This post will be in English, as I am so fuious, that I want all of my friends to understand it!
New apartment in Jerusalem. The landlord already had an internet connection and some internet services. One of them is I n t e r n e t R i m o n. For those who don't know it provides so-called and self-declared kosher internet. It means that it claims to block porno-pedo-violence-etc web site. Well, do you remember www.ilmacom (on blogspot), my other blog? Well THAT website is blocked. I have no access to it even from my blogger profile.
Unless of course I connect to a hotspot or to someone's unsecure connection, that doesn't have Internet Rimon, which seems to be pretty difficoul in the area we are living.
All of this made me think that:
1) I have to speak with the landlord.
2) People are really wierd, in thinking that if someone takes decisions for you and choose what you have to watch, you are safe. And that's how the world should go.
3) People pretend not to see that there are loads of way to go around the limits you put to yourself, not to speak about those others are giving to you.
Surfing on the web, I've found lots of positive comments about web filters, especially from parents. Teenagers' parents but even parents of 3 year old children. Now we have a three years old. A part from the fact that we would never leave him alone in front of the internet, we tend to think that, even if he is very intelligent, he still can barely recognise the letters: how can he surf the web??
As regards teenagers... well... we don't have yet teen kids, so I don't want to pretend to know how it is, but still, shouldn't be better not be lazy and try to speak/work/teach our children, especially when the are growing up into adults. I mean, we all know we can say thousands of time to a teenager "put your helmet on when you drive your scoooter", then we will never know wether he will do it when s/he is alone around the corner. And of course we can choose not to buy him/her a scooter at all, but this will never mean he will go on someoneelse's scooter with or without helmet. Why should internet be different?
Finally, a general note. People are afraid of their teenager (or themselves) bumping into a "strange" website. Bumping? I have been using internet for the past two decades. It never happened to me to bump unintentionally into a "strange" website. Of course Mr. Google results may be not always fit to all ages and purposes, but it doesn't take a long to realise it.
Dont' you think education would work more then censorship?
