Australia Internet filtering a test case for global clean-feed

Class Action

So who's up for a class action lawsuit when the government fails to "protect" our children with this ridiculous idea?

Lazy thinking

Surely Mr Cannon can do better than "it's just too open, free-flowing and too uncontrollable"? That's so weak a justification it wouldn't convince anyone to look up from their keyboard let alone construct an expensive mandatory censorship scheme to tackle this "problem".

What is there to gain from this proposal? What threat is being targetted? Why should we spend all this money and give up so much liberty? Just because the internet is "too open"? Give me a break!

There are people out there who are uncomfortable with the fact that ordinary citizens can communicate in an uncontrolled manner. These people want to clamp down on individuality. All the talk of internet nasties is a transparent excuse to introduce draconian limits on our freedom. Mr Cannon must use more than just his fear of an open internet to justify his claims that internet censorship is in any way a good thing.

"the ISP filtering plan would be dictated by society and less so by Government".

err no this is expressly dictated by govt, not society! and in any case 'the isp industry' is not 'society' either.

as for too free flowing etc why does this man think that changing rules here is going to do ANYTHING to the 'click through' sites hosted offshore?

were it something that was against CP and only that it WOULD be palatable. is all the rest of the stuff being bundled in on top of that - and the fact that it is expressly admitted the proposed Great Firewall is completely useless for its intended purpose anyway.

going by the 95% 'no' vote at SMH the only collective agreement i am seeing is that WE DONT WANT this pig in a poke.

Christian Nazi Net is HERE!!!

The great thing about all of this religious or "culty" guff, is that all the sheeple groveling in their steeple, they all have "opinions" about what their deity is "saying" and righteously so, but the deity in the last few thousands of years of "omnipotence", has never once put in a personal appearance.

You know like if "JC and the Space Cadets" were a rock band - the clueless would have caught on that while the promoters claim that they play in gigs all over the land, but they have never turned up; while the clueless and stupid keep rocking up and buying the tickets.

Losers.

So the same overlording us with more holier than thou drivel, is projected into the area of computer games and internet sites.

Again while people get slaughtered for fun and profit in the movies and the real world, playing computer games doing the same stuff is just not on?

Why?

Am I surprised that the people thrusting their liturgical loins at the censors office for "standards and decency" are not trying to put the shackles on those who choose to have their own autonomous opinions, by declaring them to workers of the devil, sorcery and witches - starting with the jabbings for the devils mark.

Am I even further surprised that this is now extending into the Great Australian Firewall.

Perhaps those who cry loudest are those who look forlornly upon the promises of the bible, such as Ezekiel 23: 21 "whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of stallions."

I mean who wouldn't want that or to be getting that?

I mean thank god Conroy is standing up for real Christian family values.

Jesus said in Revelation 2:22-23 "And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works."

So Jesus wants to kill our kids - that's cool cause it is Jesus.

Timbo says I Timothy 2:11-14 "Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."

So all the women ought to keep their traps shut. I mean it's in the bible - so it must be true right.

And God digs killing pregnant chicks by knifing them and smashing their kids brains out on the ground; so the christians have got this family values stuff down pat: Hosea 13:16 "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up."

So Conroy and his catholic buddies have got this right - we have to be protected against them out there on the internet and subjugate ourselves to the righteous christians showing us how their god loves us and how we ought to be kissing his ass, on the basis of their say so.

Oh did I mention that the old testament is a scammed copy of the Code of Hammurubi? The King of Babylons state laws - and the first 6 books of the bible are bare faced rip offs of this, just rebranded to a diety instead of the king?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_code_of_Hammurabi.pdf

Yep gotta remember them good old christian family values, the true word of god is the bible... except that getting nailed for copyright and plagarisim wasn't invented then.

Cannon is wrong

"Cannon was confident the proposed legislation would sit favourably with most consumers."

That's not true. Although no formal polls have been commissioned, informal newspaper polls have consistently returned results suggesting around 95% of consumers just do not want mandatory state filtering of the WWW.

Also untrue is that the filter will be dictated by society and not the government. The filter will be managed in total secret by a group of bureaucrats in Canberra and there will be no avenue for appeal by the public as the blacklist will be kept secret and publicizing it in any way is a criminal offence. When the list was leaked overseas earlier this year, it was found that a significant number of totally legal and innocuous sites had been blacklisted either by mistake or deliberately. I am surprised that moralists and Christians still love this idea so much as one of those sites was actually a Christian pro-life anti-abortion site. Another site had discussion of euthanasia (which is illegal to discuss by means of electronic carriage in Australia - i.e. you cannot mention euthanasia even on your telephone): clear evidence that not just "child porn" but also political content will indeed be blacklisted.

Cannon is living in dreamland.

He's provably wrong

Mr. Cannon says:<cite>“Anybody that has a good understanding of how the Internet works would agree there needs to be some sort of governance in terms of rules around how the Internet should work and what types of information is ultimately available online.”</cite>
Firstly, I can't see how understanding how the internet works is the slightest bit related to agreeing that there needs to be any form of governance. Secondly, I have a good understanding of how the internet works (probably better than most), and I don't agree - therefore, he's provably wrong!

Just kidding...

No we should not lock up the ISP thread guys from WP or torture them, they are tortured enough when I post comments here.... >;))

oh dear

coming from the UK, where i though the government (conservatives at the time) was average, i now know that they are mostly university educated. The lowly heights that these politicians (and its is incredibly low!) are educated too, amazes me...but alas the people are not much better (not all of them, but most) are fairly average, they don't know when they are being hoodwinked...its such a shame, but there will be an exodus of people...hmm maybe that country with the patriot act looks quite good now ;-)

Zionist Communism

Another troll. Following your Zionist Talmudic Judaism to the letter hey?

To all the dumb goy/cattle out there, learn to ssh or VPN without an operating system with more backdoors then dead Palestinians in Gaza and learn to speak up before you join them.

The internet exists because of open thinking and open standards.

They can get stuffed. If the internet is too scary for mums and dads, then give them a linux box and STFU. I'm sick of fixing stuff because people who shouldn't be using the internet are. If you can't handle it get out of the web kitchen.

internet filter

i hate this communist Senator CONroy , we all need to know how to bypass this filter system , im not computer savvy as some , but i want to do something !!! if ways to get around the filter are shown to people in easy to understand format then please pass on the how to information

Speaking of clowns, did you hear about....

Thanks AA for your eloquent words and labelling...

I can see that you have missed the whole point of the filtering proposal, or you wish to stay focused on the one aspect (protect kids from seeing...),and ignore the rest.

The fundamental is very simeple AA, even if you wish to stay in denial on this:

Internet filtering is forseen to bring internet conetnt controls in line with media and content censorship laws and practices that apply nationally. They apply to all other media and contentd elivery channels today, now the internet is going to be included.

That AA, is pretty simple, and nothing fascist at all, they do not need clowns, nor radical changes to laws etc.

Thanks for your advice on ISPs and filters, your concerns are noted and your eloquent advice reflects your usual high standard of debate and exchanges...

The "sad parents" of Australia will certainly enjoy your labelling, as well as all those folks that do have Christian beliefs. Your advice on parenting is also duly noted by many. Thanks.

Again you seem imprisoned in some idea that this is just all and only about protecting kids from seeing "naughty" things.

Well I have some shocking news for you AA, hang on to your chair: It is about more that, it is about applying the same laws to the internet that applies to other content delivery facilities...

Shocker hey? This almost hidden aspect (only mentioned about 100 times and seen by the non-blind...)

Once you have come out of your shock (and probable rage over my comment...), I await your well versed and delicately worded response AA...

Tally ho lad, show us what you can come up with in wisdom and erudition...

BTW: I actually have 3 ISPs in total, are all ISPs retarded, except the one you use?

I don't understand why, after all these years, the politicians feel that they need to apply some sort of internet filter.

Seems like the information superhighway is starting to develop road blocks and detours.

Maybe the explosive growth of the internet is a double-edged sword which will ultimately lead to its demise, with various organisations fighting for control and picking it apart until nothing but the bare bones are left.

David Cannon says: "Anybody that has a good understanding of how the Internet works would agree there needs to be some sort of governance in terms of rules around how the Internet should work and what types of information is ultimately available online.”

This is rubbish, Mr Cannon. You and Conroy need to live longer and experience more of life before making such grand statements.

Female, 64 years old, two post-graduate degrees, one in Information Technology, and an internet user and teacher since 1987. My life education only really began with the internet. It has been the most amazing, most powerful education resource for me. Ask any question and the internet will return a thousand answers and more, from people from all walks of life.

Until I was able to access the internet, I had limited understanding of the nature of humanity, the breadth and depth of human suffering and joy. It was via the internet that I came across the story of the terrible suffering of Taliban women and was able to commit to their fight for freedom.

The internet also supported me through the worst period of my personal life, providing a balance of views which enabled me to realise that things happen and it is not necessarily the fault of self. I could ask questions which were too personal and shameful to discuss with even my closest friends and for every question, I found answers and commonsense.

However, the main point in this debate concerns the approach Conroy is taking. I am sure no-one would frown on blocking sites that harm children. In my view, there are two errors in the approach being taken.

The first is taking the responsibility away from parents, always a recipe for disaster.

The second, and more important, is Conroy's "secret list". There is no justification in a free society for "secret lists". It is a terrifying thought that Australia could end up like China, Iran etc. On this point alone, all Australians must fight against Conroy's policy.

Who is Conroy, anyway, that he has such a sense of hubris that feels he had the right to control our lives and access to information that belongs to all of us? Conroy's background is very ordinary: born in Britain, Catholic, three year economics degree, then worked as advisor to Labor politicians with a view to getting into politics! What gives this man the right to control the lives of every Australian?

I have to say that I have read all the comments here and to my mind at least the purchasing and maintenance of this software which will be instated at ISP level will cost Australians approx $125 million dollars..per year.... Aside from all the other issues mentioned above...when a family is grieving over one of their members dying from one of the many cancers around today..maybe we should ask them what the money should have been spent on...an internet censoring system which is basicly useless as my 5 yr old daughter is quite able to bypass it at her age ..or..a medical facility for the research and care of cancer patients.......to site another example of wasting money..maybe the small crop farmers which lost their livelihoods and have no way of recovering because insurance costs are so high for the industry that even in a good year it is unaffordable...do you think they could come up with a better way to spend $125 million a year...If we all have a little patience with our government maybe they will see the light...but based on past situations..eg. $90 million dollars a year given to indonesia as military aid for most of the 1970's and up to the late 1990's...allowing that country to destroy a beautiful culture and nearly erradicate the people of East Timor...shall we call it racial immolation...not a single complete building was left in the entire country...and we paid for it......So no we should not trust our government to do the right thing we should tell them NO WE DO NOT WANT THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN FILTER.