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Communications minister Senator Stephen Conroy last week reminded us that internet filtering is still very much an item on the governments agenda. Thats a worrying prospect, but it could be worse: the UK is contemplating a plan where access to all adult content would be opt in, with adult material blocked by internet service providers (ISPs) unless customers specifically ask for it to be switched on.

The plan, being pushed by UK prime minister David Cameron, hasnt yet been formally presented to ISPs, and is likely to meet significant resistance when it is. Whatever the good intentions, it doesnt take a genius to spot the many obvious flaws in this plan. Who maintains a list of adult content? What happens if content ends up on that list by default? Where does the line get drawn? Will the Suns infamous page 3 girls be banned? And does any of it matter when setting up a VPN or using other privacy technologies to dodge the whole shebang is relatively straightforward?

Ultimately, opt-in seems just as bad as existing filtering proposals, with the added nastiness of creating a much larger blacklist (itself open to manipulation and abuse). Heres hoping the plan doesnt surface in the UK, and that it doesnt give Mr Conroy any ideas.

Pornography online: David Cameron to consider opt in plan [The Guardian]

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Opt-In Censorship: An Equally Dodgy Online Alternative

BEIJING For a government that keeps a tight grip on information, this was a week when it lost control of the narrative.

In the diplomatic standoff over blind activist Chen Guangcheng, technology and growing social-media savvy helped spread, drive and at times even muddy a story rife with unexpected twists.

The round-the-clock use of Twitter and other social media by Chinese activists kept foreign journalists and human rights groups overseas apprised of developments in real time, even as authorities tried to isolate Chen and his supporters.

U.S. diplomats believe they have secured a tentative deal that would allow Chen to leave for the United States. Meanwhile here in China, the role of social media in highlighting his case, and in detailing the harsh treatment meted out to his friends and supporters, seems for many to mark a seminal moment in the Communist governments decades-long history of repressing dissent and stifling information.

The Communist Party controls most major newspapers and virtually all television in China. But the advent of Twitter-like microblogging sites called Weibo in recent years has given urban Internet users an alternative to state-controlled media.

And it is through that social media, as well as cellphones and text messages, that much of the information came through about Chens whereabouts and wishes, and about the fate of those who helped him escape. Many activists also relied notably on Twitter itself, which is blocked in China but can be accessed by exploiting holes in the Great Firewall that censors the Chinese Internet.

When Chen was driven from the U.S. Embassy to a nearby hospital and made a telephone call from the van to The Washington Post, the news broke first on Twitter. It was Chens friend Zeng Jinyan, another activist, who first informed the world via Twitter that Chen had been left alone by U.S. officials at the hospital and was afraid. Zeng also tweeted that thugs in Shandong province, where Chen is from, had threatened to beat his wife to death, and that Chen wanted to leave China for the United States.

And the next day, Zeng broadcast on Twitter that she was being followed by plainclothes police and had been placed under house arrest. She even warned journalists not to try calling her.

A particularly dramatic moment came Thursday when Chen isolated in his Beijing hospital room but with a cellphone at hand called into a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the handling of his case and expressed concern for his family left behind in Shandong.

Total sea change

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With Chen Guangcheng news on Twitter, China’s censors lost control

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FCC dismisses Liberty Media application to control of Sirius XM Radio

London, May 6 : A leading public school headmistress has warned that social networking sites and celebrities are creating a generation of 'mean girls'.

In a fierce attack, Helen Wright said sites such as Facebook encouraged teenagers to believe 'bitching is good'.

'They're far more used to defriending friends online rather than befriending them in reality. If it's possible in just a moment to defriend someone or unfriend them on Facebook, then people say, 'Why can't I do that in real life'' the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

'We are in real danger of cultivating a generation of 'mean girls'',' she said.

The headmistress of St Mary's Calne in Wiltshire also criticised a lack of positive role models for young women, saying high-profile female friendships seem to be based on 'bitchiness, meanness, cruelty and criticising what someone's wearing and how they look'.

'Many young women mistakenly se women like Paris Hilton and her latest BFF [best friend forever] and the cast of The Only Way Is Essex as relevant role models and seek to emulate their behaviour,' she said.

Party-loving Paris Hilton and TV personality Nicole Richie had a public falling-out in 2005, after which the two refused to speak to each other for more than a year.

It was rumoured Richie had caused the rift by showing friends a sex tape featuring the heiress, but she denied this.

In other rows, Gwyneth Paltrow aimed barbed comments at Madonna as they competed for the services of a female personal trainer, while Geri Halliwell was the one 'Spice Girl' not invited to the Beckhams' wedding after her clash with Victoria.

Former pupils of 29,694-pound-a-year St Mary's include David Cameron's sister Clare and Jade Jagger, who was expelled for sneaking out to meet a boyfriend.

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Social networking creating generation of 'mean girls'

NEW YORK - Okay, admit it. We're all crazy about our dogs.

We watch them on YouTube and post their pictures on Facebook.

But now it's time for dogs to have a social network of their own. At least that's what the brains behind a New York startup think.

Take, for example, a dog named Bandit.

"He had plenty of friends back in San Francisco," his owner Anthony McGee says. "But now it's time for him to meet new friends in New York."

So McGee used the startup site MatchPuppy.com to find puppy playdates, a clear indication that social networking has indeed gone to the dogs.

Site founder Michael Chiang says the original business plan was to help with 'puppy love,' connecting owners looking to breed their pets. But eventually the team decided "just friends" was okay too.

"We realized there was a bigger need in the market, to help dog owners kind of facilitate playdates online," Chiang says.

Matches are made by neighborhood, breed, and age. But some pet owners have the same kinds of concerns with it as with 'human' online matchmaking.

"I would be a little concerned, because I don't know the dog," said prospective puppy-dater Shameika Bloice.

The rest is here:
'Match Puppy': Social Networking Has Gone to the Dogs