I’m an adult.
As an adult person of the grown up type, I really think I’m more than able to choose what I do and do not access on the internet. Sadly, the Australian Government disagrees with this, and has decided the very best thing to do for Australia is to create a clean feed of information. What does that mean? It means mandatory filtering, with only one level of opt out. Parents can choose a higher filtering level, which is a good thing. I fully support the filtering of net access for children and teenagers. However, there’s no option to be UNfiltered.
In real terms, it means that a blacklist of websites created and maintained by the Government will be inaccessible to the average user of internet in Australia (I’m not, of course, counting those who can figure out workarounds). The filter will block content that is “Harmful and inappropriate for children”. Again, I’m all for filtering net access for children, but as an adult, I find it hard to swallow that an entire nation must be filtered in order to protect the kids.
The other reason for the filter is, supposedly, to prevent the transfer of child pornography and other illegal things. It’s a bit like when you were at school, and 1 kid in the class mucked up, so the whole class was kept in. A blanket filter over the entire country is basically saying “We need to look after the kids, so the rest of you can suck it.” Sen Stephen Conroy went so far as to suggest that if you were opposed to internet filtering, then you were clearly FOR child pornography.
Leaving out all the other considerations as to why this filter is a bloody terrible idea, what this will effectivly do is push illegal activities underground. Masked IP addresses, using snail mail etc – it’s basically going to make the child pornographers that much harder to trace and catch.
So, tonight I’m going to send a message to Sen Conroy, and I put this out here on the internets in the hopes maybe one or two (or more) people will do the same thing. I’m going to grab a blank CDr. I’m going to label it “Child Pornography”*[see note below] and add a note saying “There’s more than one way to transfer information”. Then I’m going to mail it to him.
If you’d like to do the same, you can send the CDs to:
Senator Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002
While I don’t hold much hope at all that this will make any difference to a misguided plan, at least I’ll feel a bit better about it.
If you’d like to know more about the clean feed plan, please check out No Clean Feed.
*Note: upon thinking about it, I decided to not be QUITE so crass. Instead I will label the CD with “Evil nasty stuff”. Because if Sen Conroy wants to treat us like children, I choose to act like one.
You could always move to here.
…Just puttin’ it out there…
M’dear, may I please introduce you to the lovely Michael Meloni. You can follow him @michaelmeloni, or his fabulous blog is http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com – which I have written a piece for a few weeks ago for him, and shall be writing more. (He’s really after the librarian’s perspective.)
Actually follow him on Twitter, just so you know what I am talking about half the time.
Excellent post.
But dahlink don’t panic – it’s never going to happen. Sure, everyone should send Stevie Babe a letter that we know he will ignore, BUT… it’s not going to happen. The large ISPs have refused to cooperate, the upper house is DEAD against it, the (albeit lame) trial has proved that its not a solution… need I go on?
This one will get taken out with the trash… very quietly. Buried. Shhhhhh! Don’t mention the Filter! I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it!
Mabbs (pragmatic, cynical Aussie)
*dammit where did that MOOSE come from*
I wouldn’t say I was in a panic. It’s just angering me that they’re even considering this as an option.
Well blame the previous lusers for that. They put this in motion and for some reason the Labour Party though there was votes in it so they made it an election promise… *sigh* stupid eeediots
I have no faith in their willingness to listen to Reason. Luckily, on this issue, they have realised how much Egg On Face they will get from this filter idea so they will just put it in a corner and sweep over it.
One would hope. My comment to Sen Conroy a while back that the government spending billions to make a world class broadband network would be wasted money under the filtering slow downs.
He didn’t address that in his reply. Odd.
I’m with you 100%. And rather than sit about presuming it’s not going to happen, I’d rather be vocally opposed (and opposed in writing as well) – just to cover all bases. I’m follow EFF and strongly recommend all Aussies get up off their butts and at least take 5 minutes to participate in one of the email campaigns. Don’t care about being filtered? What about having your Internet slowed down by over 50%? Gah.
I must confess the “It’ll never happen” mindset pisses me off. Not just in this case, but in anything else that happens. “Oh they wouldn’t”.
Until we’re CERTAIN they won’t, I’d rather be kicking up a stink.