Draconian Censorship Push In South Australia

Diabolus writes: "Australian IT are reporting that the South Australian Government are about to pass a bill which mandates censorship of the Internet. Discussion of any "adult themed" content online now about to be outlawed - effectively anything worthy of an 18+ rating. Not only do Web pages fall under its scope, but also newsgroups and publicly archived mailing lists. Offshore content is also subject to this legislation if controlled by a South Australian. As a resident of SA, my freedom of speech is about to disappear ..."

Comments

Big deal

[shirro]

Don't stress folks. I live in SA and I can tell you now that there are no storm troopers out the window.

SA was amongst the first places in the world to give women a vote, gave rights to aborigines before most other states etc. Marijuana is decriminalized and all that. Good food and wine, lots of motor sports, great climate - could be worse.

The government here is mostly powerless and these sorts of laws are unenforcable. Anarchy is just around the corner anyway.

So chill out. People should be more concerned about concentration of media ownership and draconian defamation laws in Australia. Internet censorship has technical solutions.

No, Replace "internet" with "thoughts"

[JoeShmoe]

Anything that people could possibly have thought of is going to be expressed on a website somewhere. Therefore, a better way to picture the Internet is the sum of all human thought.

So basically this topic is:

"Australian IT are reporting that the South Australian Government are about to pass a bill which mandates censorship of thoughts."

And hasn't that been the secret goal of every governement since time began?

- JoeShmoe

Now hiring..

[perdida]

young, committed men and women with a dream of leading the future of internet technology!

Skills: Strong stomach, being able to "recognize pornography when one sees it," penchant for censorship.

Seriously, aussies, if your friend says he or she is taking the Censor job, cut them off and then h4x0r them.

and no, this cannot be done with nanny-ware, we have seen in many other stories how this software is so inaccurate that it would not withstand any substantial constitutional test in any country.

Who decides what is obscene?

[Spunk Junkie]

This is moronic. I know I'm preaching to the choir here on the slash, but when are govts. going to realise they cannot censor the Internet. I mean the only sensible way is to have someone examine every single packet. This reminds me of... Damn... Can't remember the name now, but it was one of these stupid filtering products and it was filtering out information on breasts because it was considered obscene. Only thing was it was censoring sites relating to breast cancer. There was also another case of software blocking access to the holocaust museum because it mentions the Nazi's. WTF?

Australia always seemed to me like a sane country.

There is no sensible way to implement this, but since when did sensible enter into what a government does...

My condolences to all those effected by this stupidity:(

oh no! the internet!

[stev-nx]

I live in South Australia, and hadn't heard about any of this legislation until I read the Australian today. However, I find the whole thing pretty amusing. I'm sixteen. I can walk (or drive) to any newsagent or petrol (gas!) station, and buy as many R rated magazines as I want, without being asked for proof of age. I can do the same at any 'Adult Book Store' (tm), but this time with X rated material.

I can buy magazines full of guns and knives and other 'offensive weapons'. I can buy newsletters produced by far-left political groups. I can buy pro-abortion and pro-euthenasia newsletters. All offensive to some people.

I can publish these items on paper if I wish. But heaven forbid if i publish or view them on the internet!

Sound crazy? It is, and this is just one of the many crazy legislations and laws my Government has made - enough to convince me to leave South Australia.