Conroy attempts new censorship strategy
- 29 October, 2010 13:05
- Comments 9
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy,Senator Stephen Conroy, has lashed out in an attempt to block the introduction of a .XXX domain.
As reported at itnews, Senator Conroy recently sent a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, requesting the corporation to seek further governmental advice before creating the adult content domain.
In the letter, he wrote: "ICANN has an obligation to act in the interests of the wider internet community.
"I would like to express my strong opposition to the introduction of a .XXX top level domain by ICANN, because of the lack of identified public benefit."
Senator Conroy is generally attributed to being the driving force behind the highly controversial Internet Filter proposal, that would see mandatory filtering in Australia.
Although he has maintained that the Filter is an important part of the minority Labor Government’s policy, opposition from the Greens and independents, which the Government will need the support of if the policy is to be adopted, has made the Filter an increasingly unlikely proposition.
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Comments
Tom Brown
To the journalist, I do not see a lash anywhere, did he use bad words ?
I see that ICANN has a problem with the context, ICANN has taken 10 years to come (maybe ) to a decision.
I noted John Howards criticism of the government on Q & A, Conroy proves that criticism incorrect.
Petermac
Compulsory filtering is yet another example of political correctness gone mad. I'm an adult and can filter my own content. I cannot see how some panel of "other adults" should have any authority to determine what I can view. Adults with children should take responsibility for their own children, using one of the Net Nanny type products if necessary. If content can be classified as ''illegal" then it is up to the appropriate authorities to pursue a remedy against those responsible.
Bryce
The XXX domain range could be a fantastic opportunity for responsible governments around the world to control pornography, but it will take more than just the domain. It would need to go hand in hand with regulation and policing to prohibit pornography in every other type of domain. The combination would then make voluntary of pornography filtering a trivial exercise.
For this to work of course would require most Governments around the world to support the idea. OK, it will never happen!
Muskie
So.. The politician who's so for a Government filter to segregate porn from the rest of the web..
Is against a move by the international non-profit governing body for the internet (as a GROSS generalisation of the term) to provide a Top level domain to segregate porn from the rest of the web.
Michael
Mr Conroy - where exactly is the "identified public benefit" in your internet filtering scheme?
Francis
Thank Peter (poster #2) for resuming how simple the situation is. People need to be responsible for themselves and their childrens.
Like you said, if parents don't want their child to see porn on the net they can use a nanny product.
An adult is an adult, why would another adult choose whats good or bad for me? That's fascism
Peter
If anyone hasnt worked out what Stephen Conroy's agenda is by now, its singing and dancing for the Christian lobby movement I can only assume for votes. Hence the blind stand on the filter regardless of any associated facts showing it to be a complete and total stupid idea. Why do we allow this to happen? Why dont we have a minister who is qualified for the job?
Emmsig
Muskie, do you really believe that the porn providers will actually all use the .xxx domain for their stuff??
lol, that'll be the day.
ICANN is responding to market demand for an easier expansion of the porn volumes, neither they nor the pron industry expect segregation.
Adam
Like it or not, the internet is full of porn. So why is ICANN acting politically at all when it is merely a register focused on the efficient use of domain names and IP addresses.
Having an XXX domain is something that ICANN should be obligated to do.
Even though most porn wont use the XXX TLD, it would make it that little bit easier for system admins to remove access to a large amount of inappropriate websites without any disruption to services.
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