Re: V-Chips for the Internet

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 10:29 PM -0400 5/22/97, John Young wrote:
>A White House press briefing today describes Clinton's
>plan for providing V-chips for parents to control childrens'
>access to the Internet. Technology is being developed for
>that purpose.
...
>                MS. LEWIS: It's our understanding, and we just checked
>this with people at the White House who know much more about
>technology than all of us put together, that there is in fact technology
>being developed that would serve as the equivalent of a V-chip for the
>Internet, and we think that's what the President referred to.
>
>                Q Clinton has talked before about giving parents ways to
>protect their children on the Internet, but has he ever before suggested
>the idea of a V-chip for the Internet?
>
>                MS. LEWIS:  Not that we know of, but we know -- as is
>clear, I think, from his wording, he is aware that the technology has
>been developing.

There are three main dimensions to this "V-chip for the Internet," just as
there are for the original V-chip for televisions:

1. Technology. Viability of the hardware, including cost, speed, and
ability to be integrated into planned products. (In the case of
televisions, satellite dish receivers, VCRs, etc., the problems are
immense.)

2. Ratings and Standards. Just who will "rate" Internet sites, and is it at
all feasible given the world connectivity we see?

3. Economics. How long will it take before even 5% of the nation's
computers have this V-chip installed? How much will it cost? Who will
bother with it?

(There are lots of other issues to be addressed. I'm unpersuaded that a
hardware version is any more secure than a software version...so why go to
all the expense to have a _hardware_ version of what NetNanny and
LittleBrother and DaddyKnowsBest already do in software? With televisions,
the need for a hardware chip is related to the lack of any CPU and so on...)

Could hardware-based chips be coming? At a recent meeting, John Markoff
asked me if I'd heard anything about Intel's rumored contract to buy 20
million (yes, 20 _million_) keyboards with crypto features built in. I had
not heard this rumor.

(Since then, though, there have been rumblings that Intel is preparing to
offer such keyboards, possibly with "user authentication" features (don't
know what kind). This might, speculating here, be linked with  the Intel-HP
(and maybe Verifone, which HP is buying?) key recovery work. Conceivably, a
plan to sell a large user base (20 million?) on a hardware/keyboard-based
"secure commerce" solution.)

I'm quite skeptical of this sort of thing happening. It will take many
years to propagate such a hardware-based solution.

(By the way, it hardly will satisfy the "legitimate needs of law
enforcement" crowd, as I can't imagine Mobsters, terrorists, and anarchists
like us adopting such a solution.)

The existing base of computers is HUGE, and will persist for many years,
even decades. While a lot of folks are upgrading every couple of years to
the newer and faster Intel processors, an awful lot of machines remain in
use for many years. (This may be true even more so in coming years...the
200 MHz MMX machines now so popular will be blazingly fast for Internet
uses for many years to come...unless one is doing multimedia or serious
number crunching, it is hard to imagine such a machine running out of steam
for routine Net work for years to come.)

In short, I don't see a hardware-based V-chip being at all useful to the
interest of Big Brother. If he is pushing it, let him. There's no way, not
even in Fascist America, that people can be told their machines purchased
in 1997 (or 1998, or whenever this mysterious V-chip begins to be
available) are no longer allowed to be used on the Net.

And, as with the television V-chip, the precise crowd that "most needs"
(from the nanny's point of view) the capabilities are the folks least
likely to upgrade their televisions, VCRs, computers, etc. to the new and
improved V-chip versions.

(And as with the television V-chip, all it takes is a single non-V-chip VCR
to tune in banned programs, or a single "old" 400 MHz Pentium II machine,
tucked away in a closet, to bypass the Internet V-Chip.)

Arggh, it's too stupid an idea for me to have written this article on. Oh
well, it won't be the last such article. Expect this Internet V-Chip to get
a lot of media attention.

--Tim May


There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."