God Dammit Australia, Why Did You Go and Censor the Internet?

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Australia Joins China In Censoring The Internet

To be censored by the Australian Government is “pornography and inappropriate material.” X rated pornography is illegal online in Australia, as are casino style internet gambling, certain forms of “hate” speech and R rated computer games. BitTorrent would be a possibility, even if certain downloads for personal use may be legal under Australian law, sharing those downloads would not be. How far “inappropriate material” may extend was not made clear, for example questioning Government policy where it comes to Aboriginal people could be deemed to be discrimination under Australian law and hence blocked by the censorship regime. Worst still, bloggers or those (such as forum owners) who allow users to comment or post could find themselves blocked under this proposal should someone say or post the wrong thing.

...

There is also a potential cost involved to Australian Internet users. The previous Government regularly cited feedback from ISP’s stating that the cost of implementing a “clean feed” would be passed onto internet users, who already pay some of the highest internet access costs in the Western world for on average slow services.

Okay, any Australians better come here and clear the name of their country if this is just over-hype.

But really, I liked Labor in the last election. WTF?

To go to the source:

Federal Labor will provide ISP (Internet Service Provider) filtering for all Australian homes, schools and public computers – under its Cyber-Safety policy announced today.

This follows the recent high profile case of a 16 year-old student, Tom Wood who was able to bypass the Federal Government’s $84 million PC filters in a mere 30 minutes.

Federal Labor supports Government initiatives to combat online threats, and believes that governments must do all they can to protect children from inappropriate material on the internet.

The Howard Government has become complacent and its Internet safety policies are inadequate. As the online world evolves, government policy must be responsive.

Our children also need to be better equipped to deal with emerging online threats, such as cyber-bullying, invasion of privacy, and computer addiction.

Won't someone think of the children?

Though I have to laugh that this is replacing their NetNanny service.

 

[DanishDynamite]

Gosh, that is terrible indeed!

Oh well, at least the world is still OK.

 

[lionking]

Can't defend this at all. Unfortunately, Labor, moreso than the Liberals, tend towards running a nanny state.

 

[DanishDynamite]

Can't defend this at all. Unfortunately, Labor, moreso than the Liberals, tend towards running a nanny state.

And what might be wrong with a Nanny State?

 

[The Fool]

All you sexual deviants are just panicking......Once we have eliminated porn from the internet (by next thursday) it still leaves us friday to ban global warming and cancer.

In reality I think this is just politicians forcing ISP's to provide a crappy filter that mummy and daddy can optionally install and convince themselves thier teenagers can't see naughty things anymore.. and maybe they can't......the kids are probably too busy cracking bank accounts and ebay userids.

 

[DanishDynamite]

All you sexual deviants are just panicking......Once we have eliminated porn from the internet (by next thursday) it still leaves us friday to ban global warming and cancer.

In reality I think this is just politicians forcing ISP's to provide a crappy filter that mummy and daddy can optionally install and convince themselves thier teenagers can't see naughty things anymore.. and maybe they can't......the kids are probably too busy cracking bank accounts and ebay userids.

Sounds bad.

Oh well, at least the Earth is OK.

 

[fuelair]

What a bunch of anal orifices!!!

 

[TragicMonkey]

I'm sorry, the microcontinent responsible for Dame Edna is finding the internet too deviant?

 

[DanishDynamite]

I'm sorry, the microcontinent responsible for Dame Edna is finding the internet too deviant?

If only your comment made sense.

 

[BenBurch]

If only your comment made sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dame_Edna_Everage

 

[DanishDynamite]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dame_Edna_Everage

If only your comment made sense.

 

[Puppycow]

It appears that you can opt-out, so at least there's that.

Today’s announcement by Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy states that the censorship regime will be mandatory, although people will be able to opt-out of it.

 

[NeoRicen]

I'm generally not a small-government libertarian kinda guy, and even this p***es me off. The worst part is that it's an opt-out thing. Nothing should EVER be opt-out.

The best thing to do is just run educational ads warning kids and parents about REAL dangers on the internet, and perhaps set up an information website on various filtering software that's available.

Parents should decide what their kid can and cannot see, assuming they even have kids, why should adults be forced to accept this kind of censorship if they don't even have kids!?

However, this is no surprise really, Beazely proposed this very thing when he was still Labor leader.

 

[JWideman]

This can be summed up in a word: unworkable.

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

It appears that you can opt-out, so at least there's that.

True, but then there's this part:

X rated pornography is illegal online in Australia, as are casino style internet gambling, certain forms of "hate” speech and R rated computer games.

 

[tkingdoll]

It appears that you can opt-out, so at least there's that.

Today’s announcement by Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy states that the censorship regime will be mandatory, although people will be able to opt-out of it.

Huh? How can something be mandatory and opt out?

 

[Terry]

If only your comment made sense.

It makes perfect sense.

 

[lionking]

Huh? How can something be mandatory and opt out?

My sentiments exactly. The other point not mentioned is the cost of the bureaucracy to manage the whole exercise, including the "opt out" provision. Imagine all the 15 year-olds impersonating their parents trying to opt out! Madness.

 

[danielk]

What the hell is "cyber-bullying"? I would have loved to be only cyber-bullied when I went to school.

 

[The Fool]

Huh? How can something be mandatory and opt out?

I think its mandatory for service providers to offer the filter but not compulsory for people to take it up....