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British Lawmaker Proposes Movie-Style Ratings for All Web Sites

by Terrence O'Brien on December 30, 2009 at 07:30 AM

U.K. Cultural Secretary to Push for Internet Ratings and Censorship
The cultural secretary of the U.K., Andy Burnham, has proposed a series of measures to make the Internet "child-safe." Of course, Burnham's proposals amount to little more than censorship and unrealistic suggestions that involve establishing a rating system, like that used for video games and movies, for all Web sites.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph Burnham said he planed to present his proposals to the Obama administration that would establish international standards for English-language Websites. Burnham suggests forcing ISPs to offer services with restricted access to kid-safe content and establishing an industry wide "take-down-time" for sites to remove offensive or dangerous content from their pages.

The cultural secretary is quoted as saying:
"There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it."
Which sounds a lot like censorship-happy U.S. politicians like Joe Lieberman and John Ashcroft (former attorney general who covered the bare breast of the Spirit of Justice at the Justice Department). The Internet is one of the last bastions of free, uncensored exchanges and information, and if Obama's stated positions and transition team are any indication, these proposals will never make it off the pages of the Telegraph. [From: The Daily Telegraph, Via: Techtree]

Tags: andy burnham, AndyBurnham, censorship, internet, politics, ratings

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