Archive for Information Technology

Comparing schools

January 25, 2012 jonathanbishop No comments

I share the concern raised about the risks of cyber-bullying following the publication of school banding by the Welsh Government (“School banding raises fears over cyber-bullying”, January 23).

As an advocate of New Labour, before leaving the Labour Party when Ed Miliband said it was over, I am strongly in favour of parents being allowed to choose which school their child goes to. The rank and file of Old and Welsh Labour say this won’t work because every parent will want their child go to the best school – well that is the point!

A market in education, such as by removing the unfair catchment areas that partition this market and create geographical ghettos, would mean the best schools would stay open and expand, and the worst ones would close.

In such a market you would need a way for the parents to choose the best school. Government-sanctioned league tables or school banding does not help – parents need to be able to create their own league tables.

Even the “least able” people can go on to websites like GoCompare or MoneySupermarket and select what is important to them about their home or car insurance policy and what is not. If we as citizens can prioritise insurance why not other things? It is not grades that make a school a best school. It is factors such as whether they have special support for your child’s disability, whether they have after-school clubs or extended hours, and whether the school has strong pupil-satisfaction.

So if the Welsh Government is happy to have de facto league tables – why don’t they give parents the choice to have their children educated outside their area so they are not subject to the stigma that they can do little about without “upping sticks”?

Acquisition, Application, Articulation, Info-scientific, Information Technology, Law, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

Can’t see positives in conviscating mobiles

January 21, 2012 jonathanbishop No comments

THE Manly Daily reports that children should be made to surrender their mobile phones at night in a bid to stop the devastating effects of bullying, according to a northern beaches expert called Rose Smith (‘Switch off the bullies’, January 18).

As an authority on ‘trolling law’ Ms Smith might wish to know that such a law was put in place in the UK under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 before the parts she seeks her law to do being repealed by the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, in part because of human rights issues.

How does Rose think confiscating a mobile is going to have any positive outcome?

When I was a child, taking one of my possessions would have serious consequences for whoever did and therefore myself.

This may be the case of many children from difficult backgrounds and the approach she says is appropriate is using martial arts.

This may work to discipline one and frustrate others.

Much of the guidance she gives relating to managing one child’s use of the internet is redundant with most of today’s anti-virus software, which makes life much easier for parents to control what their children see and restrict who they speak to.

Rose Smith can find out more about these and other facts at the Trolling Academy by visiting www.trollingacademy.org.

Information Technology, Law, Letters and other Op-Eds

Internet history

January 14, 2012 jonathanbishop 3 comments

I appreciate Walton MP Steve Rotheram writing into the Echo to critique my status as a trolling authority (Letters, January 11). As his colleagues at Westminster would tell him, I could not contact him direct, as he would not be allowed to respond to my letter, unless I wrote to him through my own MP, as this is parliamentary convention.

Mr Rotheram mistakenly says the Telecommunications Act 1984 and Communications Act 2003 existed before trolling. The former Act existed during the time that Usenet was popular, which was a primitive form of Facebook Groups and BBS as well, a primitive form of the Facebook wall. The second Act came about when the social networking technology I invented in 1999 – the circle of friends – was being popularised by Friendster and MySpace, before becoming an essential part of Facebook when it became mainstream from 2007.

So like the word “social media” that he uses is the new word for “social networking” beyond these text-based interfaces, so the word “trolling”, has gone from meaning simply “act of posting a message in a newsgroup that is obviously exaggerating something on a particular topic” as described in 1995 in the Internet dictionary NetLingo, to refer to a specific act of posting inflammatory or obnoxious content (which may not be text) for one’s own or others entertainment.

He would know this, as any other Echo reader, if he read the pithy response to me by D Frederick from Garston in November (Letters, Nov 26).

Information Technology, Law, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

Powers in place

January 6, 2012 jonathanbishop No comments

Reading the news about Walton Labour MP Steve Rotheram launching a Bill to tackle internet trolling made me think “it is the 1990s all over again” (Echo, January 3).

Back then, following claims that video games were making people violent, MP after MP called for tougher laws to deal with “gory imagery”. I did a GCSE English project on it called “Not the Houses of Parliament”, and two decades later the politicians still haven’t learned.

MPs wanted to ban my favourite game of the 1990s – Night Trap – because it had scantily dressed women in. It turned out that the Video Recording Act 1984 was all they needed to use, and the same waste of legislative time is evident to cyberlaw experts like myself today.

Had Mr Rotheram attended the Online Information Conference in London last November 30, instead of bemoaning his colleague the Rt Rev James Jones being stuck in Spain (ECHO, December 2), he would have heard me speak on how the New Labour Government, he never served under, put all the data misuse laws in place to deal with this – he’d also have got a USB stick with my 2010 journal paper on the topic!

If instead of seeking Cameron’s support, Mr Rotheram could have calmed down, and taken a breath to read my paper and slides and see all the powers Liverpool City Council has to deal with trolling because of New Labour, as part of its Community Crime Fighter Scheme.

They can issue jail-term-facing anti-social behaviour orders (ASBO) to repeat offenders they track down online using New Labour’s Internet surveillance laws (called RIPA), or for minor offences they can issue fixed-penalty-notices (FPN) under their anti-social behaviour laws.

Information Technology, Law, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

Enough laws

January 6, 2012 jonathanbishop One comment

As a prize-winning authority on trolling and cyberlaw and an expert specialising in UK data misuse laws, I had to respond to Walton MP Steve Rotheram calling for trolling to be “banned” (Daily Post, January 3).

In my research at the Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems at Swansea University I have identified the first wide-reaching law outlawing trolling was brought in by Margaret Thatcher as section 24 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 – it is still used today!

The provision, was subsequently duplicated with different works by New Labour in Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and both are often used in the same trial.

Following that, New Labour made many anti-social behaviour laws that could apply to trolling, and with the Police and Criminal Justice Act 2006, they updated the Malicious Communication Act 1984 and Computer Misuse Act 1990, both made by the Conservatives, to directly deal with flame trolling.

Is Mr Rotheram saying these aren’t enough, and the fouryear jail term faced by Jamie Counsel from Cardiff for trolling on Facebook too lenient? Being newly elected in 2010, I think Mr Rotheram, who appears wet behind the ears as a jurist, should learn from UK cyberlaw scholars, especially former ‘New’ Labour councillors like myself, who only left the Labour Party after Ed Miliband declared the days of New Labour as being over.

It is no good knowing Keir Hardie helped found and lead the Labour Party if he knows nothing of the work contemporary Labour stalwarts like Dr Kim Howells and Stephen Timms did to reform the UK legal landscape relating to the Internet and trolling, both of them realising Keir Hardie’s notion of a fair and just society.

Information Technology, Law, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

Published letter to The Sun

December 29, 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

I WAS delighted to help keep X Factor off the No1 spot by buying the Military Wives song. I find it horrible that attacks were made on soloist Samantha Stevenson by trolls (sic). They got to No1 fair and square.

Note to readers

The original letter I sent to The Sun referred to the abuse being performed by ‘e-vengers’,  which are a type of troller who posts messages to harm others who they felt wronged them. Trolls are in fact a type of troller who post to entertain and not harm. I have not complained to The Sun about this innacuracy for two reasons:

  • Most of their readers have a reading age of the average educated 8 year old, so it is fair not to introduce them to too many new terms.
  • The Sun’s readers will be more interested in the part about the X-Factor than the technical detail around ‘trolling’.
Information Technology, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

Computer pests do not need to be jailed

December 20, 2011 jonathanbishop One comment

IT WAS shocking to read the results that 91 per cent of online Mail readers believe those who commit crimes using Facebook should have jail terms (Mail, December 16). For a second I thought I was reading a certain London-based ‘Mail newspaper’.

As a prize-winning author on ‘trolling’, of which one kind is ‘flame trolling’, which is where someone posts a message on a website for their own entertainment, but to harm others, I am fully aware of the legal and psychological issues around the topic. In a recent journal article titled ‘Tough on data misuse, tough on the causes of data misuse’, I suggest people online are not always aware of their actions until after they have made them. It is in my opinion therefore that to prosecute people caught up in the moment, who post a message and then quickly delete it after realising their error, is unjust.

It is wrong to compare the actions of Sean Duffy who bullied Natasha MacBryde intensively with no remorse (Mail, September 14) with Jamie Counsel who created a Facebook page to incite a riot, which he took down when he realised his mistake.

When there are so many Internet predators out there trying to groom the children our families hold dear, is it right that police resources are being spent criminalising people doing things online that are otherwise harmlessly said in pubs daily without being questioned? I don’t think so.

Consideration, Information Technology, Law, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

My Complaint about Jeremy Clarkson’s offensive remarks on The One Show

December 4, 2011 jonathanbishop One comment

Below is the complaint I sent to the BBC in response to the Jeremy Clarkson situation. Is it called, ‘Shootgate’ yet? There have been too many incidents for it to be Clarksongate!

I refer to the programme in which Jeremy Clarkson said that Trade Union members should be shot. My first reaction to this was that he should face the same penalties as those who were prosecuted for trolling during the UK riots.

However, as a company director of over 5 years’ experience I think the BBC should take full responsibility for the actions of Mr Clarkson and the producer of the programme should resign.

I believe this because news reports have said that Mr Clarkson checked whether what he intended as a joke was suitable for broadcast. The producer cleared this and Mr Clarkson in good faith as an outspoken personality used this image to make that prepared and preauthorise comment that was intended to be offensive and provocative, which is Mr Clarkson’s style.

If one was to search on Google now, one would see most articles on the issue are written by the BBC. This creates a suspicion in my mind, that the BBC may have set up Mr Clarkson for some sinister reason and blew the issue up for that reason. I feel the BBC has infringed on Mr Clarkson’s human rights by encouraging him to express himself in such a way that would lead to his reputation being damaged.

I think the BBC Trust should issue Mr Clarkson with a full apology in writing, and require the producer of the One Show to record their resignation address for prominence on the BBC News Channel where the fact that they approved Mr Clarkson’s offensive comments in advance is made clear.

Consciousness, Context, Information Technology, Socio-legal, The Official Weblog of Jonathan Bishop

Your View – Wales on Sunday

November 20, 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

I was pleased to read Rachael Misstear’s report (“Sick Trolls Target Sex Abuse Teenager”, last week’s front page) that police are looking into dealing with the cowardly internet users who preyed on a sex abuse victim through what Rachel describes as “trolling” . Victims of crime often turn to online communities to try to deal with their situation. Instead of meeting the “MHBFY [My heart bleeds for you] Jennies” who empathise with them, they all too often meet the “Snerts” who seek to harm, who are not the same as “Trolls” who are good humoured.

Trolling is the posting of messages to entertain and those who do it are collectively known as “Trollers”. When a Snert does trolling, it is to harm others for their own sick entertainment. When a MHBFY Jenny does trolling, it is to help someone see the lighter side of life and come to terms with their situation.

As the founder of the Swansea-based Trolling Academy, my advice to people who want to get support online is to find websites dedicated to their concern. Once they find this, they should do what is called “lurking”, by looking at the other posts without joining, to see if they are friendly and helpful, and they should only join if they are.

If anyone knows or believes a child is being abused, they should ring the NSPCC on 0808 800 500. Children should ring Childline on 0800 1111.

Information Technology, Letters and other Op-Eds

Act over this sick site

September 27, 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

As an internet researcher in the Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems in Swansea, I am pleased that Rod Minchin took the time to report on the disgusting behaviour of the individual who set up a Facebook page to mock the families of the miners who tragically died near my centre (Mail, September 19).

My grandfather betrothed me the Davy lamp from his retirement after working in mining for five decades in the Rhondda mines, with my ancestors having moved to Wales from Birmingham.

The Welsh psyche is still built around mining and the sick individual on Facebook does not realise the full consequences of their actions.

As is pointed out in the article, the police have the power to act. The Communication Act 2003 gives them powers to prosecute Snerts for the posting of offensive messages. It is such a difficult time for the families and friends of Phillip Hill, Charles Breslin, David Powell, and Garry Jenkins as it is, without this on top, so let us pray the police will use them.

Information Technology, Law, Socio-legal
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