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back to article Shock: Smartphone app to protect kids online does quite the opposite

In April, the South Korean government insisted that smartphones owned by children must have software that protects the innocent little snowflakes from looking at stuff online that might harm them or steal their personal information. Now it seems sloppy programming means the cure is even more of a threat. Canadian internet …

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  1. Crazy Operations Guy

    Dirty minds

    I've always thought that the "Won't someone think of the children" brigade has the dirtiest minds around, since what kind of person makes the leap from "pornography" to "children" so quickly?

    9 0 Reply
    1. Steven Roper
      Reply Icon

      Re: Dirty minds

      Absolutely this.

      I've shut down these "Think of the children" crusaders in many an internet forum by simply pointing out that those who shout the loudest are usually those with something to hide and are just desperately trying to publicly prove otherwise. Then the more vehemently they deny it and attack me in response, the more they prove my point!

      2 0 Reply
    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
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      Megaphone

      Re: Dirty minds

      They probably do disgusting things in private anyway, like fucking dead pigs or something, and then they threaten everyone else with needing to have ID checks run on them to access a bit of online porn to assuage their guilt.

      Hypothetically speaking and allegedly.

      7 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dirty minds

        @C.O.G. Brilliant, once after some news story I looked up the common causes of death to young people and was shocked to find the 'fiddlers didn't show in the top number, motorised vehicles and drownings did so it would more accurate to accuse someone of being a "pond owner and risk to children" or horrors of horror car driver!

        It quickly occurred top me the people who needed to see reason were the ones who just would not in this lifetime, they would continue to bring their distorted mindset to exchanges regarding childhood risk. Next time someone says think of the children say "I do, I ride a bicycle!".

        1 0 Reply
  2. Mark 85

    and found security blunders that make Windows 98 look like a paragon of secure coding.

    Best line ever.... have a cold one Iain ----------------------->

    3 0 Reply
    1. Steven Roper
      Reply Icon

      The irony is that Windows 98 is surprisingly secure in many ways precisely because of its obsolescence. Pretty much all modern malware requires the NT kernel libraries to run, and won't work in Windows 98 for this reason. Of course that doesn't preclude some hacker port-scanning your machine, but drive-by downloads of things like ransomware, spyware and keyloggers are largely ineffective!

      That's not to say that using Windows 98 is a valid security solution of course, just an interesting side effect of using such an outdated operating system.

      5 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Windows 3.1.1 is similar in my experience.

        2 0 Reply
  3. Montreal Sean

    Obviously somebody was thinking of the children.

    And how easy they could make it for people to steal the children's data.

    3 0 Reply
  4. Captain DaFt

    When I hear phrases like "Think of the children" and "Beware of terrorists", it always translates in my head as them saying:

    "Look how much power over you and how much wealth I can accumulate just by scaring idiots with these scarecrows!"

    8 0 Reply
  5. Spaceman Spiff

    Why are we not surprised? Governmental agencies are the most egregiously stupid when it comes to real security. In the US, the DHS should be called the DHIS (Department of Homeland InSecurity). The NSA? How about the NISA (National InSecurity Administration)? After all, they could not prevent a gazillion top secret documents from being purloined by one Edward Snowden, though I applaud him for that!

    2 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      I'm sure the NSA keeps asking themselves where they screwed up approving this contractor and their personal. Rather than answering the tough question of what her their activities are Constitutional.

      2 0 Reply
  6. Chairo
    Devil

    No surprise

    Do they still have their ActiveX dependent "national ID system"? That thing used to be a nightmare. Without it you could not access the internet, effectively forcing their citizens into Microsoft's tender arms bear hug.

    0 0 Reply
  7. codebeard

    Korean

    In the Korean translation of The Simpsons, Helen Lovejoy says 제발 아이들을 생각하세요!

    This means something like "For goodness sake, please think of the children!"

    0 0 Reply

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