South Korea Scrambles to Clean Up Their Web

South Korea is poised to establish a code of Internet ethics to curb the distribution of pornographic and other inappropriate materials there. A bill is being sent to their parliament for approval this year according to Vice Information Minister Yoo Younghwan. The growth of South Korea's Web presence has grown exponentially and essentially without regulation this year and officials are concerned about social responsibility from Internet constituencies.

Web 2.0 and the World 

Web 2.0 has ushered in a worldwide connectivity we could not have imagined a decade ago. With this newfound "correctiveness" several crucial barriers, if we can call them that, have become evident. Cultural barriers and ethical concerns reinforce the difference between various societies. We often overlook the effects that Web 2.0 and the proliferation of information has on all of us. For every achievement in interconnectivity and information access there is certainly the possibility of negative impact.

With Power Comes Responsibility 

Local portal operators in South Korea will be asked to filter obscene and defamatory materials or face responsibility and punishment for violations according to an AFP story via Yahoo! News. According to this news, experts say that filtering video at the 18 home grown Web portals there may prove difficult. Teen prostitution is a major concern as the Internet has become a main vehicle for propagating that dubious industry in their country.

In March Yahoo! Korea aired a sex video clip for several hours prompting police there to launch a criminal investigation. The response was the Information Ministry blocking 180 foreign websites in order to stop the spread of obscene materials to the country's portals.

South Korea is perhaps the world's most "wired' country with 70 percent of their population utilizing the Internet. This news comes as no surprise given all the friction between the various Internet entities and the relative invasion of predominantly western Internet culture upon Asia. The people there are as hungry for media, interaction and news as much as or more so than we are. I am also sure that this news will bring out the "free speech" advocates in force, but I wonder why we don't consider what is actually happening here. Many people I see commenting act as if they are rescuing their fellow young people in these other cultures from some sort of tyranny. To be sure censorship and propaganda can be very inhibiting and negative things, but exactly what would "free speech" people be rescuing the South Koreans from in this case? Perhaps rescuing even one teenage girl or boy from a life of prostitution? Should we impose "All" of our own moral dilemmas on the inhabitants of other lands? Can we not acknowledge that everything we export to the rest of the world is not holy?

Drawing Lines in the Sand 

I always get on my soap box in these matters. Having been a teacher of geography, culture and a student of foreign affairs it is a little difficult to watch the average Web constituency and particularly the giant ostrich with powerful weapons we call America attempt to impose everything we "think" is right on everyone else. We should become more educated and in tune with the billions of other people in other sovereign places in order to create world harmony and welfare. Insulting governments and the political prostitutes of all the various nations is one thing, but subjecting children to our most graphic and least uplifting element is quite another. So, perhaps I have headed off a few of the die hard "freedom of everything" people, but I doubt it. It seems as if we are all caught between "the man" under one guise or another. There is the "man" who wants to take advantage behind a wall of legal technicalities or political license, and then there is "the man" laying in wait for the innocent and unsuspecting to take some great advantage of humanity for their unworthy cause. So, it is left to us to balance these evils and at least make our own moral statements.  

South Korean prostitutes march in protest below, since many are indentured sex slaves one has to wonder where the pimps are. It is pitiful to witness human beings transformed into cattle and beasts of burden. How can we not discern good from evil any more?