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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