Australian Senator Wants to Censor the Net

Paul writes "An Australian Senator wants Australians' internet connections to be automatically filtered by ISPs. Anyone who wants to view pornography or 'other adult material' (details not specified) must apply to their ISP to be given access to it. Another step towards becoming a nanny state."

Comments

Re:Nasties on the net

[aussie_a]

Completly unworkable.

You're fucking kidding me, right? Parents supervising kids is unworkable? If parents aren't able to raise their kids, without big brother, perhaps they should put their kids up for adoption (which in Australia is even more of an option, as there is a shortage of unwanted children).

Are we supposed to set up a dedicated computer room instead of their bedrooms

Well, actually, many families do have a dedicated computer room. But that really isn't important to this discussion.

make sure there is a full time watcher?

Actually, I do remember knowing someone who wasn't allowed on the computer without supervision (and this was pre-internet). But normally that isn't necessary. It's all a matter of trust. How much do you trust your kids? How much CAN you trust your kids? If you've raised them right, then yes, they won't do the wrong thing. But you have to encourage openness and be someone they can open up to.

But even if you haven't instilled trust in your kid, you can monitor the computer (there's all sorts of programs that allow you to have varying degrees of monitoring), from a simple net-nanny type program to knowing everything they type on their keyboard. Buy a decent net-nanny program that keeps a log of when it's enabled and disabled. The only thing the kid can do, is delete the log, which will tell you, they've done something they shouldn't have.

But the real question is, are you going to buy cable with adult channels and not place a lock on the adult channels? Of course you aren't. So why do people do it with the internet?

Kids over 13 or so can stay home alone. Do we lock up the computer room when the adults are out?

Are you being satirical? Or are you truly ignorant of the most basic password function on a computer?

Re:They have a way around it...

[Seumas]

Yeha, it's not like they'll ever decide to require you to sign up and go through a special set of hoops to be legally allowed to view news or political or activist content over the web in the future or anything!

Speaking of Censorship

[Tsiangkun]

is "The Revolution Will not be Televised" being censored from the American public ?

I've been googling for a place to buy a copy, and it's not coming up for me as a possible purchase item. I can find sound tracks, reviews, and books, but no movies.

Was this never released for purchase ? I haven't seen it in a couple of years, when I caught it at a film festival in San Francisco. I was wanting to show it to some friends.

I'm refering to a documentary movie on Hugo Chevez/Venezuela, a CIA staged coup, and the revolt of the people caught serendipidously by some Irish film makers. It's seemingly not available for purchase on the intraweb from the US.

It is also is known as 'chavez inside the coup' according to google. Anyone ever seen this on DVD or VHS ?

Re:Nasties on the net

[Koatdus]

Completly unworkable. Assume a household with 3 children. Are we supposed to set up a dedicated computer room instead of their bedrooms (where kids have had their PCs since ..forever...1981 in my case) and make sure there is a full time watcher?



Um... Yes it is called parenting your children. You, as the adult, are supposed to be in charge of your children and what they are doing. You are supposed to be taking care of them and making sure that they are ok. Not ignoring them while they play on the internet in their rooms with the door closed.

There is no way in hell children under 16 should have unsupervised internet access. As the parent it is your job to supervise them. Counting on the Government or some "net-nanny" software to do it for you is shirking your responsibilities.

In my house there are 7 computers. Only 3 of them have access to the internet and they are all in a public room where anyone can walk by and see what is on the screen. My wife and I do walk by on a regular basis.

The PC's that are in the kids rooms do not have internet access. They can play games, watch dvd's, listen to music, burn cd's, do homework, etc, in their rooms but if they want to use email, IM, or the Web they have to do it in public.

Coupled with the fact that we actually talk to our kids about what is approprite and what is not, this seems to do the job.

Re:You don't think they actually comprehend that!

[dwandy]

What the Chinese are doing, and what Australia is discussing are two different things.
China blocks for all citizens, and they lock up people who work around it.
(So Far) the Aussie is only talking about adopting an opt-in policy. Meaning that people who want to see an unfiltered view of the net can request it. No one's going to get locked up for working around it, since anyone who wants pr0n can just ask...

I am glad that I'm not in Australia though, because all this means is an increased cost of internet to everyone for a system that can't possibly work, but will leave parents with a false sense of security and a higher taxation rate to pay for "enforcement"...oh, and a list of deviants for the governement to use if there's some kind of problem.