"The great wall of Australia"? Is Australia moving in the wrong direction?

[DrivingForce]

This is pretty distressful I thought the U.S. was the only one becoming big brother but apparently not?



SYDNEY, Australia - A proposed Internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.
Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government — mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.
Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month.
"This is obviously censorship," said Justin Pearson Smith, 29, organizer of protests in Melbourne and an officer of one of a dozen Facebook groups against the filter.
The list of prohibited sites, which the government isn't making public, is arbitrary and not subject to legal scrutiny, Smith said, leaving it to the government or lawmakers to pursue their own online agendas.
"I think the money would be better spent in investing in law enforcement and targeting producers of child porn," he said.
Internet providers say a filter could slow browsing speeds, and many question whether it would achieve its intended goals. Illegal material such as child pornography is often traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter.
"People don't openly post child porn, the same way you can't walk into a store in Sydney and buy a machine gun," said Geordie Guy, spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, an Internet advocacy organization. "A filter of this nature only blocks material on public Web sites. But illicit material ... is traded on the black market, through secret channels."
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy proposed the filter earlier this year, following up on a promise of the year-old Labor Party government to make the Internet cleaner and safer.
"This is not an argument about free speech," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "We have laws about the sort of material that is acceptable across all mediums and the Internet is no different. Currently, some material is banned and we are simply seeking to use technology to ensure those bans are working."
Jim Wallace, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, welcomed the proposed filter as "an important safeguard for families worried about their children inadvertently coming across this material on the Net."
Conroy's office said a peer-to-peer filter could be considered. Most of today's filters are unable to do that, though companies are developing the technology.
The plan, which would have to be approved by Parliament, has two tiers. A mandatory filter would block sites on an existing blacklist determined by the Australian Communications Media Authority. An optional filter would block adult content.
The latter could use keywords to determine which sites to block, a technology that critics say is problematic.
"Filtering technology is not capable of realizing that when we say breasts we're talking about breast cancer, or when we type in sex we may be looking for sexual education," Guy said. "The filter will accidentally block things it's not meant to block."
A laboratory test of six filters for the Australian Communications Media Authority found they missed 3 percent to 12 percent of material they should have barred and wrongly blocked access to 1 percent to 8 percent of Web sites. The most accurate filters slowed browsing speeds up to 86 percent.
The government has invited Internet providers to participate in a live test expected to be completed by the end of June.
The country's largest Internet provider, Telstra BigPond, has declined, but others will take part. Provider iiNet signed on to prove the filter won't work. Managing director Michael Malone said he would collect data to show the government "how stupid it is."
The government has allocated 45 million Australian dollars ($30.7 million) for the filter, the largest part of a four-year, AU$128.5 million ($89 million) cybersafety plan, which also includes funding for investigating online child abuse, education and research.
One of the world's largest child-advocacy groups questions such an allocation of money.
"The filter may not be able to in fact protect children from the core elements of the Internet that they are actually experiencing danger in," said Holly Doel-Mackaway, an adviser with Save the Children. "The filter should be one small part of an overall comprehensive program to educate children and families about using the Internet."
Australia's proposal is less severe than controls in Egypt and Iran, where bloggers have been imprisoned; in North Korea, where there is virtually no Internet access; or in China, which has a pervasive filtering system.
Internet providers in the West have blocked content at times. In early December, several British providers blocked a Wikipedia entry about heavy metal band Scorpion. The entry included its 1976 "Virgin Killer" album cover, which has an image of a naked underage girl. The Internet Watch Foundation warned providers the image might be illegal.
Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom have filters, but they are voluntary.
In the United States, Pennsylvania briefly imposed requirements for service providers to block child-pornography sites, but a federal court struck down the law because the filters also blocked legitimate sites.
In Australia, a political party named the Australian Sex Party was launched last month in large part to fight the filter, which it believes could block legal pornography, sex education, abortion information and off-color language.
But ethics professor Clive Hamilton, in a column on the popular Australian Web site Crikey - Political news, US Election news, business news, arts, media and independent commentary served daily., scoffed at what he called "Net libertarians," who believe freedom of speech is more important than limiting what children can access online.
"The Internet has dramatically changed what children can see," said the professor at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, noting that "a few extra clicks of a mouse" could open sites with photos or videos of extreme or violent sex. "Opponents of ISP filters simply refuse to acknowledge or trivialize the extent of the social problem."

Uproar in Australia over plan to block Web sites (AP) by AP: Yahoo! Tech

[barbaro]

This is pretty distressful I thought the U.S. was the only one becoming big brother but apparently not?



SYDNEY, Australia - A proposed Internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.

Absolute disgrace.

I talk with Aussie quite bit (like most of us expats) and there are many disturbing things happening in

Oz
UK
US

What happened?

The definition of "freedom" has changed.

[watterinja]

All this will do is force folks underground, or towards data-encapsulation, or obfuscation. Technology will move ahead of the filters, or mask the information in such a way that it will pass undetected.

[DrivingForce]

pretty distressing and of course the usual suspects will say "oh! what's wrong with censoring child porn sites?" just to put you on your back heel but there is a much larger picture here and I already have my own personal filters to avoid my children seeing anything they shouldn't be and it is my choice as their parent anyway when it comes down to it not the governments..

So like communist governments everywhere it is just getting the foot in the door to go in directions they really want to restrict..

Australia just passed some other restrictive law too didn't they? I'm sure I read something here recently, but can't recall..

[DrivingForce]

All this will do is force folks underground, or towards data-encapsulation, or obfuscation. Technology will move ahead of the filters, or mask the information in such a way that it will pass undetected.

yep shooting themselves in the foot as it will be that much more difficult to track down and prosecute.

[mackayae]

Another rabbit-proof fence!

[jandajoy]

It'll never work anyway. Even I can learn to use proxies if I have to. This is a knee jerk reaction and will fail miserably. Idiots.

[benbaaa]

I was gonna say, these filters never work properly, do they? We've got a new filter where I work. You go to Google and type in ESL materials for kids and a bunch of websites pop up like kidsesl.com. So you hit the link and you get a page which says something like:

WARNING: You have been logged trying to access an unauthorised website. This website has been classified as Pornography.

If you believe this is incorrect and wish to have this website unblocked, you need to follow the procedure outlined in the Internet Guide.

The procedure involves seven or eight steps, and includes making a business case showing why the particular website is essential for the carrying out of the organisation's aims and objectives, which you need to submit in writing to the Director. You have to have all requests counter-signed by your line manager, and we're told sites can be unblocked within a week. Which is great when you're teaching in an hour.

[pompeybloke]

George Orwell's prophecy coming into being, albeit a little later then he predicted, IMO.

[panama hat]

The US had its 'messiah' with Obama and Australia was awestruck with the chameleon Rudd . . . this is what he brings to the table . . . Disgusting.

[dirtydog]

To block these sites effectively they have to know which ones they are, if they know which ones they are why don't they just arrest the people?

[benbaaa]

To block these sites effectively they have to know which ones they are, if they know which ones they are why don't they just arrest the people?

Perhaps they haven't thought of that.

[baldrick]

We've got a new filter where I work

they are a waste also , an ssl pr0xy will bypass them with ease.

even the chinese one ( golden shield ) is hopeless - though most chinese are just unaware of it

the only thing that will work in australia is telstras blatent gouging with their data limits.

30 dollars a month will get you 200 meg monthly data - out of fcuking control - even singtel is not as bad as that

Suggested plans

• Wireless Mobile Super G Fast 200MB $29.95/month for 12 months
• BigPond Cable Extreme Liberty $69.95/month for 12 months*
• BigPond ADSL Liberty 12GB 1500/256kbps# $69.95/month for 12 months*
• High-Speed BigPond ADSL2+ 600MB $59.95/month for 12 months*

Internet Plans

[DrivingForce]

To block these sites effectively they have to know which ones they are, if they know which ones they are why don't they just arrest the people?

now your overstepping DD........you're asking them to apply common sense to legislation it's a kin to 'military intelligence' a total oxymoron..

[kingwilly]

To block these sites effectively they have to know which ones they are, if they know which ones they are why don't they just arrest the people?

now your overstepping DD........you're asking them to apply common sense to legislation it's a kin to 'military intelligence' a total oxymoron..

or the websites that they want to block are from overseas? In which case they cannot arrest them.

[panama hat]

or the websites that they want to block are from overseas? In which case they cannot arrest them.

Of course they can, just ask the Thai authorities, they will tell you so . . .

[Mid]

Australia abandons mandatory Internet filter plan
Nov 09, 2012

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government has abandoned its 5-year-old pledge to mandate a filter blocking child pornography and other objectionable Internet content.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Friday that instead of imposing a compulsory filter, Internet service providers have agreed to block a list of 1,400 websites.

Critics had said the proposed legislated filter would have put Australia in the same censorship league as China.

Anti-censorship campaigner Geordie Guy welcomed the government reversal. He said the new agreement will have little impact on the availability of child abuse material which isn’t traded on the open Web.

asiancorrespondent.com

[socal]

Just more news of socialist governments in western countries that are adopting policies typically seen in communist China and the former Soviet Union.

[Neo]

You bumped a four year old thread to deliver that inane line of drivel..?

Teakdoor really is in bad shape these days.

[socal]

You bumped a four year old thread to deliver that inane line of drivel..?

Teakdoor really is in bad shape these days.

Mid bumped it

[Umbuku]

Just more news of socialist governments in western countries that are adopting policies typically seen in communist China and the former Soviet Union.

The Australian government has abandoned its 5-year-old pledge to mandate a filter

Can't read either by the looks.

[Rural Surin]

Whatever became of DrivenToWank?