www. censorship?

[older kids]

Is there any cenorship to the www. in Singapore?

Thanks, Brian

[Singaporean]

Sites like Pnethouse and playboy are blocked but that's about it. Rumours about big brothers checking who's surfing where are just not feasible due to the the nmber of people online vs the resources to "tap" surfing. I think the bigger concern is companies monitoring staff usage and these are usually the MNCs

[We are watching YOU]

I believe the Singapore government through the ISP's have demanded that the ubiquitous porno sites on the WWW are blocked.  But naturally there are ways... using proxy servers etc to get unrestricted access to all the good, bad and ugly on the WWW including hate sites etc.  In mainland China, there are also similar and more restrictive controls and with reportedly HEAVY penalities as well?

There are ways to move around the net unseen, using anonymiser services www.freedom.com  or zeroknowledge which uses "nyms".  Most obvious is the need to use encryption software to send/receive email as currently email is tantamount to sending a post card in the snail mail.  If they (Singapore Gov't) or anyone else wants to read the content they can.  There are lots of ways to send encrypted email like PGP or Zixmail etc.

With Echelon and other eavesdropping going on big time all email traffic, surfing and phone calls are being monitored/sifted looking for key words to bring attention to the parties.  Seek info on the US based NSA if you really want a fright as they are watching everything!  HOW with billions of email daily?  Well technology permits this now and they can and they DO!

[CK]

To Singaporean. Do I have some special access? I just typed in www.penthouse.com  and it works on my screen? Do you know for sure that it is blocked on your internet or did someone just tell you?

[Rob]

All individual internet access via Singapore ISP's has, by law, to go through proxy servers, which theoretically at least, can be used to block access to certain sites and monitor usage.

In reality of course, monitoring all internet traffic is totally impractical, and also rather at odds with the govts plans to make singapore an e-commerce hub

As for accessing Penthouse. If like me, you are doing this from work, you may well find that your company's internet access point is not in Singapore. I know that mine is in London.  However if I was to try and access Penhouse, I am pretty sure (and I am not going to try this) that the company's own internal internet site filtering/blocking would stop me

[Sajberspejs]

CK, apparently you do have specialaccess, who is your ISP?

[CK]

Good point. I am not sure who my ISP is as I work in a 200+ person company and have nothing to do with the I.T department. Maybe our access is through an offshore pipe? Anyway I will try and remember to try the site at home tonight and see what happens. I would be suprised if it was blocked.

[This message has been edited by CK (edited 06-12-2000).]

[Singaporean]

The singapore barodcasting authority was a client of mine some time ago and they told me exactly what I and others have said. The govt stand is that they can't possible blok all access but they will do "symbolic" restriction on penthouse, playboys etcs due to community sensitivities. But otherwise the government really wants it the industry to be self-policing, for parents to take responsibility fo rtheir kids

[Ron]

I just got to Penthouse - going through Magix.

Ron

[jws]

Ron
How is it??? Look's alright???
;-)

[darn!]

the site is very much blocked by SCV with a message saying so!

[Sajberspejs]

There is another kind of censorship;
On the site hardwarezone.com, some teenagers are being taken to court for puting insulting messages on the message board, which is in the same format as this one. I've talked to a couple of them, and they're OK.

[Nicolette]

Singapore - of course they will censor sites! (look at the amount of butchering that happens with the movies?) - just don't think they're THAT effective with the www yet maybe?

[proxy]

Most blocking is done via the proxy server.  Try using proxy.singnet and the site is blocked.  Of course, you can always use other proxies.

[NYC 2 SING]

Working as a web developer, I can safely say that there is no possible way to block out the myriad of thousands of hundreds of adult content sites on the internet. Proxy server or not. No government or organization is able to block more popular/well known sites, but for every one they could block 30 more will appear tomorrow. I worked as a web developer in China, and although penthouse and ABC.com was blocked, I was able to access some VERY interesting content sites including news about Chinese dissadents, adult, politics; you can't (no matter how hard you try) police the internet. If anyone could, China would.