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by Tom Koltai at 02:26AM (EST) on May 23, 2009

Governments have for sometime been attempting to legislate against content on the Net.

Here’s an article I wrote in May, 1993 for a magazine called Chips ‘N Bits.
It would appear that little has changed in the intervening 16 years.

COMPUTER PORNOGRAPHY
A little Peek at XXX

The Reverend Fred Nile is famous for his stance on anti-pornography, as are several million others in Australia. Unfortunately for the anti group there is also a fairly large percentage of the population that either like pornography or at least are not “anti”.
Recent magazine and Newspaper “Sensationalist” articles have attacked the BBS community as comprising of “Paedophiles and Miscreants whose only purpose is to lead your children astray”. Rubbish!! I have run a BBS for three years and have not yet managed to lead anyone astray. Yes I do have an Adults Only section on my BBS and control access to it through voice contact, State voting register or Drivers licence replica.
Do I have any deviates on my system that do nothing but use the “Adults Only” area? No, the majority of people enter, look around, download a few girlie or boy pictures (we have a section called “Hunks” for the ladies) and never bother returning to the area. But curiosity demands that they take a peek.
There are exceptions, for example, eighteen year old men seem to spend a lot of time in that section (As no doubt I would have at that age.)
Reverend Nile and other moral leaders of our communities claim that Bulletin Boards are instant access to “bad habits”, violence and misleading infonnation.
With all due respect, I reply that BBSs are just another publishing method and the same “filth” can be found at any newsagency, library and sometimes on home coffee tables. (Many of us bought “The Joy of Sex” when it was fashionable to leave it lying around to show how “cool” we were.)
I do however regrettably admit that not all BBS’s control access to their Adult areas with enough care and Chips ‘N’ Bits will continue to attempt to educate Sysops that self regulation is infinitely superior to Legislative action.