Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Through A Glass Darkly

Paul Syvret's Perspectives piece reveals two fundamental flaws in the writer's logic.

One comes in the fifth column where he writes:

"Some of us are quite comfortable viewing explicit non-violent erotica at home. Others are offended by topless sunbaking on the each. Each to their own. If you don't like it, don't look".
One needs to explain to Mr Syvret the fundamental difference between a public and private place. At home is private, at the beach is a public place. If a flasher takes up position outside a school what would he instruct children? If you don't like it, don't look?

The second is regarding the level of supervision Mr Syvret assumes parents can reasonably assert.

As an example, parents with a 17yo son might be quite happy for him to download 'explicit non-violent erotica' to view on the shared family computer and be less happy for their 12 year old daughter to see it as she was looking for her own downloaded files.

Would Mr Syvret bar the 12 year-old from using the computer? Or would he bar the 17yo from surfing the net without his supervision? Whose rights trump whose in his worldview?

No one, not even the Prime Minister, as Mr Syvret admits, is calling for filters to be mandatory, just made available at either the PC or server level for any one who feels the need to install them.

Perhaps Mr Syvret should take his own advice:

If you don't like it, don't look at it.

-- Nora

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