Filtering Wrap Up: Of Swallows and Silver Bullets
by Sean Wright Senator Conroy has again fired off another of the ‘no silver bullet’ lines in relation to ISP filtering – a phrase so prevalent that should a pack of werewolves cross over ‘a bridge too far’ and wander down a ‘fork in the road’ our kiddies will be well protected. Then again maybe...
Filters have limited if any success: NSW Director of Public Prosecutions
According to IT Wire, New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, told the 2009 eCrime Symposium in Sydney on Tuesday that ‘…filters and blocking mechanisms, ultimately in a society like ours, would have only limited if any success.’ IT Wire reports that Cowdery thinks the Federal Government’s ISP-level internet filtering plan is impractical...
Library filtering: A Librarian’s perspective
by Brisbane IT Librarian, Kath Read. Recently the Brisbane Times published this article with reference to an incident at Maroochydore Library where a parent complained about another customer accessing pornography on the public internet terminals in the library. Strangely enough this is a common issue for libraries and other public internet providers, both free and paid. I...
Filtering wrap up: What ‘works’ and what kills small ISPs
Stilgherrian writes now that speed issues with filtering are out of the way (see ARN’s article about ISPs involved in the trial giving ‘filters the technical greenlight’), ‘come September the debate will be about whether internet filtering “works” or not’. He’s right and therein lies the problem: Senator Conroy hasn’t defined what works. Here’s Stil:...
Parents find managing their child’s Internet use easy: ACMA report
A government report on media use by young people, that ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman says is sure to inform further debate about digital media literacy, has found 76% – 92% of parents surveyed find it easy to manage their child’s use of the Internet. The report also found that most young people do not have...
Is Conroy deceiving the public about what his filter will ban?
Senator Conroy says awarding him the title of Internet Villain of the Year is misguided and that the people have been mislead into what the Government is doing in terms of filtering the Internet. However, in doing so the Minister for Communications has shown he is either deliberately misleading the public about the type of...
Censorsdyne launched as Children’s groups oppose filter (but Conroy says they’re wrong)
GetUp! has officially launched Censordyne, an ad and website campaign combo to help stop the Government from introducing Internet censorship in Australia. The group hopes to show the ad on Qantas flights in August when politicians are on flights to Canberra as Parliament resumes. Watch here: Children’s welfare groups Save the Children and the National...
Censordyne: GetUp’s anti net censorship TV ad
Update 11:20PM: Ilic has made the video private and unfortunately can no longer be viewed. Way to put an end to any sort of viral campaign taking off. The ad will now launch Tuesday and it’s anticipated that GetUp! will request further donations. That’s unlikely to go over well with those who donated to their...
Rudd’s mandatory ISP filter will be used to censor video games
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...
Abby Winters owner Garion Hall issues statement
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...
Australian adult website Abby Winters raided
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...
Minchin strengthens attack on Conroy as Labor ignores cracks in Great Firewall
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...
