Singapore Regulation and a Japanese Update

Singapore is currently considering how to best regulate Internet content and have asked a group of 15 bloggers to help them formulate a framework.  From TodayOnline:

An open letter on proposed changes to Internet regulation will soon be sent to the Ministry of Information, Community and the Arts (Mica) by a group of 15 bloggers.

Their proposals include the setting up of an Internet consultative committee for the free and responsible use of digital media, and for rules governing speech to be the same across media platforms...

...The "platform-neutral" regulations should also be as minimal as those regulating the "current freest platform", which they believe to be film.

Nice gesture.  But, of course, whether buttoned-downed Singaporean government listens to the bloggers is a whole other story.

Now, if the Japanese government listens to 91 percent of the public there, "harmful" Internet content will be shielded from those under 18-years-old.  We wrote up a piece on the Japanese march toward content regulation earlier this month.  Today, the Daily Yomiuri provides a update and broaches the white elephant in the regulation...

At a meeting on April 11 of the LDP General Council's committee on countermeasures against illegal and harmful information, many members questioned the advisability of allowing the government to get involved in vetting information on the Internet.

"People have different views about what is and isn't harmful," one committee member said.

Unlike judgments on explicitly illegal information, such as instigating murder or the use of narcotics or stimulants, distinguishing between "wholesome" and "harmful" information can be difficult.

Indeed, but it seems like they are still going to try.