Column: "More porn on newstands than on the Internet"

Below are the most interesting pointers and articles I found during background research for the column. There is a great deal of material out there, so I've been fairly restrictive. "Metapages" and "Organizations" are good starting points if you're looking for more (and up-to-date) information.

What's your opinion? Write a comment here or send me some e-mail.

• Comment to Thimbleby
  Harold Thimbleby wrote an abstract on Internet smut that I critizie here.

• How much porn on the net?
  My own analysis of whether Rimm's figure of 83.5% is reasonable.

• Articles and reports on cybercensure
  There are a great many articles on the theme around on the net. Here are some of the best ones.
  • Testimony of Anthony M. Rutkowski
    Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, in the matter of The Internet and the Management of Objectionable Materials.
  • Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee
    In the matter the "Protection of Children From Computer Pornography Act of 1995" (S. 892), testimony by Mike Godwin (EFF), letters to the committee from among others Howard Rheingold.
  • The Web: Heading for Content Ratings?
    Scott Rosenberg, San Francisco Examiner, July 12 1995.
  • Lawless - too many loopholes in the net?
    The Economist
  • Parental Empowerment, Child Protection, and Free Speech in Interactive Media
    Interactive Working Group Report to Senator Leahy, July 24, 1995

• General articles on the Internet and Cyberspace in the popular press
  Two good overviews.
  • Time Magazine Special Issue on Cyberspace
  • The Economist Survey of the Internet

• SICS Scandal
  My interest was piqued when I helped deal with a backlash due to our newsserver not being password-protected (it is now). A local smut daily, Aftonbladet, picked up the story after it was "revealed" by a Wired-imitation called "Z", which has since, surprise surprise, gone out of business. Here are Z's two articles on child pornography at SICS. Aftonbladets article is, of course, not on the net.
  • SICS distribuerar barnporr på Internet (Z IT-Nytt 10 Juli)
  • SICS tar ej ansvar för spridningen av barnporr (Z IT-Nytt 11 Juli)

• The Rimm Report
  The so-called "Rimm Report", written by Martin Rimm when he was at the Carnegie-Mellon University, has caused a storm of protest on the net.
  • The report is divided into text, footnotes, och graphs.
    
  • Time Magazine
    Time popularized the Rimm report by writing a cover article based on the report. It was this legitimization of the report that has triggered the most criticism.
  • Hoffman & Novak, professors at Vanderbilt University, have written a critique of the Rimm report. They have also written a critique of the Time coverage.
  • Mike Godwin has also critiqued the Time article.
  • HotWired had a special report which shot a full broadside against the Time article.
  • Rimm himself has become an object of interest. Among others, Brock N. Meeks in HotWired latest comment on the topic have also questioned Rimm's background.

• Metapages
  There are quite a few "meta pages" on the cyberporn debate. Here are the best I've found.
  • Hoffman och Novak's "The Cyberporn Debate"
  • Pathfinder's (Digital Pulse) Cybercensure page
  • Carnegie Mellon University Censorship Page
  • Cybernothing's "The Cybernporn Report"

• Technology and products
  "RFC" stands for Request For Comments and are formal documents in the standardization work on the Internet.
  • SurfWatch, Net Nanny, CYBERsitter
    There are many programs that allow parents to limit what their kids can do on the home PC. These 3 are the ones I've heard of so far.
  • RFC 955 (NNTP)
    NNTP is the protocol used for distributing news. Usenet uses NNTP.
  • RFC 1036 (Usenet)
    Describes Usenet message formats and how to distribute them.
  • Usenet Info Center
    Various help pages about Usenet from SunSITE.
  • Banned Usenet Groups FAQ
    A how-to guide to access "forbidden" Usenet groups.

• Newsgroups
  • The newsgroup alt.internet.media-coverage discusses the relationship between the Internet and other media, above all the press. There is a good archive on earlier debates, amongst others the infamous Time coverage.
  • alt.culture.usenet discusses issues relating to the Usenet culture.
  • news.admin.misc is more administrative and technical in its topics, but being a "misc" topic, the discussion often touches on political and social issues affecting Usenet.

• Internet Organizations
  
  • Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
    The principal organization for generating protocols and standards related to the Internet.
  • Internet Society
    A more recent organization than IETF, the Internet Society is an international association aimed at supporting the growth and prosperity of the Internet.

• Somewhat more political organizations
  Several organzations have formed around political issues affecting the Internet. Most (if not all) have material relating to Cybercensure.
  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • Center for Democracy and Technology
  • Privacy International
  • Electronic Privacy Information Center
  • The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center
  • Voters Telecomm Watch