OzHub, the Macquarie Telecom-led cloud computing alliance, has come down firmly on the side of Optus over the copyright controversy surrounding Optus TV Now, warning that any moves to change the law "risk branding Australia a global luddite state."
Fresh from his battles with Internet filter opponents, Senator Stephen Conroy Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy today announced a “help button” for online kids.
At today’s Cyber-Safety and Youth Advisory Group Summit in Canberra, Senator Conroy announced the Government’s latest tool to protect children online.
Based on the Adobe Air platform, the security device, notionally referred to as a “big red button” will either occupy the Windows taskbar or sit prominently on the desktop.
Clicking the device will permit a child experiencing trouble to either access assistance to report issues to a social networking site or to connect with Police.
Following final testing by the 50 members of the Youth Advisory group, the tool will be made available to children throughout Australia without charge.
Mooted first in November last year, the device was later rumoured to have cost in excess of $100,000 dollars.
According to the Whirlpool forum posting, there has been a team of eight programmers working on the project for a considerable length of time.
Eight programmers? For a simple panic widget?
As iTWire sees it, there are two significant, perhaps insurmountable, problems with this project.
Firstly, a wide variety of research has clearly demonstrated that kids do not understand the significance of what in hindsight would be labelled sexual overtures from strangers - they will happily go along for the ride.
The button will (generally) not be pushed.
Secondly, kids (being kids) will test out the reporting systems and flood Police contact centres with (not necessarily bogus, but certainly) pointless reports of undesired activity by adults, classmates and even those they dislike.
One can only be happy that the big-red-button will be both free and optional (unlike the Filter); however just like the Filter it will be entirely pointless. This appears to be yet another attempt by the Federal Government to absolve parents of their responsibilities.
David Frost
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