[LINK] Lock up your kids...

[Rick Welykochy]

Jan Whitaker wrote:

> What I find interesting is that this is out of the Institute of Public 
> Affairs, which I believe is a conservative think tank. These are John 
> Howard's -- um -- friends. More writing on the wall?
> 
> http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/better-to-be-alert-than-netalarmed/2007/09/15/1189277042177.html 
> 
> Better to be alert than NetAlarmed
> Chris Berg
> September 16, 2007
> 
> THE internet will kill your children, or something.
> 
> At least, that is the message of the Federal Government ads plastered on 
> the side of every second tram trundling down Swanston Street.

More politics of fear. Get used to it or rebel.

Michael Duffy did a bit of research into Helen Coonan's claims and wrote an
oped piece on Friday in the SMH. Among the things he found (from memory):

(*) when it is claimed that up to one half of all kids online are approached
     by strangers, that figure includes SPAM emails; a SPAM email or any email
     the came from a stranger unknown to the child was considered a contact

(*) In NSW there has been ONE charge laid against a person for grooming a child
     online for sex in the past two years

(*) Obtaining actual figures and methodologies for these alarming "fear statistics"
     is very difficult

George Orwell would be proud. Our government is buying into the whole
"economy of fear" as promulgated by our American friends. You could do worse
than read Naomi Klein's article in the Good Weekend about the multi-trillion
dollar economy of fear that has replaced the economy of the cold war in the
USA. Seems those yanks always need something to be paranoid about and now
that they have a never ending war with an unidentifiable enemy, 1984 is well
and truly here.

As thinking Australians we must do all we can to avoid following the Americans
into a corporatised culture of fear and ignorance.

cheers
rickw


-- 
_________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas.
      -- Keppel Enderbery