Word: channelized
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When a knife-wielding madman attacked and killed eight children at an Elite elementary school in Ikeda, some Internet users in Japan had a sinking feeling. Six days before the bloody rampage on June 8, visitors to a popular bulletin board server called Channel 2 had seen an ominous rant. "My pride has been destroyed. I hate university-affiliated schools," the anonymous writer raged. "Some may say my anger is misplaced and misdirected, but it's all their fault. I am very vindictive...
...Circumstantial evidence? Perhaps. But it would be folly to ignore the disturbing notes that pop up on Channel 2 and too often foreshadow real-life horrors. In May last year a 17-year-old boy hijacked a bus in Fukuoka prefecture, held 10 passengers hostage and stabbed one to death during a 15-hour, 279-km ride of terror. An hour before boarding the bus, he had left a cryptic message on the Channel 2 bulletin board: "Saga City (near Fukuoka) 17-year-old, heh heh heh heh heh." A week later, another 17-year-old announced online that...
...needs reality TV? For hundreds of thousands of Japanese voyeurs, sensational drama unfolds regularly on Channel 2, which claims some 8 million hits a day and is the country's eighth most accessed site. The bulletin board wasn't meant to be a soapbox for deranged malcontents but rather a rare haven for Japanese to discuss normally taboo subjects, like the yakuza, the royal family and discrimination against Koreans?topics the mainstream media either sanitizes or simply won't touch. "The Emperor is a war criminal. How is it that we haven't yet done away with the Imperial system...
...What lurked behind the door has proved shocking. Created in 1999 and managed by 150 volunteers, Channel 2 is the brainchild of an unlikely rebel: soft-spoken, 24-year-old computer consultant Hiroyuki Nishimura. Free to users, the site pulls in a mere $25,000 or so a month in advertising. "I wanted to provide space for people to discuss their interests," he says, adding that he doesn't censor a word. "Helpful or harmful, information is information," he says. "It's not up to us to question the impact or consequences." Nishimura may be forced to tighten up, however...
...Surfing through Channel 2 is like taking a ride on Japan's wild side. On any given day you can read messages about users' schemes to assault their bosses, murder their teachers or blow up a neighborhood kindergarten. Most are by harmless attention seekers. "There are so many of those, I can't keep count," Nishimura says. Police are starting to take notice, though. Last month, after someone left a message identifying a schoolgirl and threatening to rape her, anonymous callers tipped off police, who immediately surrounded the girl's school in Ibaraki prefecture. Fortunately, this one turned...