From The Geniuses Behind Net Censorship Comes “The Panic Button”

Some of the strongest advocates for internet censorship in Australia are now pushing a new idea to save kiddies from the dangers that apparently lurk behind every website: a “panic button.”

According to Fairfax Media, the panic button “would be a recognizable icon that children can relate to (such as a cartoon dolphin)” and if kids encounter “serious trouble online, pushing the button could connect them instantly to police or child protection groups.”

According to Hetty “there’s a pedophile behind every website” Johnson, “Triple-0 is the universal number for when the proverbial hits the fan, but what do you do online? When the proverbial hits the fan, you hit the panic button.”

Yes, because kiddies should contact the police or similar support groups when they feel threatened online, vs well…let me see, what else could they do instead….mmmm, that’s a hard one….oh, that’s right, vs TURNING OFF THE COMPUTER.

Yes, because if you’re being cyber-raped you should keep your rapist on the screen while engaging with Aunty Hetty’s dolphin button.

But because two nut jobs is never enough, Bernadette “censor everything” McMenamin added her knowledge of statistics to create epic lulz in the Fairfax article, when she claimed that the panic button was needed because (and this is a direct quote) “one in four children had been sexually harassed over the internet but only 3 per cent of children would ever tell anyone about sexual abuse.”

If you’re wondering how you’ve missed news that an epidemic of online sexual harassment of children is taking place, you haven’t, because the figures she quotes have NO basis in fact.

The one in four figure relates to “unwanted exposure to some kind of image of naked people or people having sex in the last year,” not sexual harassment. Depending on the study, the figure for sexual harassment is around one in 15-17.

Any figure above zero is a bad figure, but likewise the ongoing reliance by these people on the nanny state vs teaching kids to switch off, or even better, encouraging parents to supervise their children, continues to belittle their otherwise reasonable overall cause: the protection of children.