Internet filtering in Australia

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In some ways this country is great, quite a liberal country, multicultural and religion tolerant, guns mostly outlawed, a sunny country with lots of potential. However sometimes the politicians do the stupidest things. On the 15th this month the communications minister released a statement, the planned internet filtering will go ahead.

The idea is essentially to censor the internet, any website deemed RC rated (refused classification) will be blocked from access at the top level by the major ISPs, and this will be required by law.

Here is a link:
http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/ ... s/2009/115

choice quote from that article:

EDIT: clarifying, the tests were considered a success and the government will go ahead with trying to get this legislation passed as law next year

The ratings system here is a lot stricter than the US, its not a voluntary thing. So any sites rated RC get put on a list and thus will be blocked from access in Australia. This will slow the net down obviously. Also as proof of how stupid this is any filtering can be easily bypassed using a proxy.

I cannot believe such a totalitarian, conservative system is going ahead. I don't really know who wants this filtering either- the conservative Christian minority that hardly uses the internet anyway? Also after the international objection to the plan and Stephen Conroy being voted ISPA Internet Villain of the Year 2009 for this he still goes ahead...

This frightens and enrages me. It is supposed to protect us from porn, which it won't.

How about protecting us from getting a face full of porn every time we turn the TV on and get slapped with Californication or Queer as Folk or a dozen other degenerate shows?

No, I fear that the real issue is for them to block any website that has political or news content that they don't want us to see.

They are planning to block sites politically- for example abortion and euthanasia are illegal here and any sites detailing this are apparently going to be blocked too. It is so open to future abuse. Is also so easy to bypass.

No it isn't! Perhaps you and I know how to re-route through an international proxy server but 99.99% of the sheeple don't.

"They" are afraid of the internet.
"They" are afraid that we might hear the other side of the story through the internet instead of believing the rubbish the mainstream media serves us.

As an example I give you "Climategate"

If internet sensring starts up then
shortwave radio stations will pop up and
people will start buying or making thier
own shortwave world band radios that is
those who feel a strong need to hear the
truth.

Yikes!! !

I feel like all this will do is slow the internet down
and a high speed broadband network was one of their election promises.

And it's just a stupid idea in general.

This is a stupid idea. There is going to be abuse and misuse of this filter, all governments are corrupt and abuse their power. This filter is also just a waste of their time and our money, its not going to do a thing because its really easy to circumvent. This country is suppose to be democratic and is supposed to listen to the people, even before they started this filter business I couldn't see how this country called itself democratic. The most annoying part about this is how secretive they were about it, if they aren't doing anything wrong why so secretive? I am all for transparency and accountability, which this government seems not to value and show. Bugger this, we are just one step closer to a dictatorship.

I can understand why this kind of things happen in countries like China, but Australia? Why don't they spend the time and money doing something constructive to their people instead?

I can't believe they are going through with this, this idea should have died. In my opinion it is a waste of money that could be spent on other things.
How do they plan on filtering the entire internet? it is inevitable that a lot of sites will just slip through filtering.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJOfMMQnaC0[/youtube]

Whoray! So instead of getting the much needed and faster ADSL2+ in my area of town I'll be getting my Second Life blocked (you can bet that'll be blocked, as will other unclassified virtual worlds which may contain adult content).

The Federal government likes putting restrictions on things. See Left 4 Dead 2 and just recently, the new Aliens versus Predator game.

Jumping through all of the hoops to just get a measly firearms license and the permits is insane, and if it weren't my interest, there's no way I would be able to do it.

Just get out of our lives already.

Had to look up something which described the rating: "Refused Classification, or RC-rated material includes child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence including rape and the detailed instruction of crime or drug use."

Let's see, a case could be made then that Shakespeare's plays, the Bible, and jokes about kilt-wearing Scotsmen, should be prohibited.

umm, how much of the Adult areas in Wrong Planet would be caught in the crossfire?

The Haven