ICT Ministry gains power to police, arrest at Intenet cafes, cyber world

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has gained the power as the 'IT watchdog', being authorized to arrest content offenders at Internet cafes and on the cyber 'air', effective from September 15, according to an amendment in an Interior Ministry regulation.

The ICT Ministry plans to spend Bt 20 million in an operation to clean up online games, dodgy Internet cafes and websites.

"ICT Ministry agents will be empowered to arrest offenders by the amendment to the Interior Ministry regulation, effective from Thursday," ICT Minister Sora-at Klinpratoom told journalists here on Wednesday.

Mr. Sora-at said that Thai authorities had already shut down up to 500 websites a month that had offered inappropriate content, amid the alarm that Thai youths are addicted to online games and prone to download dubious materials from the

cyber world.

How can Thailand solve the problem of online game addiction? The ICT Ministry will hold a public hearing here on September 19 to listen to Thai young people's views on the subject in order to formulate the right solution to online game addiction, he said.

Moreover, the ministry would speed up the expansion of 'Good Net' network incorporating Internet cafes that comply with the government's Internet safety rules and regulations as options for the youths, he said.

--TNA 2005-09-15

ICT Ministry gains power to police, arrest at Intenet cafes, cyber world 

...

How can Thailand solve the problem of online game addiction? The ICT Ministry will hold a public hearing here on September 19 to listen to Thai young people's views on the subject in order to formulate the right solution to online game addiction, he said.

Moreover, the ministry would speed up the expansion of 'Good Net'  network incorporating Internet cafes that comply with the government's Internet safety rules and regulations as options for the youths, he said.

--TNA 2005-09-15

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Or how to find creative way to Tax/Cash In this apparent lucrative business ...

The ICT Ministry plans to spend Bt 20 million in an operation to clean up online games, dodgy Internet cafes and websites.

The salient point, as they say...

All we need, another police force in Thailand.

Are they going to arrest the players or the shop owners?

I hope there will be a clear definition of what is illegal, published in the Thai

and foreign press and they will not be "making it up as they go along".

Wouldn't it be better to use the money to improve the internet access for users

in the poorer and remote upcountry areas?

I would have thought they had better things to do with their lives,

but there again TIT

Edited September 15, 200520 yr by astral

I shall be more careful in my posts, less I get arrested and have to spend a night in the ICT jail. Oh, have they built an ICT jail and will it have internet access?

Somehow, I see a large group of computer nerds in their mismatched clothes using wannabe SWAT Team tactics and weapons to raid an Internet cafe full of 8 year olds playing online shoot-em-up games... and misinterpreting the online gunfire and mowing down the 8 year olds with their real guns...

What is "inappropriate content"? What is "dubious material"? A PDF of "The Revolutionary King", perhaps? Anything critical of the PM and his decisions? This very website?

How do they plan to "clean up" online games? Everything will be reduced to the level of Kirby and the Teletubbies?

These are just some of the questions coming to mind.

it is just another joke, I guess. don't forget Thailand supposed to be a drug-free country over a year ago.

it is just another joke, I guess. don't forget Thailand supposed to be a drug-free country over a year ago.

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For the sake of this country, I hope that 2,500 of these 8-year old perpetrators aren't mercilessly gunned down like the drug cases of 2003.

SiamJai's concerns are very valid, everything does seem quite arbitrary.

btw.. I understand that "The Revolutionary King", despite being a fascinating read, is absolutely forbidden.

Have to watch what we post from now on then i guess.

Part of the crackdown on free speech I guess or whatever it's called.

Why don't they just shut down the whole of the internet, apart from Govt approved websites? Looks like we we have another example of a well thought out idea here. How I would have loved to have gone to a Thai school so I could make sense of it all!

Thailand's internet Policy may become just like China's, at this rate...

Let them block information. There are ways to bypass firewalls so that the ICT can't see what you're doing and can't block it. If you know enough to bypass their firewalls then you're probably sane enough to be granted access to it.

Why don't they just shut down the whole of the internet, apart from Govt approved websites?

You know that if the powers-that-be could figure out a way to do just that (and get away with doing so in the process), it would be done in a heartbeat.

it is just another joke, I guess. don't forget Thailand supposed to be a drug-free country over a year ago.

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don't forget that drug free is not the same as dope free, just look at the USA

Thailand's internet Policy may become just like China's, at this rate...

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And what policy in Bangkok is not highly influenced by the PRC?

Wouldn't it be better to use the money to improve the internet access for users

in the poorer and remote upcountry areas?

If His Excellency YOU KNOW WHO wanted to do something really beneficial for his country and its economy he should enable free Internet access to anybody and everybody in the country. The increased tax income generated through the accelerated economic growth would be a multiple of the cost involved (and H.E. could channel it through one of Shin Corp’s companies)

That goes, incidentally, for any developing country.

Thailand's internet Policy may become just like China's, at this rate...

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And what policy in Bangkok is not highly influenced by the PRC?

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Education.