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I think the appropriate aphorism here is "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." No doubt the Japanese government believe that this law is for extrem

I think the appropriate aphorism here is "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." No doubt the Japanese government believe that this law is for extreme cases where someone sends thousands of awful messages, or where a mob drives someone to suicide, but this will end up being used to prosecute some poor 14 year old kid who calls someone else a bad name in Call of Duty. Without strict limitations in laws they're always used to overreach. It's a shame there isn't a technically-minded group that governments can talk to for advice about this sort of thing.

makeitdouble 4y ago
I’m curious about what other path do you see for the authorities to effectively deal with sever online abuse that results in irl damage. Do you see a country that successfully navigated the issue ? To note, under this law the charges still need to go to a judge to decide how heavy any of it should be.
- onion2k 4y ago
  I’m curious about what other path do you see for the authorities to effectively deal with sever online abuse that results in irl damage. That's simple. There needs to be a test for what constitutes IRL damage written in to the law. As far as I know no country has done that.
  - makeitdouble 4y ago
    I kinda get what you mean, but that would result in a law that only punishes once the victim has irreparable damage (~ dead) I’d see it akin to only punishing murders and let go attempts and battering because its too “fuzzy”.
shadowgovt 4y ago
> "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." I agree. For example, we created a global flat bidirectional un-gatekept communications network with the altruistic and high-minded belief that if allowed to communicate without the material trappings of class, race, gender, and the various other things that separate us in "meatspace," we'd create a techno-utopia of our best selves through rational discourse and the clear-eyed sharing of different points of view. Instead, suicides among teens exposed to this firehose are spiking. We should address that.
- throwaway0x7E6 4y ago
soraminazuki 4y ago
I doubt lawmakers are that naive. They are perfectly aware of the abuse potential of such laws but went ahead anyways.
Hamuko 4y ago
I've heard speculation that the age of consent laws in Japan are kept purposefully confusing so that they can be applied as prosecutors wish. Apparently it's something like this: http://helpto.pro/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/contest-japan.png http://helpto.pro/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/contest-japan.p... There was also that time when Mandarake caused an uproar when they opened a porn store right across a clothing store for kids, separated only by a two-metre corridor. The police eventually shut down the store for being within 200 metres of a hospital. That also had a strong whiff of "shopping around for a fitting crime".

makeitdouble 4y ago

I’m curious about what other path do you see for the authorities to effectively deal with sever online abuse that results in irl damage. Do you see a country that successfully navigated the issue ? To note, under this law the charges still need to go to a judge to decide how heavy any of it should be.

onion2k 4y ago
I’m curious about what other path do you see for the authorities to effectively deal with sever online abuse that results in irl damage. That's simple. There needs to be a test for what constitutes IRL damage written in to the law. As far as I know no country has done that.
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  I kinda get what you mean, but that would result in a law that only punishes once the victim has irreparable damage (~ dead) I’d see it akin to only punishing murders and let go attempts and battering because its too “fuzzy”.

shadowgovt 4y ago

> "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." I agree. For example, we created a global flat bidirectional un-gatekept communications network with the altruistic and high-minded belief that if allowed to communicate without the material trappings of class, race, gender, and the various other things that separate us in "meatspace," we'd create a techno-utopia of our best selves through rational discourse and the clear-eyed sharing of different points of view. Instead, suicides among teens exposed to this firehose are spiking. We should address that.

throwaway0x7E6 4y ago

soraminazuki 4y ago

I doubt lawmakers are that naive. They are perfectly aware of the abuse potential of such laws but went ahead anyways.

Hamuko 4y ago

I've heard speculation that the age of consent laws in Japan are kept purposefully confusing so that they can be applied as prosecutors wish. Apparently it's something like this: http://helpto.pro/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/contest-japan.png http://helpto.pro/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/contest-japan.p... There was also that time when Mandarake caused an uproar when they opened a porn store right across a clothing store for kids, separated only by a two-metre corridor. The police eventually shut down the store for being within 200 metres of a hospital. That also had a strong whiff of "shopping around for a fitting crime".