June 28, 2009 – 9:14 pm
Bruno
Was Bruno censored on Rove? Sure, it might be down to a TV glitch, but the gay fashionista’s comment about a “wife getting as much sex as [SILENT]” appears to have been a tad too controversial for Channel 10 (c’mon it was too well placed to be a glitch).
According to my lip-reading posse, the wife’s name was Katie Holmes. Ten afraid of the Cruise lawyer brigade? Surely not.
June 25, 2009 – 8:52 pm
Asher Moses at The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a spokesperson for Senator Conroy has confirmed that ISP filtering will be used to block access to downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard, the highest game classification in Australia. Moses writes:
This means that even Australians who are aged above 15 and want to obtain the adult-level games online will be unable to do so. It will undoubtedly raise the ire of gamers, the average age of which is 30 in Australia, according to research commissioned by the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia.
[...]
Senator Conroy’s spokesman said the filter would cover “computer games such as web-based flash games and downloadable games, if a complaint is received and the content is determined by ACMA to be Refused Classification”. All games that exceed MA15+ are deemed to be RC.
The filtering could also block “the importation of physical copies of computer games sold over the internet which have been classified RC”, the spokesman said.
[...]
Mark Newton, an ISP engineer and internet filtering critic, said the move to extend the filtering to computer games would place a cloud over online-only games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, which aren’t classified in Australia due to their online nature.
Ah. It just keeps getting better doesn’t it.
June 16, 2009 – 11:52 pm
The director of G Media, Garion Hall, has issued a statement about a police raid on his company this week.
Hall said yesterday morning (Monday 15 June, 2009) Victoria Police acted on a warrant to search the premises of the adult web business AbbyWinters.com. The raid was instigated by a tabloid journalist from the Herald Sun. The journalist has written about AbbyWinters.com in the past, trying to encourage authorities to act.
Hall said no charges have been laid by the police and that no hardware was seized. Police were supplied with copies of all information that they requested and they (the police) were polite and amiable.
He appreciates the support of Eros, staff, website members and models, and is hopeful of a successful outcome.
Eros Executive Officer, Fiona Patten, told me that Eros fully supports their long term member and their right to provide non-violent erotica.
June 16, 2009 – 7:55 pm
G Media, the Australian company behind one of the web’s most popular adult websites, AbbyWinters.com, has been raided by Victoria police and it’s owner arrested. No charges have been laid.
According to The Herald Sun, computers containing footage of women allegedly performing explicit sex acts were seized by police because they are ‘illegal to produce in Victoria’. Under section 24 of the Victorian Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) (Enforcement) Act 199, a person must not, for the purpose of gain, make or produce an objectionable film.
What’s an objectionable film in Victoria?
Well that probably comes down to individual opinion more than anything, but the Act defines it as one that:
Determining whether any of the content on Abby Winters is is objectionable will require lengthy review.
Other allegations:
Police are also investigating allegations that a model on the website was under age at time of filming. AbbyWinters displays a Title 18 USC § 2257 recording keeping compliance notice on their site and states all models are over 18 at the time of production, but The Herald Sun reports police have seen a copy of a driver’s licence of one G Media nude model, allegedly showing she was 17 when photographed.
What this means for the sites estimated 30 thousand paying members, especially those that reside Australia, I’m looking into. As of this evening AbbyWinters remains open.
The Herald Sun takes credit for the raids, suggesting they came after providing ‘police with a dossier of information about the allegedly illegal porn G Media, and companies associated with it, have churned out in Melbourne since about 2000.’
Despite a witch hunt by the same paper 2 years ago, Abby Winters remains well respected amongst the adult industry and consumers for presenting models in a positive and natural way.
Models respond:
One model posted on the site’s forum today that Abby Winters has been an amazing company with a lot of respect and strict protocols. Another said she arrived at Abby Winters headquarters at 8.30am Monday morning for her shoot and ‘walked right into the thick of it’. She said she was asked for her details, presumably by police.
Further comment is being sought.
Update: Garion Hall, director of G Media, has issued a statement.
June 9, 2009 – 11:31 pm
Senator Nick Minchin is taking initiative in his fight against Labor’s mandatory ISP filtering policy and unlike his opposition in the Senate, his message is getting stronger. Minchin’s latest press release draws attention to China’s move to bulk-up it’s censorship system by resorting to PC installed filters and he asks whether Labor will continue to ignore the problems that exist with filtering at ISP level given China’s latest move.
I’m impressed Minchin and his staff took hold of this opportunity to highlight Labor’s flawed policy. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve seen a little bit of tech-know-how on either side of the communications portfolio.
Here’s the press release in full:
Mon, 8th June 2009
While the Rudd Government remains fixated on introducing a mandatory Internet Service Provider level filter, from 1 July all computers in pro-censorship China will have to be sold with PC-level filtering software because too many people are said to able to bypass the centralised system.
Under the Chinese edict all computers sold will be required to have ‘Green Dam – Youth Escort’ software pre-loaded or provided on a CD, according to today’s Wall Street Journal, in a move aimed at protecting young people from “harmful content”.
“The Chinese Government is said to operate the most sophisticated network level Internet filtering system in the world, yet it will require computer-level software to be installed because many users are said to be able to circumvent the centralised ‘Great Firewall’,” Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Nick Minchin said.
“This is very telling for a country that went down the path of network-level Internet filtering from the very beginning and probably has the most advanced system in the world,” he said.
“If it was such an effective system, why would a country like China feel so compelled to require all computers to have pc-level filtering software installed? I suspect it is because pc-level filters are considered a more practical option.”
“While the Chinese are conceding that ISP-level filtering is not a panacea for restricting access to online content, the Rudd Government is spending millions of dollars to pursue this very approach.
“Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has closed the Net Alert free pc-level filtering initiative, established by the previous Coalition Government, which means there is currently no Commonwealth backed filtering option in place,” Senator Minchin said.
“Net Alert enabled Australian families to install software on their home computers, which could be tailored to the needs of each individual household.
“Adult supervision should be central to all online safety efforts, supported by proven products that can be used to provide extra layers of protection, whether they be ISP or PC-level options.
“Mandatory ISP-level filtering is a very radical step, particularly if it is based on a system that can be simply bypassed by the producers and consumers of illegal content, including child pornography and will adversely impact system speeds and performance.
“While technology advances at a great pace, Senator Conroy has so far failed to demonstrate that a mandatory ISP-level filtering regime can be implemented without adversely affecting the online experiences of law abiding Australians.”
June 8, 2009 – 11:08 pm
by John Lacey
Whether you think the Chaser sketch was funny or not, offensive or not, the words of the ABC managing director Mark Scott seem really rather ominous.
We need to fully review the ABC’s approval processes for programs that deliberately challenge public attitudes.
Programs that ‘deliberately challenge public attitudes’ require greater scrutiny than programs that merely reflect the popular world view?
Now it seems entirely possible that this is mostly a PR exercise to appease the masses but supposing it isn’t, what will that mean - not just for the Chaser - but for ABC programming in general? Will programs that offer a variety of viewpoints (Insiders, The 7:30 Report, Q&A) be carefully edited to only reflect the most popular opinions at given moment? Let’s not forget that Media Watch was taken off air once for having opinions that weren’t ‘popular’ with ABC management.
Surely the true merit of the ABC (not needing to appease advertisers) is its ability to offer a variety of viewpoints, even unpopular ones.
If there is anything to be taken from the Chaser experience it is two-fold. Australians are very protective of their children. And they don’t care for dissenting vantage points. It is at this point that I stop to reflect on the title of this very website: Somebody Think Of The Children.
A friend told me last night that she liked the title of the site. Working in a government office, she told me, those words are plastered on the office wall to remind people to consider the interests and needs of children when organising events. Though most of us will recognise it as part of Stephen Conroy’s ‘Clean Feed’ rhetoric. The implication was always that if you weren’t happy to have the government censor the Internet that you didn’t care about children, that the Internet was a wretched place of depravity that only Mr. Conroy could make suitable for families and children.
In an abstract way I agree with the general sentiment. We should be thinking of the children. We should be thinking about the lost competitive advantage our kids would endure if they lost a resource as useful as the Internet in its current form. We should be thinking about the harm our children will endure if the only information they come into contact with is carefully filtered by the government. We should carefully consider the consequences of sheltering our children away from real world ideas and concepts. You could be forgiven at times for example, given their seemingly anti-sex stance, that Family First have forgotten how families are created. Immaculate conception, anyone?
Freedom of speech isn’t just about having the ability to express your opinions, it is also about having a tolerance for the opinions of others - even (especially!) opinions that differ from your own.
June 5, 2009 – 4:56 pm
by John Lacey
Following complaints over a skit in The Chaser’s War On Everything, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott has indicated that broadcast approval procedures will be re-examined.
We’re going to look at those processes … I mean we all know that The Chaser push the edges and it’s a tightrope that we walk, and I suppose there are many, many skits that they’ve put to air that have offended someone along the way - that’s part of the nature of the satirical and black comedy that they do.
The usual processes were put in place around this program, but the red flag didn’t go up [and] we could see today, that that was the wrong judgment call.
The skit - depicting critically ill children being denied wishes from the ‘Make A Realistic Wish Foundation’ whose tag line was ‘Why go to any trouble when they’re only going to die anyway?’ - has been edited out of the episode shown on ABC iView.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has suggested that the Chaser team should ‘hang their heads in shame’ for the effort [Ed Note: Kevin Rudd would probably say puppies playing in a bathtub full of soap suds is 'revolting' if it meant he got his mug on TV for another 2 minutes].
The Daily Telegraph noted a similarity between the Chaser segment and a video from The Onion in which a child bankrupts the Make-A-Wish Foundation by wishing for never-ending wishes.
June 3, 2009 – 7:34 pm
This Sunday (June 7, 2009) the State Library of Queensland is showcasing controversial and banned books to the public.
About:
For centuries books that challenge the moral, political or religious norms of their times have been ‘banned’ or removed from public circulation. Today, studying these banned books provides a revealing insight into the psyche of particular eras and cultures around the world.
In this special Uncovered event, SLQ Librarians Joan Bruce & Irene Sourgnes, will provide a guided opportunity to view some of these books up-close and learn about their fascinating histories and authors.
With divisive examples such as Norman Lindsay’s “Redheap”, “The Little Red Schoolbook”, and even “Bambi”, Banned Books promises to challenge our thinking on censorship and freedom of speech.
Come join me! It’s free, but you need to reserve tickets through Qtix.
Date/Time
Sun 7 June 2009, 1:30pm
Tickets
FREE EVENT
Duration
1 hour and 30 minutes
Venue
Fox Family White Gloves Room, Level 4
State Library of Queensland
Stanley Place, South Bank Precinct
South Brisbane
June 2, 2009 – 9:38 pm
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the DBCDE has not set criteria to determine if the live ISP filtering trial is a success. According to FOI assessment documents, the outcomes of the Pilot will inform the Government’s decision on the ISP filtering framework and ‘therefore there are not success criteria’. Here’s a copy of page 2 of the documents received by the applicant:
Page one and three are also online.
The FOI request consisted of the following documents:
- 2008/1380 – BROADCASTING AND CONTENT – CONTENT PROGRAMS – CYBER SAFETY – PROJECT PLAN
- 2008/1498 – BROADCASTING AND CONTENT – CONTENT REGULATION – ONLINE CONTENT – CONSULTATIVE WORKING GROUP ON CYBER-SAFETY MINUTES OF MEETINGS
- 2008/1972 – BROADCASTING AND CONTENT – CONTENT PROGRAMS – ISP FILTERING SECTION – CYBER SAFETY – BRIEFING PAPER ON ISP FILTERING **** **** **** **** ****
- 2008/2391 – BROADCASTING AND CONTENT – CONTENT PROGRAMS – ISP FILTERING SECTION – CYBER-SAFETY – LIVE PILOT – CONSULTATION
- 2008/3400 – BROADCASTING AND CONTENT – CONTENT PROGRAMS – ISP FILTERING SECTION – CYBER SAFETY – ISP FILTERING LIVE PILOT – EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS – DEVELOPMENT OF PROCESS
June 2, 2009 – 9:16 pm
After being as indecisive as a teenage girl choosing what to wear on prom night, Senator Conroy has settled on what classification category will be banned by under the mandatory filter (the one you can’t opt out of). According to IT News, Conroy’s office stated that ‘mandatory ISP-level filtering will only apply to RC content drawn from complaints made to the ACMA‘.
There’s two main problems with that:
Colin Jacobs from EFA agrees. He told IT News:
‘Filtering out a handful of RC-only sites won’t make the Internet any safer for kids, nor will it slow down the traffic in illegal material. Yet it still comes at a high cost, both financially and to our freedom of speech. It seems more about fulfilling an election promise than achieving any particular policy aim.’
Subscribe to feedSomebody Think Of The Children is a blog about censorship and moral panic in Australia, with a focus on Internet censorship. It is edited by Michael Meloni.
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Live filtering pilot has no success criteria
Only 32% of current ACMA blacklist is child abuse material
ACMA declares anti-abortion site prohibited content
Same old song: "It's not about free speech"
Live filtering trial to leave ISPs in the lurch
Australian Government's attempt to gag ISP filter critic backfires
Why the Tasmanian ISP filtering trial is a failure
The high price of Internet filtering
