<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css">
<!--
@page { margin: 2cm }
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm }
A:link { so-language: zxx }
-->
</style>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
Hong Kong SAR Government conducted the phase one of a review of the
Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (<font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.coiao.gov.hk/">www.coiao.gov.hk</a></u></span></font>)
in the end of 2008 to early 2009. The further control of such
materials on the “new media” was a major part of the
consultation, and also caught the biggest share of attention from the
public, as well as concerned parents. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="zh-TW"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Among
the government “proposals” (despite that the authority denied
that these are actual proposals but merely information provided for
consideration) were mandatory filtering at the ISP level, age
verification using credit cards, and similar ideas which made
Internet users, journalists, human rights advocates etc all very
concerned. Internet Society Hong Kong (ISOC-HK) took on the leading
role of organizing Internet users, Internet service providers and
other NGOs against measures that may become tools of censorship by
government. I and other folks at ISOC-HK attended over 20 forums and public meetings
organized by various groups including all the official government
consultation forums and relevant focus group meetings, and other
meetings organized by associations, schools, universities, churches
and youth associations. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="zh-TW"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">We
worked with the local IT and Internet community to unite in telling
the Government that technically such filters at the Internet service
providers level was a plain bad idea. However, the Government
initially insisted that mandatory filtering at the ISP level is a
viable option, and that the Australian government has legislated to
such effect. After we conducted detailed research and made contact
with EFF Australia to find out the exact situation down under, we had
been able to rebut the government's false claims, forcing it to at
least stop misleading the public by saying that such methods were
viable and implemented in Australia. This experience has convinced
me that it is of the utmost importance for the global Internet
governance concern communities to share accurate and up-to-date
information about various issues, and be able to dispute false claims
by our respective governments with authority. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="zh-TW"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">In
order to back up our lobbying effort and provide sufficient
background and arguments for building public awareness, I have
written extensively on this topic (mostly in Chinese) with over 20
articles appearing in various newspapers and magazines, and been
interviewed by print, electronic and online media numerous times on
this issue. ISOC-HK also organized a number of forums and invited
the responsible government officials to join us. Generally ISOC-HK
took the role of the users in this issue, but we worked very closely
with the Internet and IT industry, including the Internet access and
online service providers. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="zh-TW"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Of
course, we do not consider it sufficient to simply say no to any
attempt to control, and refuse to provide any alternative solutions.
Working with the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (of
which I was an ex-chairman) and the Hong Kong Council of Social
Services (the alliance of social service organizations and NGOs
here), we came up with the proposal for “Parental Control on the
Internet,” consisting of the sourcing and development of an
open-source filtering program which we hope to be provided for free
or nominal charges to any parents on a voluntary basis, with the
establishment of a sustainable body for coming up with and
maintaining a community blacklist of pornographic links, with the
participation of parents, teachers and social workers, with
transparent operations and appeal mechanisms. We are in the process
of engaging the stakeholders and obtaining the necessary financial
resources for this program. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="zh-TW"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Some
of the written materials on this subject in English: </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ISOC-HK
Response to the Review of the Control of Obscene and Indecent
Articles Ordinance –
</span><font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://www.isoc.hk/ISOC-HK-COIAO-final-response.doc"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.isoc.hk/ISOC-HK-COIAO-final-response.doc</span></a></u></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Hong
Kong's Latest ICT Initiative: Project Net Respect (Published in
Computerworld Hong Kong, April 2008):
<font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://charlesmok.blogspot.com/2008/04/hong-kongs-latest-ict-initiative.html">http://charlesmok.blogspot.com/2008/04/hong-kongs-latest-ict-initiative.html</a></u></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">An
'Obscene' Hyperlink? –
<font color="#000080"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://charlesmok.blogspot.com/2007/05/obscene-hyperlink.html">http://charlesmok.blogspot.com/2007/05/obscene-hyperlink.html</a></u></span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="zh-TW"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
HKSAR government will move on to the second phase of the
consultation, likely in August or September, and in this phase they
will probably list out one or more actual government proposals for
public comment. We will have to prepare for the worst – such that
they will attempt to implement stricter control including mandatory
ISP-level filtering that was mentioned – in light of the worrying
trends of such attempts in other countries such as Australia,
Germany, China, etc.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="zh-TW"><br>
</p>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 2:46 PM, Rimon Levy <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Rimon@sapir.ac.il">Rimon@sapir.ac.il</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Following Sivasubramanian request:<br>
<br>
In Israel, a bill proposal (declared to aim "the protection of<br>
children") was submitted 3 years ago, proposing to make mandatory for<br>
ISP to filter any content on "gambling, violence and pornography" - the<br>
original proposal even included the need for any user to identify<br>
himself biometrically as an adult every time he asked to access such<br>
content. After many protests, leaded by ISOC-IL, a more moderated<br>
version was approved on first call (to be accepted, a law in Israel must<br>
be pass 3 votes in the parlament), 2 years ago. The bill in its actual<br>
form does not mention biometrical identification, but still is opt-out<br>
(that means that the default for ISP is to provide filtered content).<br>
And the wording permits the Ministry of Communications to nominate the<br>
commission that will decide on filtering policy and the mechanism [Rimon<br>
Levy] of identifying an adult (and potentially permitting him later to<br>
use biometrical identification).<br>
ISOC-IL is making every effort to avoid the apoval of the proposed bill,<br>
and offering an alternative self regulation model. We hope that in the<br>
next month we will able to crystalise an agreement between ISPs and<br>
content providers that will provide a voluntary mechanism to protect<br>
children from offensive content without the need of government<br>
regulation<br>
<br>
Rimon Levy. ISOC-IL<br>
<br>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
---------<br>
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 12:43:50 +0530<br>
From: Sivasubramanian Muthusamy <<a href="mailto:isolatedn@gmail.com">isolatedn@gmail.com</a>><br>
Subject: [Chapter-delegates] content filtering around the world.<br>
Could Chapter-delegates write in on this thread about what is happening<br>
on<br>
the Content Filtering front in their countries with what they feel about<br>
similarities ( though other Governments wouldn't issue directives like<br>
how<br>
China did) of the underlying software of the China Green Dam Youth<br>
Escort,<br>
to gain a global perspective on content filtering?<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Chapter-delegates mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Chapter-delegates@elists.isoc.org">Chapter-delegates@elists.isoc.org</a><br>
<a href="http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates" target="_blank">http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><a href="http://www.charlesmok.hk">www.charlesmok.hk</a> <br>