Thailand Bans Teen Info On the Net 137
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.
So what's the problem? (Score:1, Insightful)
As far as I can tell, this just applies to ISPs and not necessarily to teens themselves.
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There's no need to use the internet, if you just want to speak with friends.
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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.
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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.
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Does taking away people's civil rights make it harder for such "predators", make no difference to them or make things easier for them. Given the apparent inability of many politicans to critically evaluate proposed legislation, something which should be a fundermental part of their job, it wouldn't exactly be suprising for laws intended to "protect children" to do the exact opposite.
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dirty looters!
oooOOOOhhhhh! What's that
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1. Sometimes no amount of education is going to stop people from being terrible abusive or uncaring parents. At what stage should the government intervene? At the stage where the parent(s) spend most of their days out of their skull on drugs?
2. Thailand suffers from enormous proble
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Yes; and this move is not going to do anythign to close it down. Why focus on online predators rather than offline child bordels ? Unless, of course, this is either a feel-good gesture or a prelude to something sinister disguised as such.
That, or my cynicism is finally starting outgrow even politics... nah, that isn't possible.
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In many countries people under the age of 18 can have student loans, drive cars, drink, have sex, but now we won't let them put their contact information on the net? Teenagers are people too, and they should have the right to make contact with whomever they choose.
Teenagers don't have (full) rights for a couple of reasons:
When teenagers screw up, who foots the bill? The parents. Until someone is fully on their own and fully responsible for their own mistakes, they're not free of parental oversight.
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Allowed??? (Score:2, Insightful)
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1 - email isn't truly 'contact' information.
2 - no school? Technically that would mean that 2 kids in the same school couldn't tell each other their email addresses to help out with homework or plan the next school party )
3 - why should a kid be 'non contactable' in the first place? Why isolate them? Just monitor the child's email and teach them not to respond to perverts and the real problem is solved.
Want to restrict phone numbers and addresses, well thats more a
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.
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Presumably "hedwards (940851)" would be your contact information - let's hope everyone on Slashdot is over 18.
There is also the issue of excessive punishment. I'm all for increased data protection laws, especially for companies - but sending individuals to prison?
Why the hell is this "censorship"? (Score:1)
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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.
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http://www.slate.com/id/2174841 [slate.com]
He proposes three boundary ages, and has studies to justify each one.
12 - when you can physically have sex - when women reach puberty
16 - when you're intellectually mature - people under 16 score quite badly on intelligence tests
25 - when you have some kind of emotional maturity - people under that age don't have prope
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
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Presumably there is some sort of normal distribution [wikipedia.org] of the age people reach each milestone - i.e. most of them reach it in +- one standard deviation. The people my brother and I went to school with matured at a very similar pace - so the standard deviation should be much less than one year. And this is despite the fact we went to very different types of school because I passed an exam and he failed it.
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certainly arbitrary limits based on age are bullshit. limits based on actual skill (driver's license) are perfectly acceptable.
but i see one. you are arguing that because the law is unjust only to "few", it is acceptable.
while this may so
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certainly arbitrary limits based on age are bullshit. limits based on actual skill (driver's license) are perfectly acceptable.
How would that work instead of a fixed age of consent? Would you have Sex Licences tests for teenagers, analogous to Driving Licenses? I suppose like driving lessons they'd have dating lessons and once they have reached a certain level of proficiency the Sex Police would allow them to have sex. A few retards would never pass the test and the Sex Police would prevent them having sex ever, eugenics style. If you're out on a date and you forget your Sex License the Sex Police could arrest you, regardless of a
sorry, facts aren't as clear as you would like. (Score:2)
you are certainly misunderstanding me (maybe on purpose ?): i was arguing for intellectual maturity. sexual maturity is easy - if they have these urges and act upon it, they are sexually mature. it is a matter of fact, therefore no license necessary. sex ed is taught here in school, it was part of the curriculum of biology when i was in secondary school. see, no problem.
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How are you going to get such a license? You'll have to undergo a physical examination; pass a sex-ed test; and p
sorry, forgot to log in (nt). (Score:2)
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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
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Is that clearer for you?
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Actually, not a cliche, but a reference to US Supreme Court opinions. Lying is not unreasonable, nor are laws to limit lying. However, there are (US) laws covering yelling in a theater, using "fighting words", and perjury. These are considered reasonable restrictions.
If you live outside the United States, there is no reason for you to
I got an idea (Score:3, Funny)
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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
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Actually, the article is clear (Score:1)
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What I'd like is a law where every politician that votes for idiotic and impossible to enforce legislation is forced to eat a lit stick of dynamite. I think that would solve a great many more problems.
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Its just the companies/websites which cannot reveal the information. MySpace pages are still fine.
WTH, KDawson? (Score:1, Interesting)
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They're stopping ISPs from...
It's not just ISPs, but all websites. (The summary probably shouldn't have said "internet providers".) From TFA:
Local website operators will be given a one-month deadline to ensure the privacy of people under the age of 18 on the internet or face legal action. Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham said they must make sure that their websites displayed no personal information about under-18s in a way that would allow others to search the data to gain access to them.
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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
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The 'biz (Score:1)
An interesting side note: The biz has crept into American pop culture [mtv.com].
Marketing Stratagy? (Score:1, Troll)
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Re:Marketing Stratagy? / Thai women (Score:2)
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Having recently been to Phuket I can say t
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By the way, saying Thailand's major import is pedophiles is really obnoxious. I'm sure there's no child molestation going on in your country, eh? No sex slavery, either. Don't be a racist.
No pictures of my kids? (Score:2)
- Malcolm
Outlawed the Olsen twins (Score:2)
Morons.
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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.
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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...
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Your attitude shows why technological people have so little influence in politics - you're unconcerned with the realities of the situation, or the actual technology, and
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I can't say whether the practice empirically lead to a decrease in crime/abuse, but the law is definitely technologically possible, and at first glance would seem to make it more difficult for strangers to get in contact with minors.
To make a simple analogy, anyone can pick up a phone and dial numbers at random until a kid answers. Don't confuse "technologically possible" laws with necessary ones.
Your attitude shows why technological people have so little influence in politics - you're unconcerned with the realities of the situation, or the actual technology, and more concerned with getting on a high horse and making your unqualified opinions out to be fact.
I take it you mean "unqualified as politicians"? Otherwise there is a contradiction there.
Contrary to your point, tech people only urge a little less knee-jerk, fud-ite legislature and some informed debate.
Please make some examples out of the many, IMHO, dumb laws that are discussed here from time to time. Explain how they are actually bas
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Here is the update [localfoss.org] which is also REALLY old.
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.
Because it affects the rich kids (Score:1)
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
Control (Score:1)
On another note, does anyone have access to the wording of the complete law, I am very interested in reading all it has to say.
George Washington (Score:2)
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And it's really no one else's business.
This is great. (Score:2, Funny)
God I feel old saying that. I'm only 30, I swear!
you fail at basic logic, mods fail at modding. (Score:2)
so let me recount: because an underage person may give false information to look somehow more "adult", "underage information" should be banned ? and people should be held accountable whe
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you fail regardless. (Score:2)
second, you sister's sex life is none of your bizness, srsly.
third, you, kind sir, are probably a control freak.
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Second, my sister's sex life is my responsibility as she is my SISTER. I care for her well being. Even (and especially) when she is unable to do it herself. You come down here and try to fuck her. I'll have your own dick wandering about in your own intestines, traveling through them the wrong way. I might shove it so far up there it'll bulge in your throat.
Third, if 14 is the age of consent in Germany, then, well, what part of the country in nice
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The King is tech savvy (Score:2)
Internet censorship (Score:3, Interesting)
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It all started when the new emergency military government came in and overthrew the corrupt prime minster Taksin. The new ICT minister that replaced the old one started blocking websites [slashdot.org]. Before that happened there were only 3000 websites blocked, now there are over 15,000.
That all happened in 2006 [wikipedia.org].
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Just as my company takes off In Thailand (Score:2)
I guess that means extra work for us, sorry kids, but I can't get home for christmas
UK Government Officials better be careful! (Score:2)
Makes sense (Score:2)
They're very protective over their children compared to the west where they can do what they want. Most children in their 25+ still live with their parents and are home before 9 pm. You live with your parents until you're married. If y
the article (Score:2)
The article is so short that I can't help but be confused by the OP subject line. Does this law restrict ISPs from selling teens' demographic information to advertisers, or does it restrict all websites from hosting (and displaying) any personal information about teens? If it's a restriction on ISPs, then don't we have some similar child protection laws in the US with the age being 13? I don't see the problem with a law that limits marketing to children, or marketing of children. If it's a restriction on
priorities? (Score:2)
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