BAN THIS SICK FILTH!
Today's Peninsula covers the porn symposium at the Sheraton yesterday. "During lively questions and answer sessions yesterday it was pointed by some participants that there were an estimated 600 pornographic channels which mainly targetted the youth in the GCC."
Erm. Where are these channels? I've been through the channel line-ups from Lyngsat, and Hotbird seems to be the only major satellite that transmits porn to the region. To pick up those porn channels, not only would you need to align your dish to the satellite, but you'd also need to import a receiver and pay a subscription fee. None of the porn channels are free-to-air, so you'd have to try pretty hard to view them by mistake. From what I understand, it's not even legal to sell a Hotbird subscription in Qatar.
So, what are these porn channels from which youth need protecting. It turns out they are horoscopes, video request shows, SMS chatlines, and the like. One of the speakers at the conference said such programmes should be fought tooth and nail as they ... are detrimental to social well-being and progress. Hmm.
Two points immediately spring to mind. First, don't let your kids watch rubbish TV. Second, if the attendees at the conference have watched these programmes and disliked them, surely it's likely that their kids will eventually get a bit older and think the chat-lines are rubbish too.
um, anyone who wants money?
Seriously I could get into a debate here where this 'filth' isn't actually that big of a deal, but i'm guessing i'd have people throwing internet rocks at me so I won;t....
instead, I'll just quote Trudeau again:
The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.
They are trying to show the 'Inner side' to the pervert westerners, I think so....LOL. Look at the titles of the shows, usually something like, 'Arab Sex', Arabian Nights...etc etc. Had enough of this BS in my previous house. It had taken almost 2 hrs to childlock or delete all of them.
Well, I wonder, who makes such material in a religiously tight closed society?
Life is never boring, but some people choose to be bored.... Boredom is a choice. - Wayne W.
Most of the time the nation are travelling... they can hook up to whatever they want to watch when they are on one of their endless holidays overseas....
At least leave the "dirty channels" for the perverted westerners, while we keep the country running....;-)
"if you don't like the heat... get out of the kitchen... but stop trying to fan the flames before you leave... it will burn you on the a** as you go through the doorway...." ME
visit www.qaws.org
"therefore take appropriate action"
correction. should be read as "Precautionary Action" :)
Ban Spoon Feeding not Me
Egads! Whatever happened to, oh I don't know, taking responsibility for yourself and your own children?
How bout this- instead of a big brother like object telling us all NOT to watch dirty movies on our computers, you decide you don't want to do it yourself and avoid those sites? And you actually talk to your kids and monitor what they do online so they don't go either?
It's called parenting people, and it shouldn't be the realm of government. To quote the Greatest Man Ever: the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.
It's a bandwagon that is gaining momentum in seemingly liberal democracies. The aussies started off by saying they were going to ban child porn sites, but then added that they'd also censor the internet for other inappropriate content. "Inappropriate" hasn't been clearly defined, but would probably be the sort of stuff you didn't want kids seeing.
Anyway, as an adult, you'd have to opt-in to see this adult content. Which no one's going to do, because it makes you look like a pervert. So, effectively, Canberra will reverse the 1960's cultural revolution in one flick of the switch.
What's even worse is that when they tested the filtering systems, they found that the software decreased the speed of web surfing by 21 to 86 percent, falsely blocked 10 percent of safe sites, and didn't filter peer-to-peer networks, rendering the system pretty ineffectual at blocking child porn.
And that's why the internet is slow in Qatar.
I'm just wondering why so many people here seem OK with governement controls on what they look at, read, listen to, whatever. I'm thinking more internet than tv in this country, where even some google searches and wikipedia articles are blocked because some censor thought it was filthy (try googling many health related issues and you won't be able to access them!).
Now, recently back home in Canada, the government tried to pull something like that, by trying to pass a bill restricting where governement funding for arts would go- basically the government would deny funding to movies, tv shows, art works, etc that it found distastefull. Problem was they wouldn't really define distasteful, and one persons filth is another persons statue of David. Canadians were up in arms about this very insinuation that the government woudl censor something- i'm baffled why people here aren't more upset.
I get it if you're trying to screen out hardcore p0rn, but where does it end?
As soon as I stop getting paid for being here, I'm off. Also, if the Arabs want t be controlled then let them be controlled but I really think that those poor kids in DR Congo could do with a warm meal and a cup of tea.
Porn Symp ... big deal
Actually it's quite an open agenda, and it's not controlling "everybody's" life, it's only controlling arab's lives, if u can't live with it don't come to Arab countries, it's your choice, ur still free.
But don't get me wrong, I'm against banning anything, I fully acknowledge the role of freedom of speech, press and art in educating people and giving them more mental maturity and more tolerance to other people's cultures.
But that's not the point here, the point is if the people of this country agree to being controlled to this level, it's their choice, us expats can only watch and abide; or leave and start complaining about our own countries. I'm sure everyone's country is full of deeper crap than this subject...
If you don't like watching TV, switch it off. Why are they trying to control every bit of everyones life. Or is there a hidden agenda here?
What will be acheived if there is no porn on the ai? Will the world be a better place? Will the starving children in Africa receive some food as a result of this ignoble action? Will the child laborers in India be released and sent to school because of this jamboree?
I really think that the money spent on the symposium would have been better spent on trying to get some food to those poor kids in DR Congo that are being chased by the rebels.
Hotbird there are i think on nilesat too.
and the parents have much time to watch serial or some documentry and cookery shows and fashion and sport but dont have time to lock those filthy channels. dont blame the satellites for that.look at yourself first.
Just read the article - the main body talks about horoscope channels, sms-to-tv chat etc which is not pr0n but definately falls into my catergory as mind-numbing...
But the "journalist" either sucked 600 pr0n channels out of the air or couldn't construct the phrase "morally degenerate channels" which is proably what the rest of the article indicates
Most satellite receivers have parental locks, where you can restrict channels with a password. If people are particularly concerned by their kids watching chatlines or even, indeed, reality TV shows, they should lock those channels.
In the 1970s, there was an old lady called Mary Whitehouse who used to complain about filth on British TV. As far as I was concerned, it was far more entertaining watching her rant on the news than sitting through an hour-long TV play just to see two men kiss.
Yes, the TV is to blame for the corruption of children, not the parents. Right. Offhand, I could think of 5 other things that are corrupting children instead of TV. Anyway, it is simple. Children don't go out and buy satellite dishes and subscriptions. If these things are so bad, why are they in the parent's house? That's like buying a dirty magazine, bringing it home and placing it on the living room table, then crying about how dirty magazines are "corrupting our youth!" What a joke.