Somebody Think of the Children
Fighting Censorship
Welcome home?

Welcome home?

Hi all. It’s been nearly a year since I blogged about censorship here on Somebody Think of the Children. In fact, it’s been nearly a year since I wrote about censorship at all. Apart from the occasional Twitter discussion I’ve generally been focused on work and other online projects. I’ll admit the break has been...

Great Australian Internet Blackout: Early numbers are in

As many of you know, hundreds of websites turned black this Australia Day (and many will remain so for the rest of the week) to protest the Government’s plan to censor the Internet. It might not have been as popular as beach BBQs or beer and the cricket, but initial numbers are a good sign...

National net censorship protests: January 30 2010

Protests against mandatory Internet censorship will be held Australia wide on Saturday January 30, 2010. A Facebook page for the event has been set up, with over 1700 people already confirmed as attending. Specific protest locations are still to be announced, but one is planned for each capital city. I’ll update this page when I...

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...

Mark Newton’s filtering form letter a handy research tool

Anyone who sent a letter of concern to Labor Senators and MPs about mandatory ISP filtering will likely have received the same standard form reply sent nation wide. That takes no effort and it means the Government still fail to address countless relevent and important questions about the plan over a year into its implementation....

Brisbane net censorship protest report and photos

There may have been some hiccups, like not being able to hear the speakers on the megaphone and typos in the information pamphlets, but Brisbane’s rally against mandatory ISP filtering did what it set out to do: generate some heat and raise some awareness. Two hundred to three hundred people converged on Brisbane Square, opposite...

December 13 filtering protests

Don’t forget that on December 13 there will be net censorship protests across most of the country. Might be a good networker as well. Time City Location Facebook Events 11am Brisbane Brisbane Square Brisbane Facebook Event 11am Hobart Parliament Lawns Hobart Facebook Event 11am Sydney Town Hall Sydney Facebook Event 12pm Adelaide Parliament Adelaide Facebook...

GetUp! raises 25K for Save the Net campaign in hours

GetUp! has raised a whopping $25,000 in donations in less than half a day for it’s anti Internet censorship campaign, Save the Net (you can donate securely at the GetUp! website). At time of writing, the exact figure is $25,618 and just like their petition, the number rises every minute. GetUp! will use the funds...

GetUp! launches Save The Net campaign

GetUp! has launched their anti-filter campaign, Save The Net. The Federal Government is planning to force all Australian servers to filter internet traffic and block any material the Government deems ‘inappropriate’. Under the plan, the Government can add any ‘unwanted’ site to a secret blacklist. Testing has already begun on systems that will slow our...

Join the EFA Action Alert mailing list

Electronic Frontiers Australia has a mailing list you can subscribe to for the latest action alerts on filtering and other EFA related issues. It’s quick to sign up, just enter your email details here.

GetUp! one step closer to entering filtering fight?

People have been asking for some time now whether GetUp! will be entering the ring in the fight against net censorship down under.  Well today we may be that one step closer to knowing. GetUp! has published a story from Colin Jacobs of EFA and that’s a good sign they are interested. In his article...

EFA launches R18+ game classification campaign

EFA has just launched their new R18+ for games campaign website, R18games.com. An R18+ classification would require the unanimous support of all Attorneys-General, and in the past moves to change the current classification have been blocked on the vote of a single state Attorney-General. EFA is now sponsoring a campaign to have the R18+ classification...