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Thailand Bans Teen Info On the Net
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:13 AM
from the no-myspace-for-you dept.
from the no-myspace-for-you dept.
Reservoir Hill writes "Internet providers in Thailand have been prohibited from disclosing personal data about anyone under the age of 18 in a way that would allow others to gain access to them — including disclosure of their age, gender, phone number, email address, chat logon name, photo, or name of their school. Violators will face six months in jail of and a fine of $1,900. Web sites have been given one month to come into compliance." The article isn't clear on whether or not the prohibition applies to foreign sites that carry information about Thai kids.
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eldavojohn writes "Seventy-two websites have been ordered shut down by the courts in Thailand following the suicide of a 12-year-old boy who jumped from the sixth story of his school after his father banned him from playing computer games. This brings more action from the court: 'Some websites are rumored to take in over 100 million baht from online betting a night at peak periods, causing huge economic losses to the country. To prevent online gambling, the DSI, also a member of the internet safety committee, would notify all Internet service providers across the country about the court order. From now on, any provider found to encourage or provide online gambling will not only face a jail term and a fine, but also have his/her ISP license revoked by the ICT.' Thailand is no stranger to internet censorship of various sites."
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I got an idea (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
What they need to do to encourage kids to not find ways around this...
I first read this as
encourage kids to find ways around this
which I think is just as funny, but consider for a sec. Society benefits when the kids are encouraged to participate in official-type stuff like this. Something about feeling included. More governments should try it. I can't remember where I read - and a couple of searches aren't bringing it up - but one section of (from memory) a state government in Australia has recruited the teen "hacker" who took a few minutes to bypass the bajillion dollar government-issue "net nanny" filter. Thi
No pictures of my kids? (Score:2)
- Malcolm
So does that mean (Score:2)
I remember reading that something like 2/3 of Koreans have the equivalent to a facebook page, and I bet social networking sites are popular in thailand too.
What I dont understand is... (Score:2)
I can understand not wanting age, phone number, address or photo to be disclosed (because those can be used to identify someone) but how does collecting, using, storing or disclosing an email address or a chat handle violate someones privacy? (most forums I know of collect but do not display email addresses)
no surprises here (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it really a surprise, when you look at who the people are that draft these laws? Is it fair of us to expect them to be in touch? Perhaps what democratic governments need is a non-political, not-for-profit group that can propose some framework for national government tech policy? They could even propose different flavours for governments with either progressive or conservative agendas. At least then we may have some body of tech legislature that is based on informed analysis of what is being regulated. Easy to say, I guess...
censorship tag (Score:2)
i have answered this question already (Score:2)
I find it amusing... (Score:2)
Why don't you guys work on breaking up the "tourism" that goes on in your country (which exists due to local police corruption in many cases) before you start passing unenforceable edicts on cyberspace? Kthnxbai.
So..... (Score:2)
Or Maybe times have changed, I don't keep up to date on the pedophile scene.
forced anonymous ... pedophiles ... 4chan ?! (Score:2)
my prediction: in a few years moot & the anonymous army of
George Washington (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Internet censorship (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, it is a form of free speech. However, freedom is not absolute. We commonly recognize that you cannot yell fire in a theater, use certain "fighting words", or perjure yourself, all acts of free speech that we consider unreasonable. Many people (although not many people on slashdot) believe that freedom of speech can be limited by intellectual property laws. So, the
actually there is a line (Score:3, Insightful)
of course, the government isn't you and therefore should not decide which information can be (or cannot be) out there.
maturity is not a number (long post inside) (Score:3, Interesting)
== first, sexual maturity ==
i know girls who were sexual before being 12 (even before having their period). not all of them fully knew what they were doing - to hear "you can always put it out" from a slightly stupid girl is probably a huge turn-off for a young boy w
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
So the interesting questions I can think of are: is this retroactive to information already published, such that a site might have to verify the ages of existing users? Is the site responsible moderating content and users before potentially publishing personal info, or only remove things that t
Re: (Score:2)
Re:So what's the problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Governments shouldn't muscle in as parents. If you want to reduce the abuse of minors via the Internet educate parents to help them understand the risks, and educate teens to help them understand the risks and how to avoid them. Show them some episodes of Dateline: To Catch A Preditor. Warn them about the lack of privacy on social networking sites and how easy it is to locate someone based on some simple searches. Run a mandatory 4 week annual course for all high schoolers with updated materials reflecting current threats.
Help people understand what they're getting into, but don't start censoring them.
If there is one thing you should understand about tech-literate teenagers, it is that they will find a way if they want to. It's better to educate and let them protect themselves than to try and protect them all with laws like this.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I can't see any reason for kids to be giving out their contact details online. if you can justify them giving out phone numbers and address's i'll concede it's a bad ideaa...
Re:So what's the problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, some people are. And the problem of teen predators will never go away no matter what we do.
Now, do we:
A) Educate people, have a population that largely understands privacy risks, and still have teen predators, or,
B) Put this law into place, have a population that expects their Government to look after all their privacy concerns, and still have teen predators?
Predators aren't going away any time soon. On the other hand, the rights of the people all around the world appear to be.
Parent
not every kid created equal (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't see any particular reason why kids should be allowed to put their contact information up on the web.
From when I was only 14 years old I was maintaining my own websites, including e-commerce sites, I was developing my own shareware games and I was promoting them, I was also maintaining forums and mailing lists, and I was also publishing/selling articles and short scifi stories to magazines (and I was also trying to publish my scifi in book form by approaching publishers, but I failed in this, because publishers did not believe in teenage authors). Giving out some contact info, carefully, was required.
Re: (Score:2)