Australian Visitors Must Declare Illegal Porn To Customs Officers

Australian Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor has advised visitors to take a better safe than sorry policy when it comes to their porn stashes, and declare all porn that they think might be illegal with customs officers. From the article: "The government said it changed the wording on passenger arrival cards after becoming aware of confusion among travellers about what pornography to declare. 'People have a right to privacy and while some pornography is legal and does not need to be disclosed, all travellers should be aware that certain types of pornography are illegal and must be declared to customs,' Mr O'Connor said."

Comments

What????

[gagol]

Next thing, they will want you to declare the illegal drugs you carry...

Re:What????

[zill]

No, you have to decleare all the drugs you carry.

After sampling each one, their customs officer will tell you which ones are illegal.

Re:What????

[HAKdragon]

The same kind who need to get a brain?

Re:What????

[MichaelSmith]

After sampling each one, their customs officer will tell you which ones are illegal.

They are welcome to my epilepsy medication but I don't think they will enjoy not being able to stand up for the next twelve hours.

Re:What????

[beav007]

Not in customs, no. The only things you might get charged for in customs is Kiddie Porn or explosives. As with weapons (including lasers) and food, customs recognise that what the Australian Government calls "Extreme Porn" is legal in other countries, and as long as you hand it over on the way in, it's all good.

The whole point of customs is to stop the stuff coming into the country - that's all. As long as you declare it and hand it over, that's as far as it goes.

Yes office,

[BRSloth]

"I have some bestiality on my computer, but you can see clearly that the girl is ENJOYING IT!"

Re:Yes office,

[Sponge Bath]

He has to declare his illegal porn as well.

Re:Yes office,

[hoggoth]

> The girl is moot, she's being paid for it, she doesn't have to enjoy it. But think of the dog!

Girls, dogs, sex, porn...

and now you've dragged Moot into this. I've got a bad feeling about this!

Re:Yes office,

[BlueParrot]

You know what. I personally think it does say a lot by our society that it's acceptable to slaughter adolescent animals simply because we think they taste well, but if you let one of them lick your naked body it's somehow animal abuse even if the creature in question suffers no ill effects.

Damn will my karma burn for saying this, but while people like to pretend zoophilia is bad because it hurts animals, the real reason it's considered unacceptable is because we have freaking problem with sex. Food does not cause the same reaction, and thus few people care that we are raising animals with the intent to kill and eat them.

Similar complete failure of logic is seen in the anti stem-cells crowd, many of which will happily eat eggs, bacon or chicken, while at the same time declaring IVF and embryonic stem cell research as unacceptable attacks on the sanctity of life.

Now go on, try to justify it. All the usual arguments basically boil down to "it's ok to kill animals because they taste nice", which does make it seem rather hollow when the same people condem zoophilia.

As it happens, I'm not actually a zoophiliac. Merely a vegan who finds it a bit twisted that we seem to consider it worse to let an animal have sex with you than it would be to kill it.

Re:Yes office,

[Hylandr]

Animals can bite, and Animals can kick - Don't tell me they can't say no...

- Dan.

Re:Yes office,

[TubeSteak]

Damn will my karma burn for saying this, but while people like to pretend zoophilia is bad because it hurts animals, the real reason it's considered unacceptable is because we have freaking problem with sex.

We don't let adults have sex with minors.
All the same reasons apply to sex with animals.

It's not so much about harm as it is about consent.

Re:Yes office,

[Applekid]

I remember seeing a sex therapist talk about how he was invited to discuss beastiality on a talk show of some kind, and there was a guest who had "married his horse." One of the points the guest tried to explain is that, if a horse didn't consent, you'd be dead.

(Perhaps more interestingly, the punchline of his story was that he asked the guest if it was a female horse, and the male guest was extremely offended at the suggestion that he might have been gay.)

Re:Yes office,

[BlueParrot]

Then why is it ok to kill and eat them? Are you saying they can consent to having their lives ended in adolescence? Can a hen consent to living its life on an area less than that of an A4 paper ?

It's hypocrisy no matter how you try and twist and turn it.

Re:Yes office,

[aix tom]

>Ever seen a frog and a pig getting it on? No, because that would be disturbing

Welllllllllll...............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVE60zwXx1k

Re:Yes office,

[GodfatherofSoul]

I don't know about you, but I don't want to eat any adolescent animals that have been running around licking people's privates.

Re:Yes office,

[smellsofbikes]

The therapist you saw speak was Dan Savage, who writes the sex advice column Savage Love. He's fond of telling that story when people ask him what's the weirdest question he's ever been asked. Savage is largely known for popularizing a sexually offensive neologism, 'santorum' (I'll let you look it up) to the point that it's now the first hit on google, rather than the target of the satire, ex-senator and likely 2012 presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Savage's current big publicity project is the It Gets Better Project, trying to encourage gay teenagers to not kill themselves because of abuse; it's been getting a fair amount of news attention in the last month.

Re:Yes office,

[icebraining]

By that order of thought, posting on /. is not natural (ever seen an animal do it?), yet females eating the males after having sex is.

Or maybe that argument is bollocks because the correlation between "natural" and moral is not strong at all.

Re:Yes office,

[oldspewey]

As the public service ads inform us: "Baaaahahah means no."

Re:Yes office,

[oldspewey]

So, mister Parrot, choose wisely now... Would you rather be eaten or will you bend over?

If you were a Praying Mantis you wouldn't have to decide between one or the other.

Re:Yes office,

[Guppy]

and now you've dragged Moot into this. I've got a bad feeling about this!

No, it's perfectly okay. Moot wishes to be teh little girl, so that counts as consent.

Re:Yes office,

[IndustrialComplex]

As it happens, I'm not actually a zoophiliac. Merely a vegan who finds it a bit twisted that we seem to consider it worse to let an animal have sex with you than it would be to kill it.

No, you are pretty much correct. I'm no vegan (far from it) but I think you are spot on correct. The whole concept is just our fear of anything relating to sex.

Think of it this way:

Carefully touch a bull's testicles and derive some pleasure from it: People will flip out at what a horrible crime it is.

Take a sharp knife, slice open the scrotum, remove the testicles, bread them and saute them and call them rocky mountain oysters and eat them. People will give you money for them.

Re:Yes office,

[IndustrialComplex]

And then people will marry turtles.

Re:Yes office,

[shutdown -p now]

I think GP's point is that we don't routinely butcher 14 year olds. Though the idea is intriguing.

Re:Yes office,

[Alsee]

OFFICIAL BALLOT - GENERAL ELECTION
November 4, 2012

Complete the oval ( ) at the left of the name you want to choose. You may vote for a person whose name is not on the ballot by writing in the person's name and municipality of residence in the write in space and completing the oval at the left. If you make a mistake you may ask for a new ballot. DO NOT ERASE.

NATIONAL
_________
UNITED STATES PRESIDENT
Your vote for the candidate for United States President shall be a vote for the elector supporting that candidate.
VOTE FOR ONE:

( ) Rick Santorum
( ) Bill Bukakke
( ) ____________

-

Re:Yes office,

[psithurism]

Because they're animals. You can kill them, but you aren't allowed to torture them.

Well, in the context of what we are discussing: We are allowed to have dogs chase them down tear them up in an already unfair fight before we come in and shoot them until they are too wounded to keep running from us, then knife them to death, video tape the whole thing including the after death humiliation of skinning and impromptu sports games with non-tasty body parts. It's fine to show these videos to your kids, actually your kids were probably there to see daddy being a man. However, if these animals were to enjoy some peanut butter off your nuts, not ok: torture.

Re:Yes office,

[oldspewey]

You seem to be assuming (or insinuating) that only self-righteous hippies are vegetarian. Hundreds of millions of people - most notably those of certain communities on the Indian subcontinent - live long, healthy, balanced lives without ever consuming a scrap of meat. In their case it is a religious choice, but it flies in the face of your assertion that humans need what meat supplies.

I choose to eat meat, but I recognize this as a choice I make.

Re:Yes office,

[bicon]

The reason we don't allow humans to have sex with animals is that they lack capacity. It's the same reason we don't allow adults to have sex with children. There would be no meeting of the minds. It still wouldn't matter if they allegedly were unharmed, they don't have the capacity and the other party can't make that decision for them.

This also explains why you can't have sex with people when they're unconscious, no matter how careful or safely you do that, or how unharmed they are from the event. They did not consent, as they are in a state of diminished capacity.

As to the argument of weather or not it's wrong to eat animals, it's a different argument altogether.

I don't however think that anyone is arguing that animals are consenting or unharmed by eating. Nevertheless, I'm still going to eat animals, and I don't mean that way.

Re:Yes office,

[speedlaw]

This is slashdot...he hasn't. Just read the wikipedia entry on it.

Re:Yes office,

[IICV]

What if you wait until the animal has been slaughtered (which is, in this hypothetical example, what eventually will happen to it) and then have sex with it? At that point it's an object, and consent doesn't matter, right?

So by that logic, zoophilia totally okay if you add in a side order of necrophilia.

Re:Yes office,

[commodore64_love]

I can't think of any reason to outlaw porn. Period.

The reason I make the exception for child rape, is for the same reason I don't think children should be able to drive. Or join the army. Or vote. They have not reached maturity yet to give their "consent" for these things.

Re:Yes office,

[soren100]

It's not so much about harm as it is about consent.

How does an animal about to be slaughtered for food give consent?

That's Australia for you.

[synthil]

Too much fucking censorship here.

Re:That's Australia for you.

[Dunbal]

Amazing, considering Australia was founded by thieves, murderers and whores.

Re:That's Australia for you.

[wootest]

It's worse than that; I believe they were British.

Glad to comply

[hansamurai]

Is there some kind of catalog or web site I can browse to see examples of what's legal and not?

Re:Glad to comply

[Sonny Yatsen]

I think it's better if you don't know, since the law only require you to declare porn if you THINK it's illegal.

Re:Glad to comply

[zill]

Is there some kind of catalog or web site I can browse to see examples of what's legal and not?

www.australia.gov.au

...and not?

Pretty much everything else on the internet.

I'm pretty sure they've outlawed "ridiculing Australian censorship laws" a few years ago, so this post is a prime example of what's not legal.

As well as declaring all...

[Dahamma]

...recent murders committed, houses burgled, cars stolen, heiresses kidnapped, parking tickets ignored, and Australian ministers ridiculed.

Re:As well as declaring all...

[medcalf]

Oh, I didn't realize a criminal record was still required before going to Australia.

Re:As well as declaring all...

[TapeCutter]

"Oh, I didn't realize a criminal record was still required before going to Australia."

No worries mate, if you don't have a criminal record one of our customs officers will give you one at the border.

I foresee great conversations at the customs booth

[Anonymous Coward]

Passenger: So, I read that I have to declare illegal pornography.
Officer: Yes, indeed.
Passenger: Well, I do have something on my laptop, but I don't know whether it's illegal. Would you mind having a look and telling me what you think about it?

something like this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aussie Customs officer: Do you have any illegal porn?
British tourist: I did not know you still need do illegal things to get in here!

Expectation of privacy

[WarJolt]

Americans have an expectation of privacy. I doubt you'll have an American declare his/her porn.
Little tip for those who want to reinforce their expectation of privacy. Encrypt your document folders.
Most customs techs won't know how to crack it and if you have a good password it could take years.

Re:Expectation of privacy

[gfreeman]

Not a valid defence in England

Re:Expectation of privacy

[maxwell demon]

"This file seems to be encrypted. I suspect you want to hide something illegal there. Please give me the password, otherwise I cannot let you pass."

Re:Expectation of privacy

[Jorl17]

Americans have the expectation of privacy in some issues. In others they have an interesting culture. It is common for Americans to talk to strangers as if they were family, because it is in their culture. I am not talking trash about them, I admire this type of culture. A friend of mine went to America and she said there was always someone talking to her -- she even had a little child come to her and say "Will you believe how this cheese is expensive".

That kind of thing is considered rude for us in here, because it violates our privacy. So you see, in crucial issues like these, Americans have an "expectation of privacy", but with the Western European definition of privacy, they only expect it when it is good for them. I do enjoy that they can be such an open-minded people in this type of thing...but I am sad they are so close-minded with respect to other issues...

Re:Expectation of privacy

[thynk]

Whereas when I was living in Germany, it wasn't totally uncommon to have someone sit at an empty chair at your table in a restaurant. That sort of thing would cause the manager of the restaurant to be called to have the person ejected from the premises if it happened here in the US. Different things are "rude" to different folks.

Re:Expectation of privacy

[SydShamino]

There are cultural ways to indicate that you don't want to be talked to. Your friend just didn't know them.

Re:Expectation of privacy

[tverbeek]

US courts have specifically ruled that the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply crossing international borders.

This expectation of no-privacy going through customs has even been used to justify warrantless searches of someone who is merely near an international border.

Re:Expectation of privacy

[DrgnDancer]

More to the point it's asking for trouble. "Gosh, I wonder what's in this giant encrypted blob on this guys hard drive?" Just zip all your porn into a file, and rename it to something innocuous and approximately appropriate in size. Anything over about 600 MB you could probably just rename "RedHatLinux.iso" or something. You think they're doing deep inspections of every lap top that comes in through customs? They probably do a search for some subsection of the normal graphic and video file extensions then browse the thumbnails for anything that looks wrong. Anything more than that would slow down the inspections to crawl.

You're not dealing with an MIT forensics teams here, these guy have been taught a very simplistic procedure and will follow it to the letter. Most likely they don't even *care* if you have porn, they just have to check every 5th laptop to keep the boss happy.

Re:Expectation of privacy

[MichaelSmith]

I wouldn't risk my freedom on those assumptions. If I had to take my porn collection across an Australian border I would transfer it with scp.

Re:Expectation of privacy

[matfud]

Thanks, I don't know US law precident in this but "Americans have an expectation of privicy" just made me chuckle wrt customs&immigration.
It may be why US customs are some of the worst in the world I have been through (although it may just be low paid grumpy staff). Actually most cutoms are pretty bad but US is getting silly. UK ones are great (but I'm a from the UK). The same holds for mot nationals entering thier home country.

Someone isn't very smart

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of a job application I filled out once. It actually asked you whether or not you were taking any illicit drugs, and how often. I'm not sure who was stupider: the person who created the application form, or the druggie moron who would answer truthfully. At any rate, if you had porn you though was illegal, WHY would you tell them so!?

Re:Someone isn't very smart

[LoyalOpposition]

It's so they can fire you for lying on your job application.

~Loyal

Re:Someone isn't very smart

[Abstrackt]

I think the person creating the application form was actually quite clever as two positive (for the company) things happen this way: 1) it weeds out the idiots who admit to taking illicit drugs with some regularity and 2) it makes it much easier to fire someone for lying on their application if the employer finds out they are on illicit drugs.

As for customs, when you enter the US there is a section that literally asks if you're a spy. I hope they're not catching too many idiots that way but it does create a situation where someone who is a spy can be convicted for lying to the government. I figure the same idea applies to declaring illegal porn.

Re:ok, i'll be dumb enough to ask

[paeanblack]

who travels with porn?

Customs officers that collect images from their backscatter X-ray machines

Re:self-incrimination

[Anonymous Coward]

You think the US is any different?

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch12.html#en_US_publink1000172062

Form 1040, line 21 is where you are to report your earnings from illegal income.

is tub girl illegal?

[TiggertheMad]

Makes me want to load up a laptop full of shock-pr0n images, just to I can show them all to some unfortunate customs worker, under the guise of 'declaring' them...

Hope the customs workers have therapy coverage on their health care plans....

Re:ok, i'll be dumb enough to ask

[SmackTheIgnorant]

Who doesn't? C'mon, you're on a flight, several hours long, how can one POSSIBLY go that long without their dose girl-on-goat action??

Re:ok, i'll be dumb enough to ask

[boristdog]

Who among us (people on /. that is) does not IMMEDIATELY search for all images when someone we know asks us to repair their computer?
Especially if that someone is a reasonably attractive female.

Oh, I've had some amazing discoveries there.

And you learn a lot about people by the type of porn they keep.

I like the cut of your jib

[Weaselmancer]

Yes...it's a good idea. Much fun. But if you really want to creep the guy out - go mental with it.

Tell the customs worker that you have a lot of porn on your laptop and you'd like to declare it. Then show him hundreds of pictures of feet. Just feet. Nothing else. And while he pages through them to determine their legality, act like you are fighting becoming aroused. Moan. Drool a little bit.

For bonus points make it something really odd. Bell towers or Volkswagen bugs or cigar smoking women cutting into birthday cakes.

Remember kids - what's porn for one person may not necessarily be porn for another.

Re:ok, i'll be dumb enough to ask

[The Wild Norseman]

That type of porn can come back to haunt you when your wife of 3 years find shit you downloaded back in high school. Lucky for me my wife found it amusing and currently jokes the hell out of me.

Lucky for you, your wife found it amusing and doesn't know how to check time/date stamps on files downloaded "back in high school."

Don't worry, your secret is safe with us.

Re:ok, i'll be dumb enough to ask

[ElectricTurtle]

My wife of three years jokes about the pr0n I downloaded last night. But then I give her crap for the pr0n she downloads too, so it all evens out.

Hint to all those married or thinking about it: if your significant other can't come to grips with the fact that one other person cannot embody the totality of somebody's sexuality, you have settled and in the process are doomed to denying part(s) of your true self for the duration of your relationship. I love my wife as deeply as I do in no small part because she doesn't use "morality" as a cover to be an irrational, paranoid, hyper-jealous ass like so many people do.

Re:ok, i'll be dumb enough to ask

[Red Flayer]

Who among us (people on /. that is) does not IMMEDIATELY search for all images when someone we know asks us to repair their computer?

Those of us who respect the privacy of our friends/acquaintances?

Seriously, what kind of asshole are you that you'd dig through someone's personal files without asking their consent?

Hell, I may be *curious* about what images/vids they have... but to actually go through with it and snoop on them? What a dick you must be.

Re:If you have not notice by now...

[Merls the Sneaky]

European dark age churches have taken over the state (government).

Re:Just mail it to yourself before you board

[ceoyoyo]

You know customs goes through international mail right?

the title is a little misleading

[powerspike]

I am Australian, and have read quite a few stories press releases etc on this subject. The BIG problem with these cards is, illegal to "import" and illegal to "posses" in australia is different. Meaning while it might be legal to own some types in Australia, it's illegal to bring them in (ie import) into the country, and they don't tell you what is what, This is one of the main reasons there has been a large uproar over the issue down under.

There's two set's of rules, they aren't telling you which one is which, and don't give good examples, it's basically a trap

Re:ok, i'll be dumb enough to ask

[ElectricTurtle]

Congratulations on following a religion where self-loathing is a prerequisite. That's totally healthy. I was raised by fundamentalist, literalist Baptists and studied the Bible and commentaries/analysis thereupon for nine years straight. By the end of that time I realized that it was a crock of inconsistent bullshit that caused people to hate themselves and others and be thankful for the privilege. It sickens me to realize how much personal progress was retarded by all those wasted years where I could have been learning things I could use beyond trashing religious twits on the internet.