This even made it to the slashdot.org front page:
"Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba has gone to South Africa's Law Reform Commission to see whether the law can be changed to allow a complete ban of digitally distributed pornography. Gigaba has also been in discussion with The Justice Alliance of South Africa, 'a coalition of corporations, individuals, and churches committed to upholding and fighting for justice and the highest moral standards in South African society,' which has written its own draft bill regarding the issue, which covers the banning of pornography on television, mobile phones, and the Web. Using a car analogy, Mr. Gigaba said, 'Cars are already provided with brakes and seatbelts.... There is no reason why the Internet should be provided without the necessary restrictive mechanisms built into it.' Related documents and the JASA's proposed bill can be found online, one of which has the wonderful title 'A reasonable and justifiable limitation on Freedom of Expression and Right to Privacy.'"
BBC article: Porn ban on net and mobiles mulled by South Africa - BBC News
Justice Alliance of SA: http://www.jasa.za.net/index.html
Proposed Bill: http://www.jasa.za.net/download/legis.html
EDIT: Yes, my avatar is clearly relevant.
FFS. The internet can’t kill you. Seriously. And if you do kill yourself by some way through the internet, I will gladly nominate you for a Darwin Award.
They will never be able to enforce it, it’s way too easy to get around such restrictions. Also, I have no idea how this can be constitutional. If this gets anywhere close to being brought to law though, I’ll paste dicks and boobs on my car, and try to get a campaign going to have as many other people to do that. The government, churches, and no one else have the right to stop me from watching what I want in private, as long as it’s not pirated.
I’ve seen the argument that it will stop minors from seeing porn. And I think that those people grossly underestimate the intelligence of horny teenagers. They can use google just as well as I can.
if this effort were to keep porn away from kid’s eyes, then knock your socks off. i, for one, dont mind porn, and i know of several free sites, where they dont even ask you if you are old enough to partake in the nasty.
i think, at least, prevent .mobi sites from dishing out porn (how the hell ever they intend to do that), maybe if the fone is Rica’d to the kids name, it will somehow block adult content. i dont bloody know.
but the interwebs, if you even kind-of know what you are doing, you can see boobies and flash of action, even if you are just browsing the nasty sites.
parents can block sites, but most kids know how to get around that too. and most parents are too clueless to know.
sigh.
i would lead a very dry life if my porn was to be taken away from me, but i suspect the govament wont ban magazines or dvd’s, coz they get to make monies of the import tax and vat. they dont make money off the interwebs.
So if fire fighters fight fire, and crime fighters fight crime, does the “justice league” fight justice?
Now for my thoughts: Absolutely ludicrous. The mere fact that this is doing the rounds of higher government makes me mad as a hatter. No, it’s not (purely) just because this is about porn. It’s about our government publicly flogging the constitution, which was written to ensure absolute freedoms for all, in public with no shame. We’re already witnessing the limits of our “freedom of expression” being reached. Now yet more legislation that tries to make “complete freedom of expression” not-so-complete after all, and saying that something as petty as a bit of booty on the internet is warrant enough to limit that “human right”. What next folks? Though shalt not critique our exalted leader in public? All dissenting material is punishable by death? Though shalt bow to the one statue of our supreme leader in the square every day at 12?
Freedom of speech, to me, is so important I wouldn’t impose [censorship] on my direst of enemies no matter how retarded the shit they spew is. In my humble opinion, human rights are not negotiable. And when they become that, the slope is straight down.
Just more of the usual ignorant retarded shit from our esteemed govt. It’ll never happen.
I agree. It won’t happen. And if it does, they will completely discredit the constitution and all it stands for. Limiting freedoms is one thing, but removing hard won freedoms is looking for a s__tstorm.
i have a little hobby of reading researching our constitution and the acts, just for the shit of it, but mostly to debunk bull emails doing the rounds. and i have found, the constitution is so vauge about everything, except racism. they say yes, but no, but actually no, but kind of yes, as long as its no for some reasons… its a miracle you can get anything done in this country, or send anyone to jail.
i heard that we have the most liberal constitution in the world. well shit, its cause its as floaty as a weed puff.