Like surfing the web ? Stay away from Australia!

Our so called New Leadership dragged Australia further into the online dark ages today.

Stephen Conroy our enlightened Digital Communications Minister announced broad brush filtering of Internet content for all Australians.

As Gary Barber puts it, when it comes to Kiddy Porn, as a father of two young ones I'm absolutely supportive of everything we can do in this regard.

But the way this has been announced (with no online communications / dialog), the lack of detail and the inconvenient truth in the practicalities of filtering leave me very concerned with our New Leadership when it comes to dealing with the digital industry.

We've already seen a lack of urgency in dealing with the bigger issue of being able to access the internet in Australia, the lack of urgency in moving the digital media content industry forward with the digital television switch over being pushed by to 2013 (who's driving that agenda I wonder?) and the then these ACMA age restriction rules coming into force on January 20th but now the firewall

Stephen, I urge you to engage with people that actually deeply understand this industry, discuss and collaborate for a better digital Australia. Move things forward not backwards, right now it all looks backwards

Comments

[Scott Barnes]

but its for the kids... i hate it when politicians use the "for the good of our kids" card on matters that go far beyond the initial reactive remarks.

I love how he contradicts himself:

"Senator Conroy says it will be mandatory for all internet service providers to provide clean feeds, or ISP filtering, to houses and schools that are free of pornography and inappropriate material."..

Ok so we need to protect the kids from surfing the web + porn at school. Hey i'm for that, lets do that - wait isn't that what most software out there today does.. but lets add another layer of protection for good measure. SO.. no problem with that so far...

"Labor makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road," he said.

Oook.. now i'm nervous.. he likes the Chinese way of life... Isn't labour political colors red.. ok now i have a sinking feeling in my stomach..

"If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree."

There we go, he went for the "..it will stop Child pornography, mark my words" angle. Who could dare to refute that.. Oh wait.. if i recall the kids involved in such content ARE THE ONES GETTING MOLESTED.. not the ones viewing the said molestation.. so i'm still scratching the old head wondering how this is going to rid the world of child pornography.. but none the less it has a great distraction momentum attached to it..

"Senator Conroy says anyone wanting uncensored access to the internet will have to opt out of the service."

Ok.. now i'm lost yet again... so on one hand they want to protect us from ourselves so to speak, yet equally you have the chance to sign a waiver i guess to say "I want to see Paris Hiltons home video, and i want it now.."

Now i'm guessing.. it's only a crazy wild guess but that may also be a gateway to allow pedophiles to say "..err yeah.. i want to look at Paris Hiltons goodies to.. honest.." and then before you know it, they are up to their acidic scummy tricks.

So what has changed overall? well a list of people is now being populated with "those that have porn access vs those whom don't"..

"There are people who are going to make all sorts of statements about the impact on the [internet] speed," he said.

Um... i don't think speeds going to be top of the agenda, i think the idea of vocal anger around stupid filters in place to prevent the sky from caving in when in fact the sky isn't caving in is going to rise to the top of the agenda.. but thats just my initial knee jerk thinking ;)

"The internet hasn't ground to a halt in the UK, it hasn't ground to a halt in Scandinavian countries and it's not grinding the internet to a halt in Europe."

Correct but that's pretty much because they figured out a way around it and most of the child pornography appparently comes from Europe anyway (Germany/Austria to be exact).. but hey.. if that floats his boat to get this stupid ruling passed, whom i to get in his way.. as after all.. its about protecting the kids right..

I don't question the intent, i am glad a politician is bold enough to want to put a stop to something that clearly is the lowest of low. Yet, I question the methods behind such notion, as it's essentially trying to boil the ocean with a box of matches..

Scott Out.
(Source Links)
http://russiatoday.ru/news/news/2530
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/31/2129471.htm?section=australia

[Ben Nadel]

Filtering the internet, for whatever reason you want, just seems like a horrible idea to me. Frankly, it makes my skin crawl a little bit. You can't stop anything with filtering - the people who want to do wrong will always find a way to do wrong; all filtering has a chance of doing is preventing good people from having full control (if you see what I'm saying). It can only have a negative impact.

[Stephen Collins]

Like Scott, I don't argue with the intent of this proposal. The protection of our kids from violence, exploitation and abuse is critical. I do however have a significant issue with the way it's being framed and the words being used to argue the case. It just sounds like terrible advice is being given to Senator Conroy.

You can see my thoughts at http://www.acidlabs.org/2008/01/01/dumb-decision-by-our-new-government-over-net-filtering/