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The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

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Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#61
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. It is more like we need to protect humanity from the internet.

Yeah, let only the powerful use it /s

We could put up a giant content firewall, and only allow the well connected to access the "real internet".

Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why I wish we'd just hire more police so the existing ones can spend a shift a week doing positive community work. Helping folks, getting to know the 'normal' folks. This is when I get to the problem: I don't know what exactly I'd ask them to do, but it would be things like: Free (or very low cost) 2-hour windows of child care on the weekends to give parents a stress break, delivering hot food to elde…

I don't feel that the second paragraph is realistic. But where to start in explaining why? Cop life is so complex that a weekly home economics shift isn't going to repair relationships, normalize psyches or adjust attitudes. There's a depth of behavioral psychology to this problem that extends well beyond imagining a one-size-fits all therapy plan. This can't be approached from the perspective of an outsider's view o…

As a cure it might not work —existing cops are already biased by their experience. As a vaccine however, it may have a bigger impact.

The bigger problem is to figure out whether the extra expenses are worth it.

Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#63

The internet is a voluntary vice used by some to earn a living. It's not food, shelter, clothing AND the internet. Staying away from the internet is the next health craze.

The internet isn't a vice. Over use of social networks and various applications on it may be. The internet in many forms has become the primary means of human communication.

Communication is a fundamental need of human societies. I view excessive social network usage (to the point of unhealthy) to be analogous with over eating and the obesity it leads to. Underlying both is a basic need. We do better collectively to encourage others to behave responsibly with moderation and enjoyment.

In the extreme we should guard our freedoms, yet penalize harmful abuse.

Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#65
post #57
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sad fact is that the internet has gradually become a shithole as the entirety of humanity has joined in. In what year do you feel the Internet was better than it is now?

Pre- or beside-Internet, the days of FidoNet; the days of Usenet before its decadence; the days before Web 2.0; the days before business shifted from traditional forms to Internet; the days before smartphones, etc. There's no clear point, but when it was loosely "reserved" to a certain "elite" (financial, technical, cultural, scientific) which showed genuine interest in it, it was in a much better condition than now.…

The first time I got called a "troll" because someone disagreed with my criticism of a computer program was on FidoNet. That was probably over 20 years ago.

I'm not sure it's got worse intrinsically, but it has certainly got larger, so the badness has scaled along with it.

Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#66

Instead of inflicting PTSD on content moderators, why not give the job to someone who actually wants to see this type of content? They must exist, otherwise the content wouldn't spread in the first place. And/or crowdsource it so that more people are spending less time doing it? Viewing a little bit of this content is probably less traumatic than viewing it for 40 hours a week. Of course I realize it'd probably be a…

Your idea is bad, but needs only a slight modification to work. Instead of giving the moderation task to those who are sensitive to the material, find people who are not so sensitive. Like we can't all tolerate the sight of blood, but some people can deal with it. Doesn't mean they need to be Dexter, but they might have a high tolerance to blood and dead bodies, as medical professionals often do.

Everyone is responsible for monitoring their own job and making sure it isn't affecting their life in a negative way. I think the moderator should have quit or raised the issue. Instead it's the usual story... keeps going and going even after the nightmares and anxiety... keeps working and working... depression, substance abuse or whatever.

As usual, prevention is best. Change jobs.

Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#67
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For instance, why not offer convicted pedophiles jobs which involve screening out child porn? That would save an innocent person from the trauma involved and it might even allow the pedophile to feel like he was redeeming himself to some degree by saving others from viewing that material. Or just allow the pedophile to indulge in his paraphilia. I'm really not comfortable with this...

At some point it will be possible to create very realistic CP without using children. Actually it might already be possible to do that. One would have thought that would solve most of the problem: create "artificial" CP with strict controls to ensure children are not involved, and let the weirdos watch as much as they want. (Admittedly, there would still probably be some super-weirdos who would be totally turned off…

Because it normalizes that behavior, and may push some to act it out in real life.

Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#68
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For instance, why not offer convicted pedophiles jobs which involve screening out child porn? That would save an innocent person from the trauma involved and it might even allow the pedophile to feel like he was redeeming himself to some degree by saving others from viewing that material. Or just allow the pedophile to indulge in his paraphilia. I'm really not comfortable with this...

At some point it will be possible to create very realistic CP without using children. Actually it might already be possible to do that. One would have thought that would solve most of the problem: create "artificial" CP with strict controls to ensure children are not involved, and let the weirdos watch as much as they want. (Admittedly, there would still probably be some super-weirdos who would be totally turned off…

This would effectively make child pornography "normal" (at least as normal as other extreme fetishes). Many people fear that that would lead to more pedophiles acting on their urges. Then again some think that readily available child porn could reduce cravings and reduce child molestation. I'm not sure if any actual studies exist that shed some light on that problem

Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#69

Huh. I'm reminded of that story about the guy who's shown surveillance footage of the middle east, and there's a computer that watches his brain because his brain will react to there being things like people in the images faster than he can be consciously aware of it. Would it work to use such a system to improve filtering while reducing the human cost? Or would it do something akin to what subliminal advertising is…

I don't think such a system would be notably better than standard mashine learning. Reliable image categorisation means you often have to take a second look and interpret context. The internet is filled with images that Intentionally lead to a wrong first impression and can only be recognized when consciously looking at them

Re: The Human Toll of Protecting the Internet from the Worst of Humanity

#70
Disqus and social sign-on are the great cancer. Every local news site on the planet that outsources authentication to whoever's got a valid Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc., is opening themselves to troll farms landsliding both opinions and values out of existence in favor of mindless repeatable bites, "the Sleeper Effect." This is twice as true of Twitter discussions.

Hostile nations are employing legions of both paid users with a posting quota and bots. They are taking advantage of globalism to spread fear and infest rivals with a self-destructive nationalistic ideology which appears to be grassroots and organic.

Just the other day I saw "easyvpn" on here, a one command shell utility to hop VPNs to exit from any desired country. I assume far more anonymous and powerful alternatives exist if you have the cash. This kind of thing paired with "persona management software" is a real problem.

Step back, stop out-sourcing authentication on your websites (even if it means you have to do the time learning some amount of practical cryptography, it's safer than handing the keys off in this climate), and stop conceding massive tracts of digital "space" to a hundred thousand Ru & Romanian twitter accounts claiming to be Joe America tired of liberals while deflecting to "Correct the Record" and "but emails" every time you call them out. Step it up with security, boys, that means some degree of human intelligence. The Internet is growing up and it's going through a pretty nasty phase right now.

Build a wall? How about build a wall around your website so Facebook social sign-on isn't letting Ivan roleplay half of Texas on a popular news story.

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