Year IV students’ blog for Internet Education

Controlling and restraining the access to information on the internet is what Internet Censorship is all about. The government controls the internet by regions.

One problem is a country’s government may try to prevent information to be seen by its citizens, but in doing so, harming the foreigners because the government may take action against Internet sites anywhere in the world.

People are saying that censorship is subjective, that it depends on the viewer. According to them, people have a right to decide for themselves whether a webpage is appropriate and censoring these materials would be unfair to those who enjoy it. The government will overpower the internet users and block whatever websites or materials they want.

Laws in the Philippines

According to the World Factbook, there are 8,070,000 internet users in the
Philippines and it is growing over time. Because of the rate we’re at, the government is now imposing laws to censor materials on the internet.

For example, Senator Loren Legarda recently banned a pornographic site, BoyBastos because of, obviously, its explicit content. “This is by far the filthiest Internet site we’ve come across that offers open and unlimited access to some of the most obscene videos and photographs of Filipino women and girls,” Legarda said.

Of course, I support Legarda and the government on this. Legarda is author of Senate Bill 1375, the proposed Anti-Computer Pornography Act, which seeks to reinforce the war on electronic smut.

Internet Censorship in the Philippines

Right now, there is minimal censorship and anyone can view any pornographic or explicit material. Because of this, and the rate of internet users, the senate is now looking for a way to pass the bill on how to control the internet.

Comparison

a) China continues to be one of the world’s most advanced in Internet Filtering. They started with filtering chat forums and websites but now, they are on to filtering blogs and video exchange sites.
China closes down any sites that express themselves too freely online

b) The Internet in Singapore is has no political discussion and these only occur on websites and discussion forums run from outside the country. They even have the ISP’s under control. Employers are legally allowed to monitor the e-mail of their workers, who have no means of appeal if they are sacked as a result of an intercepted message.

c) In Myanmar internet usage is closely monitored by the military. The term “closely” here is underrated. There are only 25,000 internet users although poverty is partly to blame for. E-mail is strictly filtered by the posts and telecommunications authority MPT and military intelligence, reportedly with a Dans Guardian content filter.

Compared to these countries, Internet Censorship in the Philippines is nothing. I think that the censorship in the said countries are violations of their freedom of expressions. We should be happy that this is not how controlling our government is, at least for now. To prevent this from happening, we should respect the internet and its benefits by not using it for illegal purposes such as pornography and child trafficking.

Internet Censorship

Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship. Censorship is the moral or legislative process by which society agrees to limit what an individual can do, say, think, or see. Recent attempts to regulate,censor, what is viewed on the Internet have polarized the general population. Unfortunately, beyond the anecdotal, the characteristics of those who support Internet censorship are unknown.

Laws of the Philippines about Internet censorship

The Internet censorship in the Philippines is growing and people watch this more and more and even children watch it too. And if many people watch censored films, they woul d produce more and more of this and in many different kinds of censored films. The government is planning to block unnecessary sites in the Internet and even the bad sites about the government. The bill they are going to put up on this is very big and they can just use this project for other things. The Internet censorship can also be prevented at home. And we can be knowledge by our parents to this. And we can also install software that can be blocked by this internet sites.

Internet censorship in the Philippines

While researching censorship within the Philippines I came across two letters written to regulating bodies within the Asian Nations. I am sure there are countless other correspondences sent on this issue. The first is a letter written a few years ago by several members of various committees against censorship within the Philippines. The second letter was very similar, written to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) a year later by the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists (CCPJ), the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) and other freedom of speech organizations.
The letter reminds member nations that content-based restrictions of online communications violates internationally guaranteed rights of free expression. Likewise, the letter addresses the idea of conserving cultural values by stating that censorship does not ensure the respect of cultural norms or values.

Comparison of the Philippines in:

China- The internet in China is very protected and the sites are all very useful and they block all the pornography sites. Chinese government also block the websites that tell about there culture. As well as numerous others, has no information that might be deemed offensive to the Chinese government. Compared to the Philippines censored sites are not blocked and even children can see this things.

The Philippine govenrment should really work on the internet blocking for censored films on the internet.

Singapore- The Government of Singapore argues that censorship of violence and sexual themes is necessary as the Singaporean populace is deeply conservative, and censorship of political, racial and religious content is necessary to avoid upsetting the balance of Singapore’s delicate multi-racial society. In the Philippines the censorship is not conrolled and has been allowed ever since so now they are having a hard time to stop it. But the our government is trying to make it stop.

Myanmar- the military government restricts Internet access through software-based censorship, including software provided by U.S. company Fortinet. This software limits the material citizens can access on-line, especially email service providers and pornographic websites. The government also charges high prices to connect to the internet, and then charges on a per-hour basis once connected. Many native Burmans do not have the money to pay for this.

Internet Censorship

Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship.

One difference is that national borders are more permeable online: residents of a country that bans certain information can find it on websites hosted outside the country. Conversely, attempts by one government to prevent its citizens from seeing certain material can have the effect of restricting foreigners, because the government may take action against Internet sites anywhere in the world, if they host objectionable material.

Senate Bill 1375: Anti-Computer Pornography Act
“Computer Pornography Act,” seeks to protect minors from indecent and immoral materials transmitted through electronic mail and other means of computer technology by penalizing violators of such acts.

In Reality
In reality, there is no Internet Censorship, anybody from any part of the Philippines can view pornographic material. All they need is a computer and an internet connection and there all set. Even if there are laws abiding pornographic material, they are not strictly implemented therefore making it useless.

China

In September 1996, China reportedly banned access to an estimated 100 Web sites by using a filtering system to prevent delivery of offending information. The banned sites included Western news outlets, Taiwanese commentary sites, anti-China dissident sites and sexually explicit sites.

Since 1996, the Chinese government has enacted a number of highly restrictive laws prohibiting publishing political commentary the government considers undesirable and so on, and there have been continuing reports of various foreign media and human rights Web sites being blocked.

On 18 January 2002, Associated Press reported that:
“China has issued its most intrusive Internet controls to date, ordering service providers to screen private e-mail for political content and holding them responsible for subversive postings on their Web sites. …
Under the new rules, general portal sites must install security programs to screen and copy all e-mail messages sent or received by users. Those containing ’sensitive materials’ must be turned over to authorities. Providers are also responsible for erasing all prohibited content posted on their Web sites, including online chatrooms and bulletin boards.The new rules include a long list of banned content prohibiting writings that reveal state secrets, hurt China’s reputation or advocate the overthrow of communism, ethnic separatism or ‘evil cults.’
Singapore

Internet services provided by the three major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are subject to regulation by the Media Development Authority (MDA) to block websites containing material that may be a threat to public security, national defence, racial and religious harmony and public morality, and Police are given broad powers to intercept messages online. ISP-level blocks are, however, used sparingly with only some high-profile token sites like Playboy blocked. The Ministry of Education, Singapore blocks access to pornographic and similar objectionable Internet sites on its proxy servers. In 2005, MDA banned a gay website and fined another website following complaints that the sites contained offensive content. The banned website is said to have promoted promiscuous sexual behaviour and recruited underage boys for sex and nude photography.
Myanmar
Censorship in Myanmar (formerly Burma) refers to government policies in controlling and regulating certain information, particularly on religious, ethnic, political, and moral grounds. Freedom of speech and the press are not guaranteed by law, and every publication (including newspaper articles, cartoons, advertisements, and illustrations) are censored by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division of the Ministry of Information. In 2006, Myanmar ranked 164th of 168 nations in the 2006 Reporters Without Borders worldwide press freedom index. Many colonial-era laws regulating the press and information continue to be used.

Most of the “Imagine The Internet Future” assignments submitted gave some preliminary ideas about internet application possibilities to the occupation/profession you chose.

Despite (or precisely due to) the fact that what you’ve given in managed merely at best to scratch the surface, the exercise has become even more interesting than I expected!

Thus, you have been asked to come up with a mini-research paper (or extended essay) to flesh out the preliminary ideas of your initial assignment. The guidelines for the requirement are:

1. Expound on the ideas you already have. Be as specific and concrete as possible.
2. Cite internet reference links to support/explain key points or potential new applications.
3. Publish your work-in-progress on this blog at whatever stage it may be, so I can make online comments and suggestions as you go along.
4. Deadline for the mini-research paper (to be submitted by posting it online on this blog) is the end of the 2nd trimester.

1) What is Internet Censorship?

Internet Censorship is the control of the publishing or accessing of information in the internet. It is also similar to offline censorship. The censoring of things in the internet is mostly done by the government. Information and websites today which are commonly targeted:

• Pornographic, Pedophile-related, and other morally objectionable websites — particularly in religious countries and in institutional settings such as schools.
• MySpace — particularly in the Middle East.
• Wikipedia — particularly in mainland China.
• Political blogs and websites.
• YouTube
• Nazi and similar websites — particularly in France and Germany.
• Religious websites.
• Google - particularly in mainland China and Cuba.
• Censorship-circumvention websites.

There is are two main organizations which help the censoring of things in a country: Reporters without Borders (RSF) maintains an internet enemy list while the OpenNet Initiative(ONI) categorizes some nations as practicing extreme levels of Internet censorship.2) Are there laws in the Phil. that can be considered censorship of the internet?

Yes, there is a bill in our country that is the Senate Bill 1375, whom the author is Loren Legarda. The bill proposed Anti-Computer Pornography Act, which seeks to reinforce the war on electronic smut. The bill provides that it would be illegal for any remote computer facility operator, electronic service provider or electronic bulletin board service provider to knowingly transmit, offer or attempt to send any communication that contains indecent material, to a person under 18 years of age. It would also be unlawful for them “to allow access to transmit indecent material to a minor”. Under the bill, peddlers of online porn and other “indecent materials” would be punished with up to six years in prison or a fine of as much as P500,000, or both. This seeks to protect the people, mostly the young from indecent or immoral plays, scenes, acts, or shows, whether live or in film. These include materials that glorify criminals or condone crimes; serve no other purpose but to satisfy the market of violence, lust or pornography; offend any race or religion; tend to abet traffic in and use of illicit drugs; and are contrary to law, public order, morals, good customs, established policies, lawful order, decrees and edicts.

3) In reality, is there internet censorship in the Phil.?

Yes, because there are many information that are banned here. One example is the taking down of the website boybastos.com. Senator Loren Legarda ordered the authorities to stop boybastos.com and arrested the owner of the website who is Mark Verzo. The senator urged the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and the National Bureau of Investigation to find ways to shut off boybastos.com, which claims on its site to be “the premiere bastos portal of the Philippines”. The IACAT is the agency tasked to enforce the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act and other laws against the prostitution, white slavery and the sexual exploitation of women and children. Some people are suggesting to make a giant firewall that may be named “Banaue Rice Firewall” to filter out incoming web traffic.

However there is a slight problem because instead of silently asking authorities to investigate the website, Sen. Legarda opted to gain publicity mileage by going directly to the media, thereby unwittingly becoming the website’s No. 1 promoter. “Our traffic/number of website visitors has skyrocketed thanks to the free publicity from the Senator, GMA News and other radio stations,” said the website yesterday.

4) Compare the Phil. situation w/ those of:

a. China

Internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. In accordance with these laws, more than sixty Internet regulations have been made by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government, and censorship systems are vigorously implemented by provincial branches of state-owned ISPs, business companies, and organizations.

The censorship of china is more strict or effective than of our country. They have internet police which is estimated 30,000 or more. Critical information appearing on internet forums, bulletin boards, blogs, vlogs or any major portals such as Sohu and Sina are usually erased within minutes.

b. Singapore

Singapore is in ONI’s nominal category and is not on RSF’s internet enemy list. In Singapore, three people were arrested and charged with sedition for posting racist comments on the Internet, of which two have been sentenced to imprisonment.

I think we have that same strictness more or less. They have freedom rights to speak, but if the information is very scandalous then the government has to stop the owner.

c. Myanmar

Burma (also known as Myanmar) is in ONI’s pervasive category and on RSF’s internet enemy list. Burma has banned the websites of political opposition groups, sites relating to human rights, and organizations promoting democracy in Burma. During the 2007 anti-government protests, Burma completely shut down all internet links from its country.

This country’s internet censorship is very extreme that there is no more freedom to speak. They disallow any information that are against their government. I guess that this is too much for the Phil’s. censorship and the government will not allow this to happen.

          I have learned the core rules of Netiquette. I know that there are things that you should and shouldn’t do while using the internet. I didn’t know that there are actually certian rules.

           I also learned that actually browsing through the policies of a certain website is very, very important. We don’t actually know what they do to the info that they obtained from us.

If I were a doctor in around 20 or 30 years from now, I’m sure the internet is so different from the internet today. We won’t be just limited to the desktop PCs and laptops. Maybe we can access the internet in something smaller than a PDA. For a busy person like a doctor, a pager is always needed because that is their way to communicate each other. A pager is “old fashioned” for most people today. What about in 20 or 30 years from now? It’ll be better if doctors had something small and very useful. SO here’s my “NEXT” Internet thing..

Watches that have a holographic screen and has WiFi. It’s portable, useful and cool.

Technology has been developing really fast and it only gets better. It is we, humans, who are responsible for this development. We do it with purpose and it is to make our lives simpler. Having very fast connections and great computers will surely give us only the best.

If ever I become a nature conservationist and everything become accessible in any place at any time, it would be more easier for me. To begin with, I love nature. It is for us humans to preserve our environment for future generations. With the help of the internet, I would become a more efficient nature conservationist. It is my plan to monitor every street of Antipolo, especially in the Antipolo Proper, if there are any smoke belchers. I believe that these vehicles contribute a lot to pollution. I may check these vehicles and spot their plate numbers by installing hidden cameras. Immediately, this will be reported to the police department and arrest and revoke the licenses of these belching vehicles. In this way, I can help the environment better.

The most important thing I learned from this class is that what we don’t read CAN hurt us. Sites have these policies and terms that you first have to agree with to register for that site’s services. If one decides to ignore the boring blocks of text, you can get into trouble and not know why. The internet has laws, too. Break the rules and it will break you… eventually.

Greetings, fortunate reader! The Internet or the Net (as the young ‘uns would call it) has been greatly developing and could only get better!  I actually thought what it would be like in the future if I were an atheist. Because I found nothing interesting to write, I decided to go with the “band guy”. Now, if I had a band and I lived in an age of omega-internet, our music will be easier to distribute to our listeners. Right now, we have peer-t0-peer programs which enables us to share files. We also have YouTube for videos. In the future we will have a blend of these two. As of now, no easy access medium for music online is available- that is legal. In the not too distant future something like this will emerge. People will be paying for accounts on a monthly basis rather than paying per song. It’s going to be all good and legal.

One very difficult task for rising bands is exposure. You may have a decent enough band but without the proper handling and initial fan base, you’re just stuck playing in a garage forever. YouTube is probably one of the better ways to attain popularity but think about it. Who goes to YouTube in search for up-and-coming bands? An amateur, music, web-based, listening station may emerge.  This would put some really good local bands up there with the established ones.