Beagle writes:

The second half of it [the report] is more interesting as it has some results from the DIA’s testing. This was apparently split into three phases:

1. Single ISP with 5,000 users ((already had their own filtering system so it was probably Watchdog).
2. Two ISPs with 25,000 users.
3. Four ISPs with 600,000 users (at a guess this was when Ihug and TelstraClear joined).

There’s no way to measure the effectiveness of the filter at stopping people from finding child pornography – we can’t tell how many people worked around it or downloaded material using peer to peer filesharing or other methods.

According to the report, the system was operating at 80% capacity in the third phase. Apparently this was a bit much for it as: “the system did experience some stability issues processing this amount of requests and required maintenance on two occasions to replace hardware.”

There is no further detail about whether the “80% capacity” referred to the performance of the filtering system or the Internet connection they were using.

Read Beagle’s complete overview here.

I’m no doctor so I’ll refrain from further speculation on the physical effects, but reports are in that the Chinese government is committed to a ‘long-lasting’ crackdown on some Internet content – which as we know is content they disagree with. Liu Zhengrong of the State Council news office Internet bureau says Internet pornography and vulgar content threatens to damage the healthy development of the Internet in China and they will not abandon efforts to clean up the online environment under any circumstances.

…Like shutting down blog network Bullog.cn.

Not only does it offer three levels of exhibits on mainly Japanese sexuality, its position on top of Atami’s cliffs (accessible by cable car) makes for some very nice views of the ocean.

Some of the museum’s highlights:

- A series of window boxes displaying toy-like figurines involved in a number of fetishes, many of which are firmly rooted in Japan like Hentai and bondage.

- Traditional Japanese drawings of sex. The male’s organ is always excessively large.

- A crank connected to a wind machine that when spun blows the skirt of a Marilyn Monroe mannequin up.

- A replica of a whale’s penis. About as tall as me I’d say.

A lot of what was on show was silly (a penis you can ride for 100Yen), but it’s also what made the visit a fun experience. Those silly exhibits and the fact many of the visitors were senior couples says something about the Japan’s attitude towards sex.

For the next 7 days I’m in Tokyo. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to write more soon.

Wikileaks says every blocked site has the internally noted reason of “lese majeste” — criticizing the King — however, it is obvious that many sites were blocked for quite different reasons. It would appear, in fact, that the judiciary did not examine most sites before issuing orders but instead rubber-stamped government requests.

A total of 860 YouTube videos have been blocked, far in excess of the blocking conducted by The Official Censor of the Military Coup; a further 200 pages mirroring those videos are also blocked. Curiously, Hillary Clinton’s campaign videos, and 24 Charlie Chaplin videos are also on the censorship lists.

Although we have not yet found the opportunity to examine each website censored, an eclectic mix of censorship has been revealed resulting in overblocking of many benign webpages.

Along with the obligatory YouTube videos and their mirror sites alleged to be lese majeste in Thailand, numerous blocks to Thai webboard pages, particularly at popular discussion sites including Prachatai (45 separate pages) and Same Sky (56 separate pages). Of course, all webboards in Thailand, including those just mentioned, moderate discussions and self-censor to avoid closure. It is interesting that Thai bureaucrats still find reasons to censor.

Also blocked are weblogs referencing Paul Handley’s unauthorised Biography of Thailand’s King Bhumibhol, The King Never Smiles, and its translation into Thai along with Thai Wikipedia entries.

Spiked Online

Guy Rundle gives a detailed run down of the proposal and its conservative connections in his article, Tear down Australia’s Great Firewall Reef (c’mon Guy, it’s Great Barrier Web).  Rundle writes:

There is nothing ‘Family First’ about a policy that deprives parents of the right to decide on what comes into their homes via the internet and puts it in the hands of the state instead. But of course, ‘Family First’ is about something else – the imposition of a conservative Christian morality across the whole of Australian society.

In ‘Digital Natives’ take on censorious Kevin, Danu Poyner shares his experience in the ongoing fight to stop mandatory filtering:

From the moment the geeks heard about the so-called ‘clean feed’, we went to arms. We fought it on blogs and on forums, on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. This was to be a war on our own turf, and we were ready. Angry geeks may not sound so scary, especially when pitted against a government armed with a large majority and a powerful decoy like ‘protecting the children’, but what they didn’t count on was the very strength of the force they were trying to muzzle. We were connected.

While Kerry Miller investigates the role Clive Hamilton and the Australia Institute has played:

With regard to pornography, Hamilton casts his net quite wide. He uses the bogeyman of child porn to provoke moral outrage (despite the fact that child porn is already illegal and, since it is hidden, no-one sees it ‘accidentally’), and then hitches a ride on this to condemn almost all other porn. Michael Flood has even mooted the idea of an ‘ethical porn’, which depicts people engaged in ‘normal loving sexual behaviour’. The availability of material which shows men ejaculating on women’s faces, double penetration, male-female anal sex, bondage or simulated rape scenes is seen as just obviously socially dangerous. ‘Normal’ sex, as defined by Hamilton and his supporters, should be… well, I don’t know quite what, but certainly very politically correct and restrained. It seems that the liberal censors would like the government to find a way of censoring sexual fantasies, and imposing the ‘correct line’ on sex.

LogiPik evaluated this photograph as 'erotic'

LogiPik, a PHP image filter for websites which supposedly uses a number of advanced detection layers to accurately classify a pictures level of appropriateness, thinks this picture of Stephen Conroy is porn. Actually, of the five photographs of Conroy I tried, three were considered porn and the one to the right ‘erotic’. Cheers to Eddie and the guys at Whirlpool for testing it out.

To the media and you may have missed these fine articles on filtering:

- When the f-word is ‘filter’ by Glenn Milne (Courier Mail)
- PG Nation by Matthew Thompson (ABC Unleashed)
- Conroy’s Web by Raena Lea-Shannon (New Matilda)

And in response to Clive Hamilton’s article in Crikey (members only)
- Clive Hamilton doesn’t quite win “Cnut of the Week” by Stilgherrian
- Internet censorship. Nice idea, just not practical (members only) by Colin Jacobs (who definitely doesn’t think it’s a nice idea)

Event wise, limited seats are still available at UNSW’s filtering forum this Thursday. The speaker list has now been confirmed.

Something a little different: Have you spoken to your loved one about filtering? Kieran has – with mixed results.

And who would have guessed Obama would speak about our filtering plans.

I’ll leave you with this though. After a rough week of storms in Brisbane, EFA’s ‘Protect the country’s children from bad weather’ parody from 1999 couldn’t be any more relevant. We need mandatory shields installed in all exposed public areas to prevent bad weather reaching children, and we need them now!

Bay Of Plenty Times writes:

Around 80 year 13 students, from four Bay schools, took part in the Office of Film and Literature Classification’s (OFLC) Censor For A Day session at Bay City Cinemas, Tauranga, yesterday.

The teens were given the task of watching a yet to be released movie and then working through the classification criteria to give it a rating.

[..]

‘It’s been really informative,’ said Mount Maunganui College year 13 student Amanda Willis.

‘I didn’t realise there were so many processes to think about while censoring.’

If kids really dig censorship, lets port this baby to XBOX and make millions.

I love how open the NZ OFLC is about their duties. They often publish extremely detailed reports outlining their decisions and unlike the Australian Classification Board, they don’t pretend ‘censorship’ isn’t part of what they do.

This report on the NZ version of the Peaceful Pill (dated 12 September 08) is 24 pages long — These days the ACB doesn’t even bother to publish a three paragraph press release when they ban a game.

Closer to home, Qantas says they wont offer open Internet access to passengers on their A380 planes until 2009 because of logistical and regulatory issues. Instead they will offer a ‘canned version’ of the Internet (*cough* sponsor’s websites only anyone?).

As Jon says on STOP, this is a very real example how hysteria over pornography has a direct and undeniably undesirable consequence on the liberties of responsible adults.

Tip off via Stace.

The results?

• Respondents indicated strong support for the establishment of a global internet users� Bill of Rights. 66% of those participating in this survey agreed with the statement: �A global internet users� Bill of Rights should be adopted.� 6% disagreed.
• 76% of respondents supported freedom of information as a core ethic of online life and 75% agreed that such a policy ensuring freedom of expression on the internet should be adopted.
• 62% of respondents said they believe content controls weaken the Internet.
• By a 59%-28% margin, they disagreed with the statement, �My country should have the right to approve the internet content available to the people of my country.�
• Even more disagreed (63%) that a commercial internet service provider should have the right to control content.

See more of the findings here (PDF).

I like the idea of an Internet Bill of Rights. I’ll have to do some reading on the subject. This site looks like a good start.

[Via PJNet]