[12911] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: Internet Child Safety -- Suggestions?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Mon May 17 20:34:54 1999
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 18:37:41 -0600
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@well.com>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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FYI France: Internet Child Safety -- Suggestions?
In France there is great and increasing interest in censorship
and child safety on the Internet. The increase in interest is due
most recently to the events in Littleton, Colorado -- Columbine
High School, and "Gothic" websites, and "The Trenchcoat Mafia",
and "how - to - buy - a - gun" and "how - to - build - a - bomb"
online information -- no less in France than in the US. One
benefit and perhaps detriment of global telecommunications is
that events in a place like Littleton now get transmitted
instantly to viewers in Limoges as well as in Los Angeles -- and
they look a lot worse, and a lot more strange and terrifying,
viewed from Limoges.
An entire upcoming number of the national librarians' publication
in France, the "Bulletin des Bibliothe`ques de France" --
http://enssibhp.enssib.fr/Enssib/bbf/bbf.htm
is going to be devoted to "reading electronic information",
including, "the limitation or non-limitation of public access to
the Internet universe (censorship or freedom...)". I am
contributing an article on the subject of Internet censorship in
libraries in the US, and I am putting a special emphasis in what
I write on the issue of child safety. I would like to ask here
for some suggestions.
The French, like Americans and most people most places, have a
variety of motivations for their fears of unbridled digital
information. Child safety is only one among these: to the general
concerns over online violence and pornography and political
extremism, for example, the French add their own local fears
about US cultural and economic domination, the predation and
depredations of US industry, all manner of threats to the
traditionalist French publishing industry, and the loss of the
centralized control which for better or for worse characterizes
so much of what goes on, still, in France.
Balancing these fears, the French -- again like Americans and
others -- also have traditions of civil liberties and free
expression, seen very much as being under attack nowadays by
those in France who would defend them against "censorship",
whether for "child safety" or any other reason.
As part of my BBF article effort, then, I am assembling -- and
will publish in the "free access" area of my www.FYIFrance.com
site -- a Resource List on,
"Restricting the Internet in Libraries: the U.S. model?"
including links to and some excerpted quotations from selected
library "Internet Use Policies" which may be found online.
For this last I would welcome suggestions of sites to include.
There are many hundreds of these now -- many thousands, perhaps
-- I haven't really counted, but there appear to be quite a few.
All cannot be included. But any which have some unique slant or
perspective on the problem being addressed I hope will be. I am
beginning with a list of US sites but will expand this eventually
to include international locations as well -- all would be of
interest for me at least to consider for my BBF article now.
I would be grateful, as well, for any general suggestions and a
chance to correspond a bit -- particularly with librarians, but
really with anyone, anywhere, who has views on the subject.
Again, the general topic is Internet censorship with a focus on
child safety, as exemplified by the recent high school shootings
at Littleton, Colorado, and the firestorm of Internet criticism
which they have engendered.
The French know about all this, and do not want it happening in
their lyce'es, and they worry as much as Americans do that
Internet violence may be a contributory cause to real violence.
Sites which deal with this, and insights into the general problem
and its resolution -- from the US and France and elsewhere --
would be of great interest to me and gratefully received.
A future issue of this FYI France ejournal will announce the
"Internet Use Policy" site and perhaps abstract my BBF article
and show other resources on the topic. So please send in your
thoughts via email to kessler@well.sf.ca.us
--oOo--
For those of you interested in reactions in France to the Kosovo
conflict, I recommend both the commentary and resources at,
http://www.amgot.org/lfd/serbie.htm
--oOo--
And for anyone interested, France now has -- "officially" -- 75
languages, of which 50 are found in the dom-tom but fully 25 are
in use within the hexagone itself:
dialecte allemand d'Alsace et de Moselle, basque, breton,
catalan, corse, flamand occidental, franco - provenc,al,
occitan (gascon, languedocien, provenc,al, auvergnat -
limousin, alpin - dauphinois), langues d'oi:l (franc -
comtois, wallon, picard, normand, gallo, poitevin -
saintongeais, bourguignon - morvandiau), lorrain,
berbe`re, arabe dialectal, yiddish, romani chib (langue
des tsiganes), arme'nien occidental
Is that 25? I am willing to bet that most of you never even have
_heard_ of at least some of these -- "gallo"? -- "poitevin -
saintongeais" is a _language_? See:
http://www.culture.fr/culture/dglf/
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for
// \\ any good purpose, so long as, a) they give me
--------- credit and show my email address, and, b) it
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Use of material written by others requires their permission.
FYI France archives may be found at http://infolib.berkeley.edu
(search fyifrance), or http://www.cru.fr/listes/biblio-fr@cru.fr/
(BIBLIO-FR econference archive), or at http://www.fyifrance.com ,
or at http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/pacs-l.html . Suggestions,
reactions, criticisms, praise, and poison-pen letters all will be
gratefully received at kessler@well.sf.ca.us
Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
all rights reserved except as expressed above.
--hjlm--
