SUVA (Pacnews) — Leading Pacific information technology professionals have condemned recent reports that the region is a major source of Internet porn and online threats.
A number of members of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society expressed disappointment over poor standards of reporting by Michael Field in his article “Pacific atolls host world’s most dangerous Web sites,” released last month by Fairfax Media, New Zealand.
The article was based on a recent study carried out by United States Internet security company, McAfee, which assessed and rated online safety risks of 265 countries’ top-level domains, among others.
“It is unfortunate that this important study has been so drastically misinterpreted and poorly reported,” said PICISOC chair Rajnesh Dhirendra Singh.
“We are particularly concerned with repercussions such a story may have on the development of ICTs in the region, and the international, regional and national perceptions of Internet use and content delivery in the Pacific.”
Singh said the sensationalized headline alone is misleading and inaccurate.
“Pacific atolls — in this case Niue and Tokelau — do not physically host the world’s most dangerous Web sites, and the impression that devious Internet content is being churned out of these island nations is an absolute fallacy, and never once alluded to in the McAfee study.”
As noted by PICISOC member, Jonny Martin, a senior network engineer with FX Networks, based in Wellington, New Zealand, and councilor for the Internet Society of New Zealand: “Research results were taken at face value and the methodology not discussed sufficiently in the article.”
Gisa Fuatai Purcell, a PICISOC member and longtime ICT development professional from Samoa, said: “I read the original research twice, looking for two words — ‘hardcore’ and ‘pornography’ — not there! Where did Field come up with such a finding that Niue’s site has become infamous for hardcore pornography”?