A_Wanderer
ONE love, blood, life
I disappear for a month of fear and loathing across the desert to return to a new regime with a cavalcade of anti-freedom propositions that particular demographics seem to love.
The illiberal parties in this country each support spending hundreds of millions of dollars on state censorship (I have had an amazon order blocked by customs - over a bloody book). The opt-out option is there but the notion of default censorship and having to pay out to get online liberties is sickening. The fact that the majority is passive towards such measures and an active minority can push such measures just makes me long for protections on free speech.
More sex, violence, swearing and books about psilocybin mushrooms; less expensive intrusion into the lives of others.
linkEVERY Australian with an internet connection could soon have their web content automatically censored.
The restrictions are planned by the Federal Government to give greater protection to children from online pornography and violent websites.
Under the plan, all internet service providers will have to provide a "clean" feed to households and schools, free of pornography and other "inappropriate" material.
Australians who want uncensored access to the web will have to contact their internet service provider and "opt out" of the service.
Online civil libertarians yesterday warned the freedom of the internet was at stake, while internet providers were concerned the new measures could slow the internet in Australia to a crawl.
They said it was a measure usually associated with oppressive regimes and was no alternative to proper parental monitoring.
But Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said everything possible had to be done to shield children from violent and pornographic online material.
"We have always argued more needs to be done to protect children," he said.
Senator Conroy said the clean feed, also known as mandatory ISP filtering, would prevent users from accessing prohibited content.
"We will work with the industry to get the best policy," he said. "(But) Labor is committed to introducing mandatory ISP filtering."
Senator Conroy said the Australian Communications and Media Authority would prepare a "blacklist" of unsuitable sites.
It is unclear exactly what will be deemed inappropriate material.
The adoption of mandatory ISP filtering comes on top of the former government's offer of free internet filtering software for home computers.
Chairman of internet user group Electronic Frontiers Australia, Dale Clapperton, said mandatory filtering eroded freedom and would not improve online safety for children.
"China, Burma and Saudi Arabia and those type of oppressive countries are the only ones that have seriously looked at doing something like this," he said.
"In Australia, which is supposedly a liberal democracy, the Government is saying that the internet is so full of this material that it must protect us from it by trying to block it."
Mr Clapperton feared that parents would be lulled into a false sense of security.
"Parents should not allow their children to use the internet unsupervised," he said.
"Stuff that should be blocked will inevitably get through and stuff that should not be blocked will not."
Family First senator Steve Fielding, who has campaigned for ISP filtering, said he would be watching the Government "like a hawk" on the issue.
"Australian families want more (internet protection) and deserve more than they are currently getting, and this is a real test for the Rudd Government," he said.
A report by the Australia Institute in 2003 showed 84 per cent of boys and 60 per cent of girls using the internet had experienced unwanted exposure to sexual material.
The illiberal parties in this country each support spending hundreds of millions of dollars on state censorship (I have had an amazon order blocked by customs - over a bloody book). The opt-out option is there but the notion of default censorship and having to pay out to get online liberties is sickening. The fact that the majority is passive towards such measures and an active minority can push such measures just makes me long for protections on free speech.
More sex, violence, swearing and books about psilocybin mushrooms; less expensive intrusion into the lives of others.