French Minister asks Internet users to help fight child pornography
Written on 11th June 2008
2 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
French politicians have proved that they aren’t afraid to try regulating the web. After adopting a bill that made anorexia promoting websites illegal last April, France now plans to block websites which depict child pornography. Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie asked the help of both ISP’s and Internet users to “protect children and their families from pedophiles”.
Michele Alliot-Marie
Reuters reports that Alliot-Marie’s want to make it possible for Internet users to flag sites that carry child pornography, incitement to terrorism, racial hatred, or attempted fraud. This information is used to create a blacklist, which ISP’s have promised to obey. When a site isn’t hosted in France, the info is passed on to international police agencies Europol and Interpol.
I find it interesting that the French government uses the crowd to trace some of the Internet’s most disgusting content, yet I hope it’s done in a 2.0 style. If people have to fill in two forms and sign them, the whole operation will be pretty useless. A website with a three text fields-form or even better, a bookmarklet, will be more effective alternatives to fight child pornography.
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By Gonzague Dambricourt on Jun 11, 2008
A pishtank-like solution would be appropriate IMHO
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By Bob Boynton on Jun 12, 2008
Bookmarklet — that is a very innovative approach. I like it, but what about an attack of the bookmarklets? Who is going to sort out the wheat from the chaff? No government will pay to sort things out. My government [USA] will not even pay for inspecting the food supply so we have a raging salmonella epidemic. For the politicians it is enough that they are doing something — especially something picked up by the media.
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