Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: What Thimbleby Hath Wraught
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 18:06:43 -0400
Date: 23 Sep 95 19:40:05 EDT From: Jan Ziff <72662.3351 () compuserve com> To: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu> Dave: I saw the piece Bernard Levin referred to when I was in London last May. It was in the Evening Standard or some such newspaper, and the comment that the Internet was "absolute dynamite and ...without any form of quality control" was made by the senior police officer who was investigating the story about the six boys who'd used the 'Net to organize the credit card scam. What Mr. Levin omits is that in the same sentence the police officer also called the Internet "a ridiculous system." I found that story absolutely infuriating - so much so that I wrote the following piece for my radio program on the CBS network when I came back from London: CRIME ON THE INTERNET THIS IS SOUND*BYTES AND I'M JAN ZIFF POLICE IN ENGLAND ARE WORRIED THAT KIDS USING THE INTERNET MAY BE LEARNING TO COMMIT SERIOUS CRIMES. AND THEY SAY THE WORLDWIDE COMPUTER NETWORK CONTAINS ALL SORTS OF MATERIAL KIDS SHOULD NOT ACCESS - INCLUDING BOMB-MAKING INSTRUCTIONS, PORNOGRAPHY, HOW TO COMMIT SUICIDE AND HOW TO COMMIT CREDIT CARD FRAUD. A SENIOR LONDON POLICE OFFICER DESCRIBED THE INTERNET AS "A RIDICULOUS SYSTEM, DYNAMITE AND WITHOUT ANY FORM OF QUALITY CONTROL." I THINK IT'S VERY SAD. I KNOW ITS HARD TO CONTROL THE BEHAVIOUR OF ALL OUR KIDS, BUT TO BLAST THE INTERNET BECAUSE OF THE ACTIONS OF A FEW ... IS TANTAMOUNT TO SAYING YOU SHOULDN'T FLY BECAUSE A) YOU MIGHT GET HIJACKED OR B) YOUR KIDS MIGHT THINK HIJACKING IS SO GLAMOUROUS THEY WANT TO DO IT TOO. ONCE AGAIN IT'S UP TO US. IF AS PARENTS, EDUCATORS AND ROLE MODELS WE CAN'T SHOW OUR KIDS THE RIGHT WAY - IT'S LUDICROUS TO BLAME A COMPUTER NETWORK FOR WHAT'S REALLY OUR FAILURE. I'M JAN ZIFF WITH SOUND*BYTES Bernard Levin used to be one of my favourite columnists, (you may have noticed from my occasional transatlantic spelling that I am originally British), but he really shows his ignorance in the piece you've circulated. It does him no credit, in fact, it serves only to reinforce my most basic tenet in life - "It is far better to keep your mouth shut and be thought to be a fool, than to open it and prove it beyond all reasonable doubt." Levin clearly does not understand, nor from this piece is he willing to try. Pushing the edges of the envelope may be fine for him when his subject is literary or music criticism, and political commentary on which his work is both erudite and intelligent. But let him loose in a world with which he is clearly not familiar, and which he mistakenly thinks most people don't understand - and he renders himself ridiculous - not the Internet. The "older generation" of commentators seem to believe that theirs is the only view that's worth having - probably because they've been there so long. Mr. Levin should stick to subjects he knows something about. And while he's at it, he should remember one of the basic precepts of journalism - if you're going to quote someone, do it accurately and with attribution. Another sacred cow gone - ah well, I must be growing old!! Best as ever Jan
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