Who's responsibile for protecting children from the evils on the Internet? As with many issues in Taiwan, there's a great deal of buck passing both morally and financially.

According to a report by (Taipei Times), local legislators are asking Chunghwa Telecom, the nation's leading ADSL provider, to offer a free filter for online porn or FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!

The legislators say they will ask people to "stop subscribing to the company's service". Yeah, that will work. Just like any vibrant democracy, there are a lot of mixed feelings about swallowing what the Government says. This may be especially true in this case as Chunghwa provides great service at reasonable prices. I use it myself, getting 8M for about 30 bucks, yo.

So, any eventual government prodding is likely to have little effect on whether people use Chunghwa or not.

What would be nice is if this action raises awareness here of something pretty obvious worldwide these days: There's probably a zillion minors being subjected to or seeking out porn right this minute. Ultimately, the best hope is that this will inspire parents in Taiwan to be more diligent about paying attention to what their kids are doing.

The article cites a survey: "More than 40 percent of the surveyed population spent 1 to 3 hours online daily. Close to 84 percent of children use the Internet at home."

That's a lot of young people probably getting blitzed with inappropriate pop-ups.

However, for argument's sake, let's say: "OK, it's the service provider's responsibility to make a technology available for parents who want to protect their kids from porn."

Chunghwa says its average customer is paying about 22-27 bucks a month for ADSL. The filtering service will cost an additional... wait for it... whopping 3 BUCKS A MONTH. Um, if you are concerned about your kids and their exposure to harmful content, don't you think you can fork that out?

The company also says it is giving the filtering service away to "families facing financial difficulties". Though this is an admittedly minor point in the whole scheme, I can't see even if you are just getting by but still paying for the service, how another 3 bucks is going to break you. Still, it's a nice gesture by Chunghwa.

In sum, how do we feel about this? Break it down:

Government raising awareness: Good

Likelihood of threat working: Fair (depending on how much of a PR problem the company expects to have. Much of local political bluster tends to be ignored)

Anyone expecting people to drop the service because the Government says so: Overly optimistic

Is Chunghwa doing the right thing?: It should really examine the cost structure of the filtering service.Though no company wants to be bullied, if they see that the capital they can gain in terms of public goodwill and trust outweighs the cost of just giving the service away, I say go for it

More to come.
-jag

 

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