Detweiler clone at WSJ

The drumbeat against all those anonymous pedophiles continues....

_Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY by Walter S. Mossberg
"Keeping Your Kids Away From Creeps As They Play Online"

(...Talk about striking up electronic friendships online ...)

But there's a dark side to this exciting phenomenon, one 
that's too rarely understood by computer novices.  Because they
offer instant access to others, and considerable anonymity to
participants, the services make it possible for people - 
especially computer-literate kids - to find themselves in 
unpleasant, sexually explicit social situations (Sex-ed sessions 
led by Joycelyn Elders?)

The online services all have rules banning bad conduct and,
fearing possible government-imposed restrictions, have stepped 
up the policing of online abuse. But parents could do more to
protect kids from these disturbing situations.  And I've gradually
come to adopt the view, which will be controversial among many online
users (!), that the use of nicknames and other forms of anonymity
must be eliminated or severly curbed to force people online into
at least as much accountability for their words and actions as 
exists in real social encounters.

(.. More talk about how your kid might [gasp!] download a "hardcore
pornographic photo" [This guy should see the stuff on the newstands
in Amsterdam!]...)

Beyond that, I think it's time now for the services to jettison the
long tradition of allowing members to hide behind "handles" or 
nicknames.  In general people should conduct themselves online
under their real names, or not at all.  IN THE SAME VEIN, I THINK THE
SERVICES SHOULD DELAY GRANTING NEW MEMBERS ACCESS FOR 24 OR 48 HOURS
...WHILE THEY VERIFY THAT THE APPLICANTS ARE REALLY WHO THEY SAY THEY
ARE ... (emphasis mine). 

(And some folks thought that Brady-style fascism would only be applied
to "gun-nuts"!  Won't be long before you have to have a license to 
drive on the information superhighway.)

(Article continues with more of same.  Lambasts AOL. Talks about "the 
most dangerous forms of communication," etc.)


-------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't comment on NSA threatening Bidzos because dog bites man is
not news. If you annoy the Nazis in power and they can get away 
with it they will kill you.  

BTW: The current _New Republic_ contains a story about an Oxford 
student being threatened by the Secret Service over a much more 
trivial matter.
 



Brad Dolan says:
> 
> The drumbeat against all those anonymous pedophiles continues....
> _Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94
> PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY by Walter S. Mossberg
> "Keeping Your Kids Away From Creeps As They Play Online"

They aren't the only ones talking about it. I've seen three articles
about this in the past week.

Perry

On Fri, 1 Jul 1994, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

> Brad Dolan says:
> > 
> > The drumbeat against all those anonymous pedophiles continues....
> > _Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94
> > PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY by Walter S. Mossberg
> > "Keeping Your Kids Away From Creeps As They Play Online"
> 
> They aren't the only ones talking about it. I've seen three articles
> about this in the past week.

	As somebody else has said, this seems to be the Clinton 
Administration's main focus of attack now. Since pedophiles/child abuse 
is such a hot-button issue, they're harping on it quite strongly. I'm 
almost tempted to try and get an anonymous survey started, to see if we 
can debunk this...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Brandt Handler                                <grendel@netaxs.com> 
Philadelphia, PA                                    <mh7p+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Currently at CMU, Pittsburgh, PA            PGP v2.6 public key on request
Boycott Canter & Siegel                <<NSA>> 1984: We're Behind Schedule

> > The drumbeat against all those anonymous pedophiles continues....
> > _Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94
> > PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY by Walter S. Mossberg
> > "Keeping Your Kids Away From Creeps As They Play Online"

Does anyone have Mossberg's email address?  I tried to guess a hostname, 
but wsj.com, dowjones.com and dj.com all do not exist.

I'd like to suggest a couple of things to Mossberg to go along with his 
ban on anonymity:

1)  Mandatory Caller ID.  Not Calling Number ID, but Caller ID, where all 
new phones sold after January 1, 1995 are required to have a smart-card 
reader which verifies the identity of the caller and transmits that to 
the called party.

2)  Mandatory licensing of print media, from photocopied fliers to 
scholarly journals.  Licensed publications would agree to accept material 
for publication only when accompanied by either a notarized statement of 
identity or a digital signature from the same smart-card used for #1.

3)  And, of course, to stamp out anonymity in face-to-face encounters, 
all subjects would be required to carry their smart-card at all times and 
present it upon demand by anyone.

There!  That should protect us from all the creeps in the world.  Of 
course, there will be a few anarchist crybabies who will call these 
measures fascist, and a few victims of the new openess, but this is a 
small price to pay for the protection of our children from all the freaks 
and motherfuckers of the world.

--- davehart@eskimo.com

> _Wall Street Journal_, 6/30/94

> Beyond that, I think it's time now for the services to jettison the
> long tradition of allowing members to hide behind "handles" or 
> nicknames.  In general people should conduct themselves online
> under their real names, or not at all.

The sound-bite response to this: do you want your child's name, home
address, and phone number available to all those lurking pedophiles
worldwide?  Responsible parents encourage their children to use
remailers.

   Eli   ebrandt@hmc.edu

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In list.cypherpunks, bdolan@well.sf.ca.us writes:

> (And some folks thought that Brady-style fascism would only be applied
> to "gun-nuts"!  Won't be long before you have to have a license to 
> drive on the information superhighway.)

More than a year ago, there was a brief flurry of concern in the Twin
Cities about porn on the BBS'.  I actually attended a meeting with a
bunch of ops and a state senator.  It was kinda humorous... the senator
really didn't have a clue what a BBS was, and the sysops had called her
to inquire about any possible legislation.

The down side was that licensing was mentioned as the first recourse
from the state.  When we complained of the financial hit, the talk
turned to registration.  But the sense was clearly toward proactive
state control.

There was a TV crew at the meeting.  The bimbette made the state
senator look positively well-informed.  And they didn't interview
me, either.
- -- 
Roy M. Silvernail  []  roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org

                          It's just this little chromium switch.......

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