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Dismal Failure of Internet Filters In Australia
An anonymous reader writes "The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA), the department responsible for implementing the insane Internet regulatory framework put in place by the current government, is about to drop a number of Internet Filtering packages due to their ineffectiveness. The full article is available here. There is also news that the Minister for Communications, Senator Richard Alston (whom The Register has labeled the Worlds Biggest Luddite :) ) is awaiting a review of the law with possible changes to follow. Be afraid Australia, be very afraid!"
Press release from the EFA (Australia's version of the EFF):
--------
Media Release: 3 March 2003
Censorship laws contribute to youth access to violent pornography
Australian censorship laws contribute to the problem of youth access to
pornographic material of the violent and extreme kind, Electronic Frontiers
Australia (EFA) said today.
The Australia Institute recently surveyed 200 youths 16-17 years old and
found that "teenagers view X-rated videos more than Internet sex sites",
although the sale of X-rated videos is illegal in all States.
"Apparently, Australian laws prohibiting sale of X-rated videos have failed
to prevent youth access to this type of video. It's even less likely that
government attempts to prevent access to content on the world-wide Internet
can be successful," said Irene Graham, EFA's Executive Director.
"Australian laws already empower the Australian Broadcasting Authority to
enforce deletion of any X-rated material found on Australian hosted
Internet sites and The Australia Institute's report does not suggest that
the laws have failed in this regard."
The Australia Institute said a "distinction needs to be drawn between
'mainstream' pornography (in commercially available X-rated videos) and the
proliferation of violent and extreme material on the Internet".
"Australian Internet censorship laws go far beyond the realms of community
standards and practicality," said Graham. "Mainstream pornography
containing sexually explicit X-rated material without the slightest
indication of violence, coercion or demeaning depictions, and also R rated
material that is not sexually explicit, is banned in the same way as
depictions of rape, bestiality and so on. Mere nudity, like a Playboy
magazine centre-fold, is banned. As a result, adults and teenagers seeking
mainstream pornography online, visit overseas sites where they are very
likely to be exposed to violent and extreme pornography."
EFA said relaxation of Australian Internet censorship laws would be more
successful in minimising access to violent and extreme kinds of pornography
than would more restrictive legislation.
"The laws should be changed to permit on-line provision of Australian
X-rated material, a category that has long prohibited violent and extreme
pornography," said Graham. "This would allow the small proportion of
Internet users who seek pornographic material online, whether adult or
teenage, to access strictly regulated Australian sites. At present, they
have no option other than to visit overseas sites that also contain
horrific material and that are not, and never will be, subject to
Australia's censorship laws."
EFA considers that minors' access to pornography online is a matter of
serious concern. However, given the global nature of the Internet, more
restrictive Australian laws would be no more effective than current laws.
... and then there were none
And we have the best gun laws. :-)
Seriously, the censorship laws do nothing.
The data caps are the biggest issue with Internet access in Aus at the moment.
ISP's are almost defined based on the amount of data available.
There is no large scale filtering. All that's required is that
A) ISPs offer Net Nanny style software for sale
B) Illegal content hosted in Australia is taken down.
It's kinda weird. In the US a naked tit causes so much trouble it has to be pixelated out of TV shows. Here nobody is bothered by tits.
But we have this peculiar web censorship law to (try to) stop us seeing tits online. As far as I can (dimly) remember it was an offering to an ultra-conservative state senator to get him to vote for the privitisation of our telephone monopoly. We got the dud law, and he voted against privitisation. Oh how we laughed. Not!
I always thought it would just fade into obscurity over time, but now with Howard crawling up the bum of Dubbya, I expect every crackpot US idea to be imported, and none of our own crackpot ideas to be discarded. Sigh.
The ISPs are merely compelled to provide approved filtering software to their customers at cost.
No one is actually forced to filter content. As the article says only 17% of parents have actually bothered to install such filters.
Some groups are promoting mandatory filtering and some are dead against it which is pretty much how you'd expect things to be.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Unfortunately, what was being implied by the parent post is absolutely wrong. The internet censoring down here is NOTHING like the "great firewall of China" since this censoring effort is merely an attempt to black-list sites of questionable and illegal nature eg: online casinos, REALLY offensive pr0n etc...
Proxies have never been required to bypass such a system because, only some 11 or so sites (as of a year or two's count, and I seriously doubt this number has increased all that much) have been censored by this 'law', and may I add, at quite a considerable expense for each site (at least AUD$10k+ each IIRC)
As for the impact this filtering system has had on AUS net users? None whatsoever. The sooner it is out of operation, the better. The money would be better spent elsewhere
Not in Australia. They charge per megabyte at Australian ISPs so it's in their interest to see more traffic...
I beg to differ! The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is against reigon-coding DVDs because of the anti-compeditive aspects of it, but walk into any place selling DVD players in Australia and I guarentee you that better than %95 of them are reigon-coded. Because of ambiguity regarding the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act (Australia's version of the DMCA) and whether this makes reigon-free DVD players illegal "circumvention devices", most places will not stock (or admit to stocking) reigon-free DVD players.
That Australia filters all printed media. If you want a copy of the NY Times or internation herald tribune it takes an extra 48 hours for them read it and send it off. On a side note: In Malaysia they do sensor the information that is writen about Malaysia however it only takes them 6 hours after the paper is released. So you get the morning paper that afternoon. (paper printer in Singapore)
"You win again Gravity!" -Futurama (Zapp)
Oh, and Electronic Frontiers Australia has issued a Press Release about this..
From Article: It wants mandatory filtering by internet service providers (ISPs), but with those aged over 18 able to opt out.
It seems they want to regulate content mainly for minors and people who want regulation.... Nothing really wrong with that.The head of the Internet Industry Association, Peter Coroneos, said mandatory filtering had been ruled out because "some families just don't have an issue with it".
Dosent seem doomsday here......."We feel the decision is best left in the hands of parents." He said the opt-out clause "could work" but feared routine filtering could seriously slow down the internet.
"Be very afraid. huh"
Classic example of sensationalism... where it is not required
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
Go to http://www.abc.net.au/news/multipoll3/vote/
and vote against the war.
It's not like fucking Howard will listen to us, but at least we can make personal attacks based on his arrogance when we know the number of people against him.
Try this filter instead:
http://dansguardian.org/
Free for non-commercial.
BTW, check http://oralse.cx - someone on /. had it the other day in a sig. It's a clever one and has quite a few funny images on a 'contrib' page.
Just a note from a Canberran.
There are two governments in the ACT.
The Federal government...those on the hill under the giant lump of aluminium, and the ACT Legislative assemibly, the people that make decisions on behalf of the Canberra people.
Please don't say that decisions coming from the former are from Canberra, as they are not.
The federal government has shown that it doesn't give a shit about Canberra (The lodge is a big, expensive, empty house ever since little johnny got elected), and we, definitely don't want anything to do with them, and hate it when those in other states say 'Canberra said....'. Because we, as Canberrans definitely did not say.
Advanced users are users too!
There is a simple and free solution to this. Instead of typing in an URL in your address bar, goto www.google.com click on preferences, and set it to use a strict filter. Now run a search on where you wanted to go. American Girls gives you www.americangirl.com not a pr0n site.
"Much work is lost, for the lack of a little more." -Edward H. Harriman
You can't get an .edu unless you are a legitimate accredited institution (althought that might be changing) A .kids TLD should work the same way. If parents wanted to limit their children to viewing .kids sites only, that would be their perogative.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
"Unfortunately, I typed americangirls.com instead of americangirl.com."
Yeah, SURE this happened. You story just doesn't check out "Fred". Ya see, both americangirl.com and americangirls.com are registered to the SAME people, and neither one of them are porn sites:
Registrant:
Pleasant Company (AMERICANGIRL3-DOM)
8400 Fairway Place
null
US
Domain Name: AMERICANGIRL.COM
Administrative Contact:
ACKER, BOB-WN-CADA (BA5375) bob_acker@PLEASANTCO.COM
PLEASANT COMPANY
8400 fairway place
MIDDLETON, WI 53562
608 836 4848 (FAX) 608 828 4777
Technical Contact:
Schneider, Rick (RS16264) rick_schneider@PLEASANTCO.COM
Pleasant Company
8400 Fairway Place
Middleton , WI 53562
608-836-4848
Record expires on 26-Mar-2004.
Record created on 25-Mar-1997.
Database last updated on 4-Mar-2003 18:20:43 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
GLACIER.BINC.NET 205.173.176.10
SMOKIES.BINC.NET 205.173.176.11
Registrant:
Pleasant Company (AMERICANGIRLS9-DOM)
8400 Fairway Place
Middletown
WI,53562-0998
US
Domain Name: AMERICANGIRLS.COM
Administrative Contact:
ACKER, BOB-WN-CADA (BA5375) bob_acker@PLEASANTCO.COM
PLEASANT COMPANY
8400 fairway place
MIDDLETON, WI 53562
608 836 4848 (FAX) 608 828 4777
Technical Contact:
Schneider, Rick (RS16264) rick_schneider@PLEASANTCO.COM
Pleasant Company
8400 Fairway Place
Middleton , WI 53562
608-836-4848
Record expires on 24-May-2004.
Record created on 24-May-2001.
Database last updated on 4-Mar-2003 18:21:05 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
GLACIER.BINC.NET 205.173.176.10
SMOKIES.BINC.NET 205.173.176.11
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