From: Stephen.Michaud@f390.n514.z17.illusion.tpg.org (Stephen Michaud)
Newsgroups: alt.censorship
Subject: I saw this on a local BBS.
Date: 24 Jan 93 07:57:00 GMT

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***   Log start at 02:13am on  1-23-93
***     Connected to: Slipper BBS

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1/100        [2] Local General Discussions
Title:       To all concerned BBS'ers
Special:     Permanent
Origin:      Slippery Nipples (Canada) [514-466-0621]

ATTENTION ALL!!!  The following article appeared in the Gazette on July
30.  It is necessary for all bbs users to know that certain people want
to control what we do.

              COMPUTER-WISE CHILDREN TAPPING INTO PORNOGRAPHY

ST CATHERINES, ONT. - Computer-wise kids in Canada may be getting a
education their parents never dreamed of.
          At this moment, children are firing up their computers and
using telephones to patch into a vast network of files available for free.
          What's at their fingertips would shock even hardened purveyors
of pornography.
          Computer sex has arrived.
          Throughout Canada, thousands of public access bulletin boards
are thriving and anyone with a modem and phone line can connect with the
boards and use files for their own use.
          Many of the boards, operated by hobbyists through their home
computers offer  explicit photographs and stories ranging from topless
women to bondage and bestiality.
          Most of it is easily accessible to kids who are as comfortable
with computers as their parents are uneasy.  The phenomenon has
lawmakers, police and even Bell Canada feeling helpless.
          "There is a big demand (for porn)," says Hugh Mitchell, a
doctor who runs his own bulletin board, and is fed up with porn files.
"Unfortunately, too much."
           Tony Brandon, who runs Towne Crier, one of the oldest
bulletin boards in this southern Ontario cities, has banned porn on his
system.  He decided to restrict users could send to his eight year old
board when the softcore images of the mid-1980s became increasingly
graphic.
           After he banned the porn, he said, the average age of his
board users jumped several years, from 12 - 14 to 19 - 20. Brandon sees
that as proof the main consumers are young teens.
           Some boards try to screen users accessing adult files, but
Brandon found kids simply lied about their ages.  Many system operators
offer instant acces to their programs with few age or identification
checks.
           On a recent week day, two reporters from the St. Catherines
Standard newspaper, easily got access to adult files on local boards -
images ranging from softcore centerfolds to hardcore images pushing the
legal limits of obscenity.
           Police say it is difficult to lay charges because most of the
files other than bestiality, childporn or de-humanizing, violent or
degrading material - are legal under the Criminal Code.  In addition, it
is difficult from where the files - many from the United States -
originate, says Insp. Ray Johns of the Winnipeg Police Force.
           The rapid advancement of computer technology has caught
police, lawmakers, and anti-porn organizations off guard.
           Project P, a unit of the Ontario Provincial Police and Metro
Toronto Police, that investigates pornography and hate literature says
there is nothing the unit can do about computer porn available to kids.
           That's what frightens Mark Jefferies, a city resident who was
shocked recently, to find a colour photo, depicting two women engaged in
bestiality, on a local bulletin board his 15-year-old son connects with.
           "That's going too far," said Jefferies.  "It sickens me."
           Fearful parents can forget about complaining to Bell Canada.
The phone company has been told by the Canadian Radio-Television and
Telecommunications Commision that censorship won't be tolerated.
           A recent attempt by Bell to axe it's 976 service - after
complaints from parents over phone sex services - was shot down by the
federal regulator.
           "We're the medium, not the message," says Bell spokesman Ruth
Foster.  "We're not supposed to influence that communication at all or
control it in any way."
           Meantime, kids are using computers in ways their parents
never imagined.  For example, one St. Catherines board run by a high
school student has photos of naked women, among those of Goofy, Mickey
Mouse, and Roger Rabbit.
           The student is trying to clear all the adult files from his
computer bulletin board after complaints from female users, But he can't
kep pace with users who keep sending pornographic files.
           Problems like that prompt calls for legislation requiring
boards to be licensed to stem kids' access to computer porn.
           But Det-Sgt. Bob Matthews of Project P. said local computer
owners could simply phone Australia or anywhere else in the world and
get access to porn.
           Canadain universities are also wrestling with pornography on
their computer systems.  The University of Manitoba recently yanked
offensive files from a computwer network it is connected to after word
got out about stories and photographs that included child pornography
and women hanging from chains.
           Other universities across the country, including Brock in St.
Catherines, still carry the files but are in a quandary about what to do
with the offensive files.

                             * * * * * * * *

It is disturbing that certain people believe that responsibilty
of their children belongs with us, the SysOps.  Yet again, a segment of
the population wants to legislate society's morals.  I agree that age
checks are a necessary evil but how can SysOps be held accountable for
the lies told by certain users?  What happened to the responsibility of
parents in the upbringing of their offspring?

        Imagine that boards are already legislated and regulated.  You
have paid your tax, or the SysOp has paid the tax for the license and
all the user information has been verified by a governmental department
after a long delay for validation.  You try to log on one day, only to
find that because a teenager said he was eighteen and a complaint was
made, to find that your favourite board has lost it's license and is no
more.

         Keep public boards public.  Write your Member of Parliament.
Upload this message to other boards you call.  Don't sit back and have
your recreation strangled in bureaucratic paper nightmare.

                                Madame X
                                Co-SysOp
                                The Ferrets Byte BBS
                                (514) 672-3986