April 27, 00. I have new hatemail! One piece is pretty good, the other is pretty nice - a Celine Dion fan with a sense of humour. I'll just link to the guy's site without his comments now it's just too late and I still haven't recovered from the long weekend. I'd make a shockin' Anzac - first sign of an early morning and I'd be throwing myself in front of the bullets. I wonder if that's what Simpson and his donkey were trying to do?
April 10, 00. I used to work for a pornographer.
According to the Sunday Herald-Sun, anyway.
What a beat-up! As I understand it, the 'offensive link' was actually off the ninemsn site that the writer had clicked to from a link from a site linked from the vicnet g&l section (make sense to you?). That's only the first factual error, and while I'd expect as much from the Herald-Sun, I'm shocked that Mary Delahunty, Minister for the Education and the Arts, appears to have fallen for the hype.
There's a link to the full article below, but these are some of my favourite bits:
"One site hijacked internet users, taking them to a continuous series of pornographic sites that could only be
escaped by "rebooting" the computer."
And Vicnet is responsible for this because...?
"Although Vicnet cleaned up its direct links, yesterday it still listed several user groups which offered such
things as "live hardcore amateur sex"."
Unlike any other portal or search site, of course, which never contain links to sites that contain links anywhere else, just in case they link to a porn site, or indeed, a mullet site. Maybe this journalist could write an expose on the rudie pictures in the Yellow Pages 'escort' section.
"But there was still a link to a bondage site. The "Queer Youth" site for young people confused about their sexuality took internet users to a bondage and live sex site."
Y'know, you really don't have to look at it if it bothers you. You were warned, remember?
"Ms Delahunty said it was unclear who posted the links to sex sites. The incident revealed the danger of the internet and the need for vigilance, she said."
Danger? Danger? (The irony is that she's the Member for Northcote, Melbourne's dykiest suburb, and while I could be mistaken, I sense just a little homophobia in all of this).
This knee-jerk response is a terrible example of why the net censorship bill is so wrong. It's not even a case where public opinion is against this content, just a newspaper looking for free publicity, but look how quickly a politician answers their call. Is this going to happen every time a politician is asked to respond to the issue of pornographic content, especially anything to do with queer pornography?
Did the journalist have to provide a list of the links s/he clicked to get to this pornography? Did Vicnet get to respond to the Minister? Will the process of ordering a 'clean up' of internet sites be made open and accountable to the public? How does this relate to the ABA guidelines regarding the proper complaint procedure for Internet content?
More importantly, do I change my resume to read ' 1998-1999 Vicnet - internet pornographer'?
Read the article for yourself or look at Vicnet's gay and lesbian site o' evil.