What do our Aussie friends think of...

DrPaul wrote:Hey Down-under guys,
I was just reading an article from the Herald Sun about a mandatory Internet filter and efforts by the Australian government to censor the Web.

Excerpt:

AUSTRALIA'S mandatory net filter is being primed to block 10,000 websites as part of a blacklist of unspecified "unwanted content"...
"The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA blacklist of prohibited content, which is mostly child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content," Senator Conroy told Parliament today.

Child porn is one thing. It's probably illegal anyway. It's that "other unwanted content" that would have me worried. Sounds a lot like the thin edge of the wedge when government deems criticism of the government as unwanted content. The end of free speech.

I'm interested in this because I foresee the same thing happening here in the U.S. very soon.

Do you guys have any organized and vocal opposition to this? If so, how's it going?

I personally think it is a ridiculous idea.

Why the hell should we (legitimate internet users) have our experience altered, filtered, and slowed down in any way, shape or form because parents out there aren't doing their god damn jobs and policing their child's usage of the internet properly! Ruining the experience for everybody is not the solution when all it takes is a little god damn responsibility on the parent's part.

I don't know about anyone else here, but these days it seems to me that society is rewarding crap parenting more and more! What next? Adults are no longer allowed to interact with children just in case one might be a sex offender!? There is one very, very simple solution to all this: take some god damn responsibility and teach your children well, and you won't have to worry about any of these things!

That's my stance on it anyway.

-Cub. =o)

And so moral authority shows its ugly face on the internet.

It only took a few decades for it to corrupt the New World, I'm not surprised it's already trying to reach out to the virtual world.

Security for all! Huzzah!

With the exception of Child Pornography {which should in no way exist whatsoever} I see no reason for any type of content to be blocked by government... For Parents if they don't want their children viewing certain things, there are several programs out there, some of them free, that can put blocks on your computer... No reason whatsoever for Government to be involved in matters like this...

I feel for you guys down under... I believe it is only a matter of time before the USA does something along the same lines... This all started with China's Government, putting blocks of all kinds on their country's internet...

Sucks no matter which way you look at it...

If I want to go read some comedy jokes bashing government, that should be my right, or anything else for that matter...

I've been hearing a lot about this and must say that I am also against the filter. In my view, Australia is a liberal democracy. As part of every democracy, people are given choices. The Internet may be a world domain, but as long as it is accessible in Australia, people still have a choice in what they look up on it. While there are many unsavoury things on the internet which I don't agree with, we have a choice as to whether we look at them or not. As for those looking at child pornography, we already have laws in place to catch those who are into that sort of thing.

In applying a filter on the Internet to censor the Internet, not only is democracy undermined but it also implies that Australian law is defective in its role to monitor, regulate and safeguard activities on the Internet.

An Internet filter will also put Australia even further behind technologically. We are almost one of the last nations in the world to take up fibre optic Internet and broadcast for HDTV.