A law proposal by politician Amnon Cohen, from the ultra-orthodox political party shas, that is supposedly meant to protect kids from the dangers of pornography, violence and gambling sites has passed the primary voting stage in the Israeli Knesset .

The proposed law requires that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) block adult content-based sites (sexual, gambling and violence) from children. As a means to verify one’s age, ISPs will require some biometric means of identification for adults, in addition to a personal password. The current law proposal does not specifically state which sites will be blocked, nor which technology will be used by the ISPs for this sort of identification.

Even though this proposal is utterly ridiculous and almost impossible economically and technologically to enforce, it is still very scary and raises many questions. Will the government now tell me which sites I can visit? Who are these people who will now sit in their high chairs and decide what content is considered violent and what content not? Will ISPs in Israel now hold a white list of every user’s personal information? If a news site covers stories about violent happenings in the world, will it now be censored? And if now these types of sites are censored, what sites will be next? Perhaps anti-religious ones?

Jonathan Klinger writes:

“The real question will be who decides which websites should be blocked. Is NRG (a popular Israeli news website) a site that has sexual content because it hosts the NRG sexy column, where one can possibly spot a nipple or two? Or perhaps it is a site that mainly deals with violence because it contains reportings on war, casualties, knife stabbings, and deaths? No matter how we look at it, our society is violent, and every news website deals with violence.”

Gadi Shimshon adds:

“Nothing in this new law proposal protects the children of Israel. It is a product culminating from technological ignorance, over-righteousness, and political power play.”

Parents everywhere (not just in Israel) should be aware of what their children are doing and educate them about these issues. It is not the government’s job to decide how these issues will be dealt with in every household. I doubt that this law will be able to get the majority of votes in the Knesset in order to pass, however, this proposal should serve as a warning and people should react and take action. The power to protect the freedom of content lies in our hands. In less than two weeks time the government takes the proposal to the next stage.

The above banner was created in protest of the proposed law. It shows the face of Amnon Cohen and reads: “My brother, your big brother has arrived…come meet your new educator”.

Technorati tags: israel, censorship, law, amnon cohen, children, violence, news, jonathan klinger, gadi shimshon, freedom of speech, cyber activism, internet, politics