Thailand to block e-pornography by year-end



Bangkok (dpa) - Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Friday vowed to block all access to website pornography by year-end, although details on how the government will do so remain fuzzy.



Watana Muangsook, Thai Minister of Social Development and Human Services, told reporters that the prime minister had instructed him to find the means to block access to Internet porn by the end of December.



The minister will hold a meeting on November 30 with various Internet related authorities such as the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry to discuss means of carrying out the prime minister's instructions.



Watana estimated that there are currently 800,000 foreign websites available in Thailand, of which one third carry pornographic images.



Thailand is mulling a cyber-crime bill that would make posting pornography illegal.



End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), a leading child's rights protection group, earlier this month launched a report on cyber-abuse of children that called on governments and the e-industry to clean up the 3 to 20 billion dollar business in cyberspace child pornography which they call child abuse.



In an ECPAT report launched earlier this month in Bangkok, the child protection group listed Thailand as one of the countries with the most pornography sites.



"Of this material, 55 per cent is reported to be generated from the United States and 23 per cent from Russia," said the report, titled "Violence Against Children in Cyberspace. "Most 'free to view' sites were traced to ISPs in Russia, the U.S., Spain, Thailand, Japan and the Republic of Korea," it added.



The group cited the United Kingdom as one of the few countries to take a lead in both legislating against cyberspace child pornography and self-regulating the flow on ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

Does this mean Silom will be leaving Thailand soon?  Oh dear, what are our sweet, innocent boys going to do without his jai dii 17,000B a month contributions?

You really are sounding like a one song Annie.



 

But she sings it so well.

So often one reads about calls to end pornography or prostitution. OK, they're issues on which most adults can argue either way: both positions are defensible (provided its consenting adults, non-violent, etc).



THEN these stories suddenly move on, mid-story/mid-paragraph, to child abuse issues (as does Dr Thorpe's quoted text) - an issue on which all people should find completely indefensible - but my point is: they're entirely seperate issues.



To cut a long story short: this merging of the issues within the text gives an inbedded inference that any pornography or prositiution equates to child abuse.

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Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Friday vowed to block all access to website pornography by year-end, although details on how the government will do so remain fuzzy.

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Are the details as fuzzy as on the plan to end traffic congestion in Bangkok by 2006?

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but my point is: they're entirely seperate issues.

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Exactly. Thank you very much.

 

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__What, Me Worry?
Elephantspike Home Page

these stories rely on sensationalism and little facts.



This sounds particularly odd :



"n an ECPAT report launched earlier this month in Bangkok, the child protection group listed Thailand as one of the countries with the most pornography sites."



I find this statement virtually impossible to believe..the illegal sites are all coming out of the unruly Eastern European countries where authorities have been begging their counterparts in the US & UK to provide monetary assistance  to track down the ISP providers.



I'd be interested to know who comprises ECPAT.

perhaps they are involved in providing the small fortune for the so-called video surveillance of Sunnee Plaza and the wages for it's constant monitoring yet are oblivious to the numbers of glue sniffing kids lollying about there.







 

Edited by: Pearl of the Orient at: 26/11/05 7:38 am

I imagine we will find this crusade as effective as the recent ones against, oh:



traffic

poverty

pushy tailors

short skirts on university girls

display of cigarettes

display of alcohol

teenage sex

overuse of internet cafes by teens



And other ridiculous schemes for micromanagement by this reality-challenged government.



And if not, at least that means the annoying "sexy DVD" boys will finally be banished from Silom.

 

NEW SAWATDEE FORUM EDICT:



No Spaghetti-strap tops are to be worn by any member (especially Pearl)  at the upcoming Forum Piss-up at Memories bar.  

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__What, Me Worry?
Elephantspike Home Page

Edited by: elephantspike2  at: 26/11/05 5:01 am

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And if not, at least that means the annoying "sexy DVD" boys will finally be banished from Silom.

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Actually the "sex vcd dvd" boys were removed during the first Thaksin government anti-porn campaign 2-3 years ago, and Silom road was completely cleared of pornography once and for all. That's what the government said at the time so it must be true.  

the superb campaign against drug pushers..when about 1500 were gunned down. Solved the problem for all time.

especially the 8-year old drug pushers who got gunned down.  But they couldn't prove who shot them- because Thai police guns are not publicly owned, licensed, or on ballistic records!!!

 

All you ever wanted to know and more about ECPAT at www.ecpat.net/eng/index.asp. Their International Secretariat is in Bangkok at  328 Phaya Thai Road, which also seems to be the HQ of the Thai ECPAT group. The ECPAT FAQ page is at www.ecpat.net/eng/CSEC/faq/faq7.asp. Some of the information contained therein seems to be at odds with the facts, at least as they apply in Thailand: "... The sexual abuse of boys is generally ignored or discounted. For example: In Thailand there has been resistance to amendments in the Penal Code that attempt to protect boys as well as girls from rape and/or commercial sexual exploitation. As the laws stand now only a girl or a woman can be raped or exploited."  

There seems to be no ECPAT-affiliated group in Pattaya, according to this website.