Now, lets try to stay away from snide remarks please.
Pedophiles DO get caught online, and prosecuted. Pedophilia IS illegal, and the web has been used many times to trap pedophiles. I forget what it was, but there was some exposee show that had a whole series of half hour or so segments on how pedophiles were caught online, and arrested and prosecuted.
This has no relation to demanding that all bloggers explain their relationship to the items/people/businesses they blog about.
It wouldn’t do anything to my bottom line to do so, every player knows this already. I don’t mind putting it there at all. That is NOT the point.
The point is that government wants to regulate the exchange of information. Information empowers people and takes power away from the government.
These sort of things are all about precedent. Once precedent for regulation is set, it will grow and grow and grow.
We pay hundreds of politicians to do nothing but think up more laws. What pleasure to have a new stomping ground for them.
The web encourages people to think for themselves. What is correct, what they read on uncle Billy’s blog or what the mainstream media said? This can only be a good thing.
Opening the door to regulation of how we communicate online is very counterproductive for humanity as a whole. The web is where people mingle who never would do so otherwise. Nationality, race, looks, gender, age, disabilities and what have you – none of it matters. The web is the single biggest thing that happened in history that has the potential to cut down barriers between people and unify us.
Controlling people is all about controlling communication, and this control is slipping away from governments and they are and will be trying every which way to gain control back.
The internet should not be regulated. Period. Using it to look for criminals such as your pedophiles is perfectly fine, it is a tool for law enforcement in that case. Imposing laws on the freedom of communication that exists is NOT ok.
I oppose this vehemently and as a principle, and not because it bothers me to add a two line disclaimer to my blogs. Thats no big deal at all, but setting precedent for controlling communication on the web is a huge no-no in my book.