Slashdot Mirror
Australia Chooses Education Over Filtering
riprjak writes "The Australian federal government has rejected a call for Internet filtering to 'protect' Australians from child pornography and has opted instead to undertake an education and information campaign to teach parents about the perils of the Internet."
It does sound good.. but remember this is also the country that decided to import American law as part of a 'free-trade' type agreement.
Really, it's laudable that the response by the Aussies is not the cyber-equivalent of smart-bombing (*cough*ChineseEmbassy*cough*Kosovo) but it's still part of the whole growing-pains thing that we'll experience for many years.
I'm not sure any government (save, maybe, South Korea's, which is its current form as a direct result of the internet) realizes just how much the internet is changing the world. Protecting your citizens' bodies is one thing--hunt those child-kidnappers down!--but it's too late for their minds...
and that's a good thing.
The article quotes
including a British-style national internet filtering system but rejected it.
I wasn't aware that the UK has a national internet filtering system. Can anyone elaborate?
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
It does sound good.. but remember this is also the country that decided to import American law as part of a 'free-trade' type agreement.
You can be right about one thing and wrong about a great many others.
For example, the US also does not filter the internet. But nevertheless, it is notorious throughout the world as a liar and a rogue nation, lacking basic freedom of the press, and basic democratic principles.
Or at least, that's what I hear on slashdot.
I recently cleaned a friend-of-the-family's PC of a major spy ware infestation, brought on by their 7 yo son going on a porn site, egged on by his mates (as mates do). when the subsequent torrent of pop ups occurred a few days later, he was petrified that the cops were going to come and lock him up, as has happened to all the other people we have been hearing about on the radio/TV/papers.
Although it wont have a lasting effect (IMHO, if pron is there, it will get assessed), but not for a while he will stay away. the poor kid was so terrified, so conscious of what he had done, he will need some serious hormones to get up the courage.
I've got to say, given our (.au) history on matters Internet related, this is very much out-of-character. Refreshing though!
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Whilst looking through a website of a large clothing company the governments efficient little filter booted us off because we clicked on a link that said "girls fashions"
meanwhile thanks to the crude keyword filtering some dropkicks were actively looking at porn and getting welfare payments for it... and dont worry, i start work at a real job on saturday...
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything" -- Josef Stalin
I wrote a metric shit tonne of emails to various people in positions of power about this.
I doubt very much at the end of the day my words directly had much to do with it, but some part of me really hopes it did. If only one minister sat and thought twice about what I'd written to them and it somehow swayed them to the more sensible course of action, I think I can be a little bit prouder of my country.
I'm sure I wasn't the only person making their voices heard over this issue, thanks to everybody else who stood up and let them know what we thought. We've done well this time.
... I immediately assumed that the benefits of uncensored information had been recognized as a boon to education. Perhaps I was suffering from momentary naivete, but this interpretation still seems to hold much more promise than the other.
Completely Darwinian?
I'd think it is much more about religiously beleifs of the early American settlers. Plenty of cultlures, both ancient and modern, have been much more relaxed about portraying sex than the USA. Plenty are still around, so it doesn't seem to be a trait promoting survival/reproduction which would make it Darwinian.
That doesn't mean that adultary or the like is more socially accepted there.