Page 68 - Dignity and justice for all of us our voices are heard in Thailand

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
A boy, age 15
Grade 10 student

Voice

“Complete censorship is A 15-year-old Grade 10 student shares his experience of using the internet. He believes a
fundamental characteristic of the internet is that its access and usage is anonymous. However,
an obstruction to some people take advantage of this anonymous nature to harm others, thinking that they are

knowledge” safe to do so because they are protected by the right to privacy. He reports that there is a secret
website, well known among students, containing rumours and gossip which is recounted and
later modified by students anonymously. “This website is famous amongst students, who post
rumours and profanities on it without any supervision,” he explains.

He asserts that the ‘privacy policy’ of the internet should guarantee the privacy of its users and
that this should be monitored by webmasters. Regarding the violation of privacy and dignity via
the internet, he believes that close supervision is a must because the internet is an open
channel, providing access to everyone. He claims that the easiest way to prevent defamation is
through the use of a web administrator. The duty of the website owner or webmaster is to have
their site supervised and the duty of the users themselves is to prevent any problems from
occurring.

“It seems that the cyber community can be dangerous,” he notes. “But there is no need to worry
about it if we can control it well. My teacher told me that the internet is a good thing. The only
problem is that not all people are good. However, I do not favour complete censorship. We
should be entitled to view websites and complete censorship is an obstruction to knowledge.”

56 Dignity and Justice for All of Us