Uproar Over Australian Internet Filter

[Mr Lee]

:714_full_of_crap: Tom may no longer be able to see his own forum. Uproar over Australian Internet filter By Tanalee SmithAssociated PressFirst Posted 10:43:00 12/28/2008SYDNEY--A proposed Internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government--mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month."This is obviously censorship," said Justin Pearson Smith, 29, organizer of protests in Melbourne and an officer of one of a dozen Facebook groups against the filter.The list of prohibited sites, which the government isn't making public, is arbitrary and not subject to legal scrutiny, Smith said, leaving it to the government or lawmakers to pursue their own online agendas."I think the money would be better spent in investing in law enforcement and targeting producers of child porn," he said.Internet providers say a filter could slow browsing speeds, and many question whether it would achieve its intended goals. Illegal material such as child pornography is often traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter."People don't openly post child porn, the same way you can't walk into a store in Sydney and buy a machine gun," said Geordie Guy, spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, an Internet advocacy organization. "A filter of this nature only blocks material on public Web sites. But illicit material ... is traded on the black market, through secret channels."Communications Minister Stephen Conroy proposed the filter earlier this year, following up on a promise of the year-old Labor Party government to make the Internet cleaner and safer."This is not an argument about free speech," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "We have laws about the sort of material that is acceptable across all mediums and the Internet is no different. Currently, some material is banned and we are simply seeking to use technology to ensure those bans are working."Jim Wallace, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, welcomed the proposed filter as "an important safeguard for families worried about their children inadvertently coming across this material on the Net."Conroy's office said a peer-to-peer filter could be considered. Most of today's filters are unable to do that, though companies are developing the technology.The plan, which would have to be approved by Parliament, has two tiers. A mandatory filter would block sites on an existing blacklist determined by the Australian Communications Media Authority. An optional filter would block adult content.The latter could use keywords to determine which sites to block, a technology that critics say is problematic."Filtering technology is not capable of realizing that when we say breasts we're talking about breast cancer, or when we type in sex we may be looking for sexual education," Guy said. "The filter will accidentally block things it's not meant to block."A laboratory test of six filters for the Australian Communications Media Authority found they missed 3 percent to 12 percent of material they should have barred and wrongly blocked access to 1 percent to 8 percent of Web sites. The most accurate filters slowed browsing speeds up to 86 percent.Read the complete story at the below linkhttp://technology.inquirer.net/infotech/in...Internet-filter

[TheMason]

I don't see the problem. Virtually all forms of communication are regulated, monitored, and censored in some fashion, why should the Internet be any different? Free speech only applies to a certain point. From what the article says, the only materials they are talking about are things that would be banned in other forms of communication as well. The key difference is that the Internet can change much more quickly. If you ban one site, another will take it's place very quickly. But just because it's more difficult doesn't mean you can't try.Personally, I think a better way would be to develop a secure online ID card that would certify your identity and track what sites and information you access. The govt. could access that data, with cause, via subpoena like they do for phone or library records. Aside from govt. tracking, this would also enable better regulation of what sorts of sites are available to children online.

[johnrxx99]

I thought the idea was to catch these guys. Slowing the interent by 86% will not stop child porn neither will filters.Australia is becoming the Super Nanny State and imo this further reduction in liberties should be fought. What next, political parties they don't like?The "State" around the world are using terrorism etc as an excuse to limit our freedom. Fight or become a drone.

Edited December 29, 2008 by johnrxx99

[tom_shor]

Hey now they are right up there with China and North Korea. That's a pretty exclusive club.

[Mik]

"Protect the children" has become an excuse for imposing any sort of control. Government is assuming too much power. It has become a runaway wild beast. Controlling information is vital to enable totalitarian government. Government controlled information becomes propaganda. This world is headed for global upheaval. The result will be a wealthy elite ruling over a world population of slaves. They are going to take everything.

[tom_shor]

"Protect the children" has become an excuse for imposing any sort of control. Government is assuming too much power. It has become a runaway wild beast. Controlling information is vital to enable totalitarian government. Government controlled information becomes propaganda. This world is headed for global upheaval. The result will be a wealthy elite ruling over a world population of slaves. They are going to take everything.

Here is a novel idea if you want to protect the children then watch them when they are on the internet instead of using the computer as a babysitter while you watch TV in the other room. The parents should be the first line of defense. They are not doing what they should be.

[johnrxx99]

All computors these days have filters so what's the problem - thick parents I guess.Let the little buggers look. Save having to teach the birds and the bees.My comments are a bit tongue in cheek but I hate the idea of censorship having grown up in the age of liberation even though it hasn't lasted long.By the way Mike: "The result will be a wealthy elite ruling over a world population of slaves. They are going to take everything." I thought they had already, lol

Edited December 31, 2008 by johnrxx99