A beclowning to come

Remember how Parliament beclowned itself in the Committee hearings about Uber? They fundamentally didn't understand the technology or how it worked.

If this makes it as far as select committee, we can at least console ourselves that the hearings will be entertaining.

New Zealand could follow the United Kingdom in bringing in age restrictions for online pornography and blocking websites which refuse to comply.

Department of Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin, who also holds the children's portfolio, says young people are being "bombarded" by internet pornography and she wants censorship laws to be strengthened.

"This is a really, really big issue to New Zealand and we are going to have a serious conversation about it," she told the Herald.

"And I hope to make sure we have this conversation in this term of Government."

Martin supports the approach of the United Kingdom, which has ambitious - and controversial - plans to introduce mandatory age verification for pornographic websites later this year.

Interesting questions could include:

• How will government develop a list for a Great Filter? Does it know about the problems in the UK's list and age verification setup? 
• How does this mesh with New Zealand's privacy regime? If a foreign website is compelled to collect personally identifiable details on Kiwis that they would never otherwise wish to collect, what obligations do they face under our privacy regime? How can we tell whether those obligations are being met? What recourse might a Kiwi have in case of breach? Could a Kiwi sue the government if information produced under state compulsion were leaked and used inappropriately? 
• Does the government know what the letters V, P, and N might together mean in this context?
• What will be the appeal provisions for sites wrongly listed as being pornographic in nature, and age-blocked? Would they impose undue burden on millions of website owners, and on every Kiwi who wants to find information on topics where bots do a hard time in knowing it when they see it, from sexual health to breast cancer?
• If they follow the Brits in having "porn viewing codes" issued to those over the age of 18, what do they do when somebody leaks the code number and tracked viewing habits of Cabinet Ministers? Like, if Winston Peters is worried somebody leaded his Superannuation details...
• Will our porn-watching habits be included in IDI? 
• Why does the government think there is any market failure here when parents can already make use of parental controls if they wish?