Censorship Will Not Depart

Content in Moderation: Is Digital Censorship Messing with the Arts?

Algorithms cannot do the work of the morally outraged

Kate Solomon | March 30, 2015

For anyone who spent their youth staring wistfully through the windows of record shops, longing for Saturday's trip to the library or taping films from the TV, the smorgasbord of culture available at our fingertips is literally a dream come true. But for some, it causes the internet's biggest problem. If lack of funds isn't a problem and there's no human gatekeeper to ID or refuse service, how can parents be sure their children aren't watching, reading or listening to explicit films, music and books?

This article is part of the spring 1987 issue of the global quarterly Index on Censorship magazine. Source: https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2015/09/my-book-and-the-school-library-norma-klein/  

It's a question that is being answered in various ways, all of which come with their own set of problems. In the UK, ISP-level website blockers are now in place to stop children stumbling across adult sites - you can turn them off but you'll have to ask. Netflix has a gated "just kids" section featuring only child-friendly films and TV shows. Most TV services come with a PIN number system to stop curious young minds from accessing potentially disturbing shows on demand. Social networks rely on a combination of automated processes, human moderation and users flagging up inappropriate content.

<more at http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/content-in-moderation-is-digital-censorship-messing-with-the-arts--1289740; https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2015/09/my-book-and-the-school-library-norma-klein/ (My book and the school library: Norma Klein. Norma Klein, the American writer of children's books, describes how she successfully defended her Confessions of an Only Child before a school board meeting. September 23, 2015) and http://www.cnet.com/news/support-banned-comics-on-humble-bundle/ (Support censored comics with this deal for Banned Books Week. Name your price for banned and challenged titles by Alan Moore, Wendy Pini, Garth Ennis, Julie Doucet and more, as part of the Forbidden Comics Humble Bundle. September 24, 2015)>