like. What's the penalty going to be for kids who "push the dolphin" because the printer doesn't work, or a web site is asking them to upgrade their PDF plug-in, or some other kid posted a message saying that [insert child pop star here] is a poopyhead?
For the 13,674th time, people: Please stop asking the government to parent our children. It's not their job.
Parent
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:4, Insightful)
"A reasonable functionality of this button would be to replace an existing screen with a splash screen that allows a child to interact with the responder while the later gets a remote desktop to the original session"
Alright, I'm not Australian - but if I were, I would be required to leave a backdoor into my machine, so that the police (or whatever government agency) could RDP in if my kid pushes this panic button? Aren't we going a long way backward? We need to re-start stoppoliceware.org? Good grief. Oh yeah - what if the police software doesn't work with Linux? All parents will be required to go backward to Windows?
Come on.....
As for the kids, they need to talk to mom and dad about anything that concerns them. Or, do we really WANT go groom them to live in a police state?
Parent
Which is why, in other news (Score:4, Insightful)
Internet community proposes "Stupid" button for Australia.
If parents are worried about what their kids are going to see on the Internet, maybe they should, you know, spend some time with them? Teach them? Oh, wait - that won't work. They're to busy replying to the latest email hoping to make money from the latest scam.
I hope they do this. 50,000,000 fake alerts a day triggered by malware/viruses/whatever should be interesting ...
Parent
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Interesting)
Police officers have a very limited amount of training in what the law actually is, and they are not known for being the brightest people.
I wouldn't put much more trust in what a cop says is legal than in the average person on the street. Police are not attorneys, and are not judges. They might be able to identify an armed robbery, but if a legal question is much more complex than that, most cops are lost. Their training consists of a very small subset of law, with an emphasis on acting first and thinking later.
The good ones will just walk away. The bad ones will make an illegal arrest, causing someone some serious inconvenience.
And that's not being anti-police. That's being realistic. You want to fix it? Require cops to have law degrees.
Parent
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Insightful)
"1 in 4 children are sexually abused by the internet."
Is that physically possible? And remember, getting your dick stuck in the CD drive because someone on the internet said it was a good idea doesn't count.
Even if that read "1 in 4 children have suffered sexual abuse directly or indirectly from the internet being used as a means of communication" that sounds absurdly high. The internet being involved in 25% of the cases of child sexual abuse, sure, but that's not what it said. And obviously to deal with the other 75%, we need to ban being in the same room as a minor, since the rest of sexual abuse cases involve someone being in the same room.
Obviously the problem here is the children. We need to ban them, that way they can't be abused. And in time, we'll eventually run out of people that can become retarded politicians.
Parent
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Insightful)
My younger brothers know not to call 911 unless it is a real emergency. But I can't say they'd have the same discipline with something like this.
Also, it seems that this would encourage people to use the panic button for stupid reasons. If there really enough of a problem to justify these extreme measures, then children shouldn't be allowed to use an internet connected computer without supervision. I don't routinely let my brothers play with the stove, but if they want to eat something I help them cook it. I don't see why use of the internet should be any different, other than parents not wanting to participate with their kids or not having the time to supervise them fully. A few of the kids I babysit have told me before that they are allowed to use the computer whenever they want. My usual response is 'That's your parent's decision, but my computer doesn't get touched unless I'm there.' Parents should be made more aware of the dangers and responsibilities of having open access on computers in their home for the younger kids.
Instead of a police button, get some parental material out to inform the responsible adults about the issue. I think that would do much more good.
And since most of the cyber-bullying that I've encountered was perpetrated by early teens, and not malicious adults, I'd say that parental supervision would prevent a lot of that from happening in the first place. Parents need to be more responsible. --End of rant.
Parent
Re:Definitely questions for... (Score:5, Funny)
this would encourage people to use the panic button for stupid reasons
Brittany left a really mean posting on my FaceBook wall. She keeps saying I still like Shakira when I told her, like, three weeks ago that I don't like Shakira anymore. So now Brittany keeps telling everyone at school I bought those purple sneakers to match something I saw on Shakira's video when I told her already I didn't even see that video until, like, yesterday.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Based on the replies below, I think we've come to a solid consensus... It's option 1.
IMHO 1 in 4 children are copiously ridiculed, harassed, and are treated poorly... I'd even argue that some arguments here can get downright mean... And yet, here we are every day.
If someone takes the trolling and flaming as bullying, they've been bullied. They can learn to live with it, or they can go somewhere else.
That's... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That's... (Score:5, Funny)
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
Parent
Re:That's... (Score:5, Funny)
You're a meanie!
I've pushed my button:
http://jezlyn.files.wordpress.com/2006/07/easy-button-hack.jpg [wordpress.com]
The authorities are going to get you, meanie!!!
Parent
Re:That's... (Score:5, Funny)
What do you mean, I just called 911 because I have been modded down on Slashdot and they said its being taken care of...
I wish I had that panic button.
P.S. I am 11 years old.
Parent
Re:That's... (Score:5, Funny)
This will be incredibly abused. Not to mention the ability for virus/malware to disable the panic button or abuse it (cry-wolf).
I imagine it would go something like this:
You suck, vii is way better than emacs
You: Hi Interweb Police? /. said vii was better than emacs.
The I-Pol: I see you have an emergency, how can I help?
You: Some noob on
The I-Pol: I see, this is an issue, when in fact, Notepad is better than both.
You: WTF? BOB?!
Parent
What's Dumb is Ignorance (Score:5, Interesting)
Your attitude is exactly why people don't ask for help when they're in a bad place. The result is school shootings, suicides, and other depressing events. Not just among teens either. Adults in general listen to your kind of belittlement and think they're weak if they ask for help.
This is a particular problem in first responders and members of the armed services. They see all kind of horrible crap, need help in dealing with it, and are afraid to get it because they don't want to seem "weak". This is a particular problem in the Army, which is seeing a spike in suicides lately.
Mind you, I'm not equating a bullied teenager with a GI who's seen his friends blown up by an IED. But they do have one thing in common: they need for it to be easy to ask for help, and people like you make it hard.
Parent
Re:What's Dumb is Ignorance (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a big difference between talking to your parents if you're bullied at school versus calling 911.
Parent
Re:What's Dumb is Ignorance (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude - if your kid gets bullied at school, do you:
a) take care of it w/ the kid (e.g. teaching him how to fight back) and/or the school administrators if necessary, or...
b) call 911?
This isn't a hard question, I promise you.
Parent
Re:That's... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm thinking that we as a society are becoming (or are already) a bit too fetishised over coddling their children.
(warning: impending 'get off my lawn' rant/moment...)
When our grandparents were kids, if they got bullied, their own parents would respond by teaching them how to fight. Hell, even when I was a kid, my parents' reaction to bullying was usually along the lines of "...well kick his ass then - as long as you didn't start it, you won't be in trouble from us for finishing it".
Nowadays, the Internet is easier to deal with - if someone is acting the fool, teach your kid to block 'em and inform the webmaster/etc. Teach 'em to toughen up and to ignore the idiots of this world - it'll better prepare them for adulthood.
Leaving your kid alone online is the perfect equivalent of letting them wander around alone on Times Square - if you're dumb enough to do it, then at least prepare them for the inevitable bumps and bruises... or perhaps maybe not let your kid surf the thing unsupervised, eh?
At least this way there's no scrambling around on the cops' part over false positives (because those are almost guaranteed with this system), and nobody has to waste taxpayer money over something that parents should already know how to do, FFS...
Parent
Time to buy stock now... (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.panicbuttons.com/ [panicbuttons.com]
My wife has one of those on her keyboard, it's pretty funny.
How long until (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How long until (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
The government has the most experience (Score:5, Informative)
Of fucking people......certainly more than some anonymous internet perv.
The Internet is not Real Life (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, the whole idea of grooming children (or more often FBI agents posing as children) is that the pedophile gets the child to believe they're safe, and so they would have no motivation to push the little dolphin button. The kids that go off to meet pedophiles do so because they don't perceive that they're in any danger. If they don't perceive the danger, why would they alert the police to anything?
Re:The Internet is not Real Life (Score:5, Informative)
...you can easily get away from it simply by turning off the device you're using to access it...
I think you've just saved the tax payers of Australia a ton of money - just replace the circle & line logo on the power button with the "friendly dolphin" icon and the children are safe!
Parent
Re:The Internet is not Real Life (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're getting bullied in real life, you have to try to run away and get help immediately before your attackers catch up with you and continue the beating.
You haven't been bullied, have you? You don't run -- it only encourages them. You turn into any attack -- 95% of the time, that's the right answer. Bullies, muggers, rapists, etc., all have one thing in common: They go for the low hanging fruit.
Online, you can simply get off the computer and tell the proper authorities (be that the police or your parents or whoever) at your leisure. There is not the same need for immediacy.
Or, you know, you could ignore them. Or be a responsible parent to your child, instead of wasting taxpayer dollars chasing down every bad word someone else's kid says about yours.
Also, the whole idea of grooming children (or more often FBI agents posing as children) is that the pedophile gets the child to believe they're safe, and so they would have no motivation to push the little dolphin button. The kids that go off to meet pedophiles do so because they don't perceive that they're in any danger. If they don't perceive the danger, why would they alert the police to anything?
Grooming takes time. It doesn't just happen one evening while your child is propped up on the bed and you're having dinner, and the next day they're on a bus. A lack of parental supervision is the problem here -- if we were actually spending time parenting instead of working two jobs and leaving the child rearing to the schools, televisions, and computers, this wouldn't be possible.
This government solution isn't: That friendly dolphin isn't there for the children, it's there for the parents. So they can feel less guilty about not watching their kid. It's the same reason we have padded foam and rubber all over playgrounds, and the swing sets have been removed, along with all the other interesting things to do. Meanwhile, I used guns, went hunting, rode motorcycles, ATVs, and played hide and seek in a five acre field. Bullies didn't give me much trouble growing up -- rural girls scare the ever-living crap out of city boys.
Take a hint, parents: Raise your kids to be self-reliant and strong, and you'll never have to worry about their safety. But keep them as your precious snowflakes, and you'll raise a bunch of fragile weaklings that will spend their lives suckling the tit of the government and crumpling at every hardship. I don't say this to be mean -- I say this because the other thing a rural upbringing gave me was a lack of tact. ;)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Are penguins friendly too? How about beasties? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Are penguins friendly too? How about beasties? (Score:5, Funny)
"click"!? In *BSD!?
*blink* .... *blink*...
(turns to crowd - )
It's a HERETIC! BURN HIM!
Parent
achievement unlocked (Score:5, Funny)
achievement unlocked
you are a regular pusher, well done!
pressing the panic button 50 times in a minute unlocks this award and gives you access to Juvie hall.
Extra Rewards: Parents must pay $500.
sure, you can have a panic button (Score:5, Interesting)
as long as the panic button dials the parent's cellphone/ sends a text to the parent/ sends an email to the parent
not to some intrusive government bureaucracy with an agenda having dubious additional goals beyond just good parenting, not tailored to the specifics of each different parent-child relationship, and costing tax dollars
otherwise, its basically just a good business idea for someone to invest in and flesh out
i look forward to unintentionally humorous late night tv commercials for the internet panic button
"mom! i've fallen into porn and i can't get up!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I've_fallen_and_I_can't_get_up [wikipedia.org]!
Hacked (Score:4, Interesting)
Can sexual abuse take place in a virtual world ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Err NO, exactly ZERO (0) children have ever been sexually abused by the internet. Nor for that matter have any children EVER been sexually abused over the internet, on the internet, or even around the internet. The internet has undoubtedly been a tool used by sexual predators to get access or to provide information on the location of children which they would then prey upon and abuse, but just like a gun has never shot anyone by itself, a interconnected system of computers has never abused or neglected a child, it takes people to do that....
http://www.pandys.org/whatissexualabuse.html [pandys.org]
What the 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 number actually means. (Score:5, Informative)
There's already a panic button. (Score:3, Insightful)
There's already a panic button on every desktop, laptop and netbook. It's called the Power Button. It will automatically disconnect you from whatever you were doing and turn off your computer. Combine this with a talk with whatever parental figure(s) the child has (both before and after online access is granted) and kids should be covered. Not every "think of the children" problem needs a government mandated solution.
Until virtual reality gets much, much better, (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh honestly now... (Score:5, Funny)
How can Dolphins save you from the net when they get caught in them all time?
The OTHER online bully (Score:5, Funny)
WTF is wrong with Australia? (Score:5, Insightful)
Can we go a few months without an article on slashdot describing yet another moronic idea from someone in Australia?
Seriously, there's something wrong in that place and I'm very curious to know what. Or maybe, these stories are coming from the Australian equivalent of WeeklyWorldNews?
Re:WTF is wrong with Australia? (Score:4, Informative)
The answer to this is simple. (disclaimer: I'm not a politician but I am interested in politics)
In Australia (much like in other democracies such as America) we have a senate which ultimately writes, discusses and publishes new laws. Instead of directly voting for our Prime Minister (you guys would say President), we instead vote in senate members in our electorates (or 'regional areas'). Since Australia's quite large, these regional areas might cover a fairly large areas including a small city and a few towns.
Australia, much like America, has two main political parties- the Labour party (left leaning) and the Liberal party (right leaning). These two parties get most of the seats. However, because senate members vote on laws, sometimes minority parties or independents gain seats.
There are currently 76 seats in the senate. What this means is, in simplified terms, if the Labour party has 38 seats and the Liberal party has 37 seats, then the one remaining seat (held by an independent or a member of an minority party) holds what is called the 'balance of power'. After all, they could just vote against or for any law proposed by the government and block it- 38 vs 38 is a tie, which means the bill is defeated. So, essentially, this person has the power to veto any law they choose... a very powerful position. They cannot *create* new laws directly, but they get the final say as to what passes.
Currently, senator Fielding holds the balance of power in the Australian senate. Senator Fielding is from the state of Victoria and is affiliated with a political party called 'Family First', which is exactly what it says on the tin- immediately love for any scheme which is 'for the children at any cost'. That's why all these insane "For the Children!" laws are getting passed- because politicians on all sides of politics want to scratch his back so that he'll pass or block their various laws of choice. Couple this with a profound lack of understanding regarding the Intertubes, a Telecommunications minister who has a massive, visible erection for Internet censorship (who is by far the most hated minister in his field in living memory) and you have a recipe for massive "For the Children" wankery.
I hope I've explained everything in an easy to understand manner. It's not that Australians are douchebags or that our politicians are all insane, it's just a minor broken bit in what is otherwise a perfectly fine system- a unique race condition which manifests itself regularly but is remarkably damaging when it does.
Parent
Relevant article from Vanity Fair (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/12/sexual-predators-200912 [vanityfair.com]
The short version is that the police and the media are contributing the hysteria of online child predators and blowing things WAY out of proportion. In the huge majority of the cases where minors are involved in sexual conversations online, they are engaged in them with other minors.
Hey boys and girls.... (Score:4, Funny)
Here's a neat button and everytime you press it a bunch of cars with with flashing lights and screaming sirens will come zooming up to your house!
Reminds me of the diapers with the moisture sensors that played a little tune every time the kid needed changing, which was pretty often once the kids figured out how to make the music play. : - )
Looking forward to 4chan (Score:5, Funny)
Define "sexual abuse" (Score:4, Insightful)
"Are 1 in 4 children really sexually abused by the Internet?"
If you ask organisations such as the NCMEC - who know that their funding depends on misinformed hysteria over children's safety - one in five children are sexually abused online. The reality is that the NCMEC and similar organisations use bizarre definitions of child abuse, so if a 13 year boy asks a 13 year old girl to show her breasts, the girl is reported to be a "victim of sexual abuse".
Most studies on this topic are remarkably biased (for financial reasons, or because they have been commissioned by governments) and based upon grossly inappropriate methodologies, so that question will probably never be answered. Consider Bennett Haselton's article article [slashdot.org] about NCMEC "research" as an example of how such data is biased.
Its for the chiiiilllldrennnnn!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
There are people in this world who dream of lording themselves over others. This is just another scheme that they have cooked up using the tried and tested method of presenting that which they wish to control as a threat to children, with the remedy being that they are given more power.
This is horseshit and the people who are proposing it should be beaten to death with a tire iron.
So long (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Where are the parents? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the main attraction for children is that the weirdo in the bushes is actually paying attention to them. Someone is talking to them, actually holding a conversation rather than just telling them to do stuff or to go somewhere else. You aren't going to counter that very easily because in today's society parenting is equal parts of pushing the kids away and trying to convince yourself that you should really say NO when everyone else on the planet seems to be saying YES.
So when they encounter someone that is interested in their life, their thoughts and just talking with them they are going to gravitate to it. In the background are the busy parents and the teachers trying to meet all the requirements of both parents and administration. No time to actually talk with the kids. So the pedophiles have an advantage over just about everyone else in the kids lives.
And until people understand that, all the dolphin buttons in the world aren't going to make a difference.
Parent