EU Debates Installing a Black Box On Your Computer

bs0d3 writes "EU MEP Tiziano Motti (Italy), wants everything you do online to be logged and saved, for the sake of the children. Like a black box installed on every computer. He proposes an early warning system of criminal activity, specifically whenever an image of sexually abused children is detected, an alarm, goes to the authorities to be able to see who uploaded it. Tiziano Motti was a politician who just over a year ago managed to get a majority of European Members of Parliament to support the proposal to expand the data storage directive to Google searches. The purpose was to protect children from pedophiles — the same excuse he is using now. His proposal involves a technology called Logbox. And just as with an aircraft's black box, Logbox is installed on computers, laptops, smartphones, and e-readers because yes, all that can be connected to the internet."

Mr Motti:

[zero.kalvin]

Fuck you!

Opposite Effect

[igreaterthanu]

Studies have shown a negative correlation between the availability of porn and rape cases. IIRC this is also the case specifically with CP and child rape. If anything, this will make it worse for the children.

Not to mention the problems with a software based solution. The software will, of course, only run on certain operating systems, who is the government to mandate I purchase a particular operating system/or agree to a contract (e.g. the GPL)? Anyone who knows what they are doing can get around this anyway. Even if it calls home, it could be faked by using a VM.

Not Gonna Happen

[stereoroid]

Like Members of Congress in the USA, EU MEPs come in all shapes, sizes, and states of sanity. This guy's just flying a kite, but any such law would apply the the MEPs too, and you can assume some of them have skeletons in their hard drives. Fuhgeddabouttit.

When it is easier to molest for real than download

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if this were not grossly misused(which would surely happen), with this in place the child molesters will figure out that actually molesting children is less likely to get them caught than child porn. Making an incentive to do it for real instead of looking at it...

Misleading title !!

[Zoxed]

OK, this is Slashdot but 1 MEP suggests something, and it becomes "EU Debates Installing a Black Box On Your Computer". No one is debating anything !! (Unless TFA says more: it is currently Slashdotted.)

Re:Salem

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, you are putting pedophiles in the same category as pagans, Jews, witches, anarchists, gays and communists. Terrorists, Christians and Muslims though...

Re:Opposite Effect

[L4t3r4lu5]

Never mind that, here's some statistics!

a) Most of the computers in the world are not involved in distribution of indecent images of minors.
b) Most of the incidents of sexual indecency with a minor are by members of the family, or close family friends.

Therefore, to have a greater chance of saving more children from sexual predators, we should ignore computers and break up all families. (Liberal use of the "~" marker here, folks).

Child exploitation, of all sorts, is very serious. However, this kind of outright idiocy on the part of policy makers is starting to make me physically ill. There are so many reason why this is an awful, awful idea, and I know I don't need to spell them out.

Why can't we have politicians who can think rationally?

The title is BS

[ardor]

Both this Slashdot story and TFA have a very misleading title. ONE MEP is thinking about this insane idea. It is not even in Parliament for discussion. Another MEP already vehemently spoke against it.

Come on, ideas like these pop up and fizz out all the time. I bet there are other MEPs thinking about imprisoning gay people, reinstating a theocracy, establishing re-education centers, idolizing Hitler and Stalin, and so on and so forth. That doesn't mean any of these wacky ideas come through. There are no indications that this one will.

Plus, it is not technically feasible, even with deep packet inspection. To connect the dots, to know who uploaded what where, is far from trivial, especially if the bad scary pedophile uses non-standard ways of transmitting this data. For example, what if he uses zip files? Also, there is encryption, which totally defeats this "logbox".

Re:1984

[Anonymous Coward]

1984 is not a manual for politicians.
Hitler is back, in Brussels,. But don't worry. What could possibly go wrong ?

One out of over seven hundred MEPs, one out of over seven hundred members of a body with very little real power within the EU, one man says something technologically illiterate and Slashdot runs for the hills for fear of Blackshirts and deathcamps?

Your post is absurd, absurd, hysterical and absurd. But thank you for keeping the world safe from totalitarianism. It's the thought (well, not thought, in this case... sentiment, perhaps) that counts....

P.S. Never, under any circumstances, watch C-SPAN. Your terror will know no bounds.

Re:Opposite Effect

[AmonTheMetalhead]

It's not about kids, it's about control (and media rights)

PARENTS rape children, NOT strangers

[dbet]

The people who actually molest kids are those with easy access to them. most cases of abuse are from moms, dads, stepmoms, aunts and uncles, sometimes even a teacher. They don't care if you monitor their computer because they don't need one to get what they're after. No amount of computer monitoring or demonizing things that are even tangentially related to kiddie porn will prevent or even slow down actual cases of actual abuse.

These laws are about removing people from society who don't have a "healthy" sexual attitude. That's why drawings are illegal in many places. Because it's not about reducing abuse, it's about people making themselves feel less uncomfortable about their own sexuality. In my own country, the people here are absolutely bat shit crazy when it comes to sexuality. They fear it, and they hate people who have a different attitude about it than they do. My generation is the first where simply being gay is not a crime. Hell at this point I can see things at the beach that would be illegal on my computer. There have even been people investigated for looking at porn of adults who are young looking. And if you let yourself get wrapped up in this paranoia you are helping no one and hurting everyone, including yourself.

And this needs to be said:

I would rather live in a world where occasional child abuse happens, than one where it never happens because we're all under constant surveillance.

Re:Opposite Effect

[Kjella]

Why can't we have politicians who can think rationally?

They rationally play on people's irrational fears. Don't assume all politicians are drooling idiots, being a successful politician and a successful manipulator share many of the same traits.

E-Mail to Motti: [e-mail]

[Anonymous Coward]

I just mailed this to [e-mail]:

Mr. Motti,

we have been informed, that you proposed plans to install a system of total surveillance for purposes of creating a totalitarian police state in the spirit of Stalin. As a additional insult, you excuse this behavior with âoeprotecting the childrenâ, despite it being a proven fact that this system will not only not help children, but in fact harm everyone, including children.

In case you are ignorant of that fact: This is a criminal offense in the EU. Committed against every single member of the union. One you would commit deliberately and knowingly. One that WILL land you in prison for a decade.

Because of this, we leave you the choice to either back down and reconsider changing your world views, or face a legal process on a massive scale, ending with you in prison.

It is your choice, but we WILL bring you down. And other than you, we will do it in a legal and morally acceptable way.

And I mean it!
How about you?

Re:Mr Motti:

[qubex]

That’s rude. I’m Italian and I hate the situation.

And yes, I hate this fool’s proposal too.

I wonder what country you herald from? What’s your country’s worst historical figure? How about I compare you to that person?

Re:Fuck you Italy

[CoderFool]

Why do people assume that the christians are the ones always behind these kind of fascist actions? If you go to far LEFT or RIGHT you find fascist extremists. In the US it isn't the conservatives or christians behind all the PC fascism and 'spread the wealth' crap, it is the liberals. Censorship in the form that you can't say anything negative about minorities or LGBT. Communism in the way they wan't to tax you to death so the greedy poor can have food and shelter without lifting a finger to work (not all poor are greedy, just 'occupiers' and the like). Fascism in the way they say you can't have fat or salt or have incandescent bulbs. 'Saving the planet' is crap when you mandate CFLs with toxic mercury powder or electric cars with toxic metal batteries or biofuels that drive up worldwide food prices and are worst CO2 emitters than petroleum. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind my taxes going to help the truly needy. I think we should try to do better by our environment, but what's the point in breaking our economy when other big polluters, like China and India and Brazil, aren't doing the same? Or do we need a fascist world government to force them? and OBTW when you give anyone too much power to do one thing, they will likely abuse that power whether they lean right or left. If you want economin communism of fascist environmentalism, don't be surprised if the empowered individuals use that power to regulate other aspects of your life and destroy all your freedoms. Can't have guns because of the lead. Can't have fat or salt because of the expense to the health care system. an so on and so forth

Re:Fuck you Italy

[mcvos]

Is voting for Berlusconi really less stupid than voting for Bush? I hate Bush as much as the next guy, but I have my doubts in this case. Berlusconi was re-elected several times, even after it was abundantly clear that he was completely and irredeemably corrupt. Bush was an idiot, lied and instigated war, but Berlusconi appears to be an avatar of Satan himself. He was good buddies with Khadafi and Putin, likes calling German politicians nazi camp guards, has wild sex parties with barely legal prostitutes, controls most Italian media, partially as leader of the government, partially because of his own private media imperium. And he keeps introducing new laws to protect himself from criminal prosecution for all the cases of corruption he's been involved in.

Re:Opposite Effect

[iamhassi]

Child exploitation, of all sorts, is very serious. However, this kind of outright idiocy on the part of policy makers is starting to make me physically ill. There are so many reason why this is an awful, awful idea, and I know I don't need to spell them out. Why can't we have politicians who can think rationally?

I think the ironic thing is the age of consent in Italy is 14. [wikipedia.org] In most parts of the world that's considered a child and a man having sex with a 14 year old would be considered a pedo and sent to jail for a long time, but in Italy you can have sex with children legally, yet they want to put a black box on your computer to "protect children from pedophiles"?

How can you protect children from pedophiles when your laws already allow pedophiles to have sex with children?

Re:Opposite Effect

[delt0r]

14 is a teenager, not a child. Once upon a time, 14 year old's had full time jobs and got married.