Although I and many readers of this blog are from the UK, it is always interesting to keep up with what is going on overseas, particularly Europe, USA and Canada. Invariably what happens over there tends to affect us in one way or another.
There is quite a lot of debate going on in Canada at the moment with regards to the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act – and some incredible statements being made from within Parliament, e.g. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has supported this Bill with the statement “You are either with the child pornographer, or you’re not”.
Wow, that’s quite a statement to make. Essentially it is telling everyone who respects their own privacy that they support child pornography, or to give it the proper name, child abuse. It never ceases to amaze me the catch-all statements that politicians will make in order to try and get their point across.
Unfortunately for this minister, in the new world of social media his own private life has been completely turned upside down with a new Twitter account created to collect all of his past misgivings from his private life, and publish them all.
I do feel for Misister Toews, I think he genuinely believes this Act will conquer some despicable people, but we have seen this tried and failed time and time again. Governments worldwide need to be completely re-thinking their strategies to combat child abuse, poverty, slavery and much more, instead of just repeating the same old rubbish over and over again and not listening to experts.