Parents actually taking some responsibility and monitoring what they’re kids are looking at on-line? That would mean they would have to come home and spend some quality time with their families. No more late nights with their co-workers at the room salon I guess.

mental image of all those poor kids whose parents never talked to them about sex, in their first DVD room/love motel/wherever experience, or (according to Baduk) on their wedding nights, thinking “hey! where are all the little squares?”

Did the last war end, or is this just a new campaign in an ongoing war? And if the last war did end, who won?

If I thought the government was serious about this, I would be pointing out how inventive people become in finding back doors and ways around technological blockages. (Hell, start up Synaptic Package Manager and install… wait, I won’t mention it in case some MIC flack is reading this.)

Essentially, blocking (mainstream) porn online will present kids not with the impossibility of accessing it, but with greater challenge. A few will figure it out, and the solution will spread like wildfire, and then the tin pot will cool, and it’ll be back to the same-old.

But as the link to my own post suggests, the wider tendency towards internet controls and censorship is worrying. Censorship and Internet filtration is nothing new in Korea, mind you. From the recent Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering, the ROK’s profile is available online:

Although South Korea is the world leader in Internet penetration and broadband penetration, its citizens do not have access to a free and unfiltered Internet. The state imposes a substantial level of filtering for a free and democratic society. It requires ISPs to block sites on government lists and fosters a culture of self-censorship through broadly worded laws that make individuals criminally liable for posting “antistate” content. The state also requires that Korean Web sites engage in a self-rating system, and that ISPs and other Internet access facilities, such as cybercafés and schools, self-police for content deemed harmful to youths. Despite reports that the South Korean government has considered discontinuing its filtering of pro–North Korean Web sites,45 ONI’s testing indicated that the government still filters a large amount of content related to North Korea, as well as a handful of Web sites devoted to gambling and pirated software.

There was no mention of the blog ban or the Kim Sun Il blockage, which counts probably as both political and social filtration, and I’m sure there are other cases of which I’m not aware.

Still, an increase in censorship is not the way to go. As with the arguments over American beef, the real solution would be open, honest discussion and cultivation of dialog… “citizen deliberation,” as Lawrence Lessig describes it in terms of a free society. Instead of cultivating a free society where debate can occur, censorship and filtration strangles it at the roots. All of Korea’s modern governments deserve criticism in this regard, but Lee’s especially seems to be embracing censorship with a vigor unseen for years… which rankles because it’s commonly couched in terms of maturity — “We’re not ready for internet freedom” and ignores the messiness of how societies work out their freedom.

By this logic, car chase scenes should be cut from all movies before going to cinema, in order to discourage reckless driving. How sadly obvious the real causes are, and how pathetic they aren’t addressed.

But you know, Korean politics needs its crackdowns. Low productivity in the workplace, low productivity in the government: the necessary trick for getting away with it is to look like you’re doing something.

Which is less depressing than believing that the whole legislative branch is actually this wrongheaded and inept. Maybe not more realistic, but less depressing.