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Re:Encryption, Privacy Are Larger Issues Than Fighting Terro... by Silhouette on Tuesday March 15, 2016 @05:58AM (#11288550)
It's also a horribly counter-productive argument. This is obviously a politically charged subject, but let's try to be rational for a moment.

It seems likely that by far the most prolific creators of child pornography today are... children. What today's parent and grandparent generations used to do in relative privacy behind the metaphorical bike shed, surely today's teenagers are doing with their phones and laptops, perhaps unaware of how insecure and non-private their communications might be.

There are all sorts of difficult ethical questions about how that kind of behaviour should in itself be treated in law, but let's ignore those for now. In any case, if kids are carrying around that kind of material or sending it to each other, surely the best way to protect them is to make sure it stays as private as it should be? That means making everything as secure and safely encrypted as possible. Arguing for weaknesses in encryption or creating backdoor vulnerabilities has exactly the opposite effect.

Re:Encryption, Privacy Are Larger Issues Than Fighting Terro... by TACIXAT on Tuesday March 15, 2016 @08:18AM (#11289034)
While I agree that privacy and secure communications are the best means to protect kids in the first world, there are still enough horrible people in the world who rape children and take pictures, as well, there is child sex trafficking. We shouldn't forget that these things exist and reduce child porn to snapchat and selfies.
Re:Encryption, Privacy Are Larger Issues Than Fighting Terro... by fl0wenol on Tuesday March 15, 2016 @01:16PM (#11291224)
The availability of strong encryption does not enable or disable child rape or human trafficking. This will happen behind traditional closed doors and guarded with guns and/or money unless other aspects of society and human nature change.
Re:Encryption, Privacy Are Larger Issues Than Fighting Terro... by Silhouette on Tuesday March 15, 2016 @05:03PM (#11292978)
We shouldn't forget that these things exist and reduce child porn to snapchat and selfies.

No, of course we shouldn't. There really are bad people in the world, and some of them really do do very evil things, and there really are good reasons to have police and security services, and they really do need reasonable powers to enable them to do their jobs and deal with the bad people.

But what we should do is keep these things in perspective and ideally set public policy based on evidence and rational arguments. Creating security loopholes that might help the authorities to find and stop a small number of genuinely evil people but might also create millions of new vulnerabilities to be targeted by other evil people (or even the same ones) isn't necessarily a good trade-off.

Re:Encryption, Privacy Are Larger Issues Than Fighting Terro... by EdHominem on Tuesday March 15, 2016 @10:01PM (#11294468)
> there are still enough horrible people in the world who [emotion instead of substance]

What's the evidence that we need [abusive bill of the day] to fix that?

Why do we think the potential harm averted is greater than the harm we know comes from overreaching laws and abusive governments?

Human trafficking at all, sex or otherwise, is horrible, common, and relatively easily stopped without new laws - at least for the victims of the moment - so go spend time and effort helping rather than beating the panic drum as you are now.

Re:Encryption, Privacy Are Larger Issues Than Fighting Terro... by TACIXAT on Wednesday March 16, 2016 @10:48AM (#11297734)
I think you're reading a little more into my comment than was there. I didn't agree with what the parent comment said about child porn. I'm very much in favor of secure communication channels and privacy.