ASEAN's plan to police the Internet face problems<\/p>\n
By Roberto Coloma<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE (AFP): Plans to police the Internet in ASEAN member
\nstates have drawn mixed reviews in the region, where attempts to
\ncurb access or censor content could run into political opposition
\nand technical snags.<\/p>\n
Information ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian
\nNations (ASEAN) agreed here last week to send regulators and
\nexperts to Singapore within the year to discuss "appropriate
\nresponses" to the Internet phenomenon.<\/p>\n
Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong urged ASEAN to adopt a
\n"sensitive regulatory framework," coupled with industry self-
\npolicing, to check "excesses" in the information web used by over
\n40 million people worldwide.<\/p>\n
His multiracial city-state of three million people -- with
\n100,000 Internet users -- took the lead when it announced steps
\nto block out smut and license on-line forums on sensitive
\nreligious, ethnic and political issues.<\/p>\n
Singapore's information-technology industry quickly backed the
\nplan, but reactions to Internet regulation were varied across
\nASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
\nPhilippines, Thailand and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
The Internet is widely used to swap electronic mail, mine vast
\nlodes of information, conduct business or play video games. But
\nthere is an unsavory aspect, such as child pornography and neo-
\nNazi propaganda, which alarms even western countries.<\/p>\n
"There is a limit to what we can do. My belief is for the
\ninculcation of correct values and discipline," Malaysia's Deputy
\nPrime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
"My children are on the Internet and I trust them," added
\nAnwar, who said<\/p>\n
Malaysia had no plans to institute censorship, preferring
\nself-regulation by the country's estimated 50,000 users.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad held a cyberspace
\nchat with Philippine President Fidel Ramos in January, further
\nboosting regional interest in the Internet.<\/p>\n
"They can police Singapore, but not the entire world,
\nespecially cyberspace," said Cecilia Quiambao, a freelance writer
\nand Internet "surfer" in the Philippines, where any hint of media
\ncontrols can trigger an outcry.<\/p>\n
"The web is constantly expanding and there will always be new
\nsites which will be impossible to monitor," she said.<\/p>\n
Software that blocks access to unwanted sites is widely
\navailable, going by such names as Surf Watch, Net Nanny, Cyber
\nPatrol, Cyber Sitter and Cyber Sentry. These can be installed by
\nprivate users or service providers.<\/p>\n
But Allen Lok, a manager at Singapore's Cybernet Cafe, which
\noffers hourly rates for use of Internet-linked computers, said
\nundesirable "addresses" -- the access codes to sites -- will have
\nto be keyed in.<\/p>\n
Individuals and groups can thus stay one step ahead of
\nregulators by simply changing addresses, resulting in an endless
\ncat-and-mouse chase.<\/p>\n
In Thailand, an estimated 100,000 people subscribe to the
\nInternet. Officials have been considering measures to curb abuses
\nsince fake pornographic pictures, using heads of local
\ncelebrities, appeared on computer screens.<\/p>\n
However, Srisakdi Jamornmarn, managing director of top private
\nInternet provider KSC Commercial Thailand, said regulation "is
\nagainst the philosophy of the Internet," and users should observe
\nrules of etiquette instead.<\/p>\n
Internet use is limited in Vietnam, where there are roughly
\n1,500 users and only electronic mail is available through local
\nproviders.<\/p>\n
People wishing further access to Internet have to dial up
\noutside the country, which joined ASEAN only last year and is
\ntechnologically behind the other members.<\/p>\n
Singapore's prime minister Goh conceded that censorship
\n"cannot be 100 percent effective" in protecting users against
\nnegative influences.<\/p>\n
"But the act of censorship itself establishes what we perceive
\nto be right or wrong and reaffirms to both young and old the
\nvalues that we hold as a community," he said.<\/p>",
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