SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.
NZ’S WEB FILTER
The digital child exploitation filtering system was introduced in March 2010 to make it more difficult to access child sex abuse images online.
Run by the Department of Internal Affairs, it blocks web users from accessing sites that are known to contain images or videos of child sex abuse. [Read more…]
The world’s largest and most popular internet sites are in secret discussions to create a system that could wipe child abuse images from the web.
Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Twitter and at least three other companies have signed up to, or are talking about, the project which would lead to the creation of a single database.
The project is an unprecedented industry-wide effort to deal with paedophiles sharing abuse images on the web. Industry sources told theTimes newspaper in London that some of the companies had signed secrecy agreements and there had been tense negotiations for about nine months.
It’s believed silence was required to ensure the “rival companies could have frank discussions about the topic”, the newspaper said.
The database of the “worst of the worst” images will be maintained by Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children.
Executive director of Thorn, Julie Cordua, told the Times that they wanted to clean “this horrific content off platforms” and to identify the victims.
The Los Angeles-based charity was founded by the formerly married actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore.
The companies involved have adopted Microsoft’s PhotoDNA software that creates a “hash” or digital signature on abuse images.
Source
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pornography/news/article.cfm?c_id=283&objectid=10895082
Saturday Jul 6, 2013
A UK sailor has been jailed for 25 years after a shooting spree inspired by a violent video game.
Able Seaman Ryan Donovan had been obsessed with the video game Grand Theft Auto – linked with murders in the US. After being disciplined for disobedience, Donovan told shipmates he was planning a killing frenzy based on the game. He later shot dead an officer and seriously wounded three others (The Guardian, 19/9/11).
Not long afterwards, UK and Swedish researchers identified evidence of “Game Transfer Phenomena”, where some gamers integrate video experiences into their real lives (Daily Mail, 21/9/11). The study involved 42 in-depth interviews with participants ages 15 to 21, all of whom were frequent video gamers.
Almost all had experienced some type of involuntary thoughts in relation to video games, and half sought to use something from a video game to resolve a real-life issue. [Read more…]
The just released 2009/10 Annual Report of the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) has highlighted a computer game that the Office has recently banned. In its summary of reasons for the decision it states:
“The game presents still images and text that legitimises sexual violation and rape in a manner that is intended to sexually arouse the player who takes on the role of a rapist who preys primarily on school girls… Sexual violation and rape are essential to complete the game in its entirety”.
The Society considers it important that the public be made aware of the nature of the objectionable corrupting publications that are being produced for the commercial market by hard core pornographers and others bent on profiteering by the exploitation of people with addictions to moral vices etc.
The public needs to learn about the vital role played by our Classification Office to ensure that such morally corrupting material that injures the “public good” is banned. For this reason it has sought over the last ten years to recommend quality, well-qualified people for nomination to the Film and Literature Board of Review that deals with appeals against classification decisions issued by the OFLC.
The fallout over a music video depicting the stalking and killing of women is taking a toll on New Zealand rapper Derty Sesh, his record label says.
The video, for Derty Sesh’s second single, Forever, was pulled from YouTube by Move The Crowd Records this week, at the same time the censor’s office began a classification process for the video.
For more see NZPA Report:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/3542326/Derty-Sesh-exhausted-from-backlash