Australia trials Internet filtering – what happened to personal choice?
The Great Firewall of China is how the communist country makes sure its citizens can’t access websites thought to be capable of subverting their minds. But while China is one thing, Australia is quite another. So it comes as quite a shock to learn that the Australian government is trialling its own national Internet filters.
Searching back through the Blorge archives actually led me to two articles showing these ideas of Net filtering have been rumbling for months. In December of last year, it was revealed that censorship was already taking place in Australia with pornography, gambling, and torrent sites already being outlawed. Then in February came news that ISP filtering was being trialled.
Now, according to BBC News, the Rudd government’s “Plan for Cyber-Safety” campaign is focusing on the roll out of national ISP filtering. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has already conducted laboratory tests on six filtering products, and the government is thought to be planning a live trial in the near future.
The government has tried to allay any concerns from civil liberties groups by stating that anyone can opt out of the system. But this may be false as there may be two site blacklists – one with material classified as harmful to children, and one with material classified as harmful to adults. Those opting out would just move from one blacklist to the other.
That’s not even the biggest issue. Surely people should automatically be opted out of all censorship by default and only offered the chance to sign up if they want to. And if this system does come in to play, Australia would be joining an exclusive club with China, North Korea, and Burma – all of whom censor the Internet.
This is a scary thought, that the Government of the day can decide what can and cannot be viewed by the people who elect them to power. Pornography is one thing, but gambling, and betting is a different level. And where does it end? What if discussions on suicide, euthanasia, abortion and the like, issues that could potentially be considered subversive, get banned as well?
It all adds up to this being the thin end of a very big wedge, and if this initial proposal to make the Web a safer place for children gets put in place without outcry, then the end result could be very bad for Australians who value their civil liberties.
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October 27th, 2008
i find it a disgrace, it will slow down our already way below par internet speed, and will cause an increase in broadband costs, not that there expensive enough. stupid rudd
October 27th, 2008
This reminds me of what the Chinese would do.
People seem to forget the internet is unpolicable. as mentioned in the article, what is to stop it from going further?.
Don’t meddle with this stuff Kevin (c)Rudd.
February 5th, 2009
I cannot play online games now, since about 2003 the internet in other countries started to get way ahead of us and now i cannot play internet games as the ping is too big and the lag is too much. i now use the internet only for email and a bit of web surfing but not like i used to . Its sad really that a future product like the internet is not going to be used for what it was created for because of our stupid government.