Filters mandatory for all Australians: DBCDE
October 13, 2008 – 7:39 pmComputer World is the first media outlet to question the Government’s ISP filtering opt-out policy.
Two weeks ago Internode network engineer Mark Newton confirmed there would be two black lists and adults would only be able to opt-out from the list containing inappropriate content for children. They would not be able to opt-out of the list containing illegal or inappropriate adult content, meaning all connections would still be filtered.
Now the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has been forced to respond.
The government will iron-out policy and implementation of the Internet content filtering software following an upcoming trial of the technology, according to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.
Department spokesman Tim Marshall said the filters will be mandatory for all Australians.
“Labor’s plan for cyber-safety will require ISPs to offer a clean feed Internet service to all homes, schools and public Internet points accessible by children,” Marshall said.
[...]
Internode network engineer Mark Newton said many users falsely believe the opt-out proviso will remove content filtering.
“Users can opt-out of the ‘additional material’ blacklist (referred to in a department press release, which is a list of things unsuitable for children, but there is no opt-out for ‘illegal content’”, Newton said.
Websites offering the Peaceful Pill handbook (released in digital form today) for download would likely be some of the first to be banned and that could also include popular torrent websites like Mininova where the handbook can be found.
Adult websites classified as Refused Classification by the ACB, but which are legal in Australia and the United States (and nearly every other part of the globe), could also suffer the same fate.
And lets not forget the hundreds of thousands of legal and innocent websites that will be incorrectly blocked.
Meanwhile, criminals accessing child abuse websites will still be able to do so and the horrendous production and distribution of child abuse material online and off will continue. Why does the government think censors are the ones who can fix this and not law enforcement?
Mandatory ISP filtering is about protecting votes, not children.
22 Responses to “Filters mandatory for all Australians: DBCDE”
Sorry guys but blah blah blah…
.
What *might* and *could* and *probably* will happen because of these *evil* filters….
.
Give us a break. Could you at least offer up something more that blatant and unsubstantiated conjecture on what will and what will not get filtered?
And what the heck is so wrong with stuff deemed illegal being blocked or at least being attempted to be blocked?
Should all police stopp chasing criminals because loads get away with their crimes everyday?
censorship has existed for decades, and stuff that is refused classification is just that, refused. Finito.
It may shock you to learn that people do not turn into angels once they turn on their browsers, and I do not care how much smut the criminals want to look at and pump out, as long as somebody is doing something to help block the flow of it to our screens.
If you want to protest against censorship then get down to the docks at 5AM and stop the customs officers blocking the entry of such materials into Australia there.
If we used your criteria, then we would fire all the police today…
Great idea, **really** thinking of the children there…
By Michael on Oct 13, 2008
This move is a fascist political stunt to try to gain votes from evangelicals and communists. The Labor Party should understand that their job is to let the country run, not rule it to their whims.
All we can do now is hope that the Libs and Greens speak up in the Senate.
By Leo on Oct 13, 2008
Hi Michael,
The Government says this scheme is to protect children, yet their own department, the ACMA says one of the biggest risks children face online is from online bullying. Pornography doesn’t enter the equation, it never has.
As for what’s is illegal and what’s not, viewing RC material is not illegal in Australia. Nevertheless, it cant be sold.
Do you think Australian adults should be banned from visiting the Peaceful Pill website, when you can buy it in NZ, USA and countless other countries?
You say ‘as long as somebody is doing something to help block the flow of it to our screens’… WHY can’t you do that yourself? There are already a vast array of filters that can achieve this and with more success than those at an ISP level.
Mandatory ISP filtering will not block anywhere near the amount of inappropriate content that is available, the only thing it will do is incorrectly block thousands of legal websites.
Firing the police? Who said that. The police can and already do prosecute those who access illegal content online. Filtering won’t improve that, if anything it will make more criminals use encrypted and alternative methods for accessing illegal material.
By Mike on Oct 13, 2008
Michael said: “Give us a break. Could you at least offer up something more that blatant and unsubstantiated conjecture on what will and what will not get filtered?”
Does the Australian Government know? They are making it up as they go. Real reassuring.
By Mike on Oct 13, 2008
Hi Michael,
While most posters her are clearly anaginst any form of censcorship which may not gel with your views many good points have been raised on this issue which have nothing to do with the censcorship… Namely cost, performance and effectiveness.
You say why not try block it, the material is illegal after all…
Simply coming across plain illegal content on the internet isn’t as easy as many would think. You have to be actively looking for it in most cases. When i look for banned movies for instance i will always use a proxy service to procure said film through a country who’s laws are more in line with my views on what is acceptable viewing. This competely circumvents any filter that could ever be installed and most people looking up things of less then legal quality already use proxys. The filter will stop nothing.
You say this will protect kids? In year 6 everyone i knew was able to bypass filters to get nice boobie pics and that was the relative early days. Bypassing filters is just as easy now. Even the one they plan to implement.
This system will do nothing more then slow down our internet and line the pockets of equipment vendors.
While the censcorship issues here are major should you actually behind such things, you still cannot ignore how much money is being wasted to appease naive parents.
The money would be better spent teaching parents how to better look after their children.
By Adam on Oct 13, 2008
Why is it that whenever anyone mentions “illegal content” it always morphs to “Child Porn”, as stated, euthanasia information (the Peaceful Pill) is in the governments sights. What else? Terrorism sites, bomb making instructions? So what? Information has never been dangerous except to a Government intent on keeping it’s people ignorant and docile, fed on a diet of “A Current Affair” and “Big Brother”. You can find bomb-making instructions in any high school chemistry textbook.
I particularly like the line “Labor’s plan for cyber-safety will require ISPs to OFFER a clean feed”. An offer you can’t refuse? Thank you, God Father.
By Stevian on Oct 14, 2008
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Jury-out-on-ISP-filtering-trial/0,130061791,339292621,00.htm?feed=generic
I wonder what the trials will bring?
By Al on Oct 14, 2008
The filtering will man-in-the-middle (MITM) all HTTPS connections, meaning for any online purchase with a credit card, or online banking your details will be intercepted by the filter - if a hacker gains control of one of the filtering servers they’ll be able to record everyone’s account information. The banks should be up in arms about this.
By James on Oct 15, 2008
James, I’m amazed that not many people have brought this up. I’ve been trying research what is actually happening in regard to HTTPS filtering and the security issues around it, and can find very little on the subject in relation to forthcoming mandatory filter. What I have found though is quite worrying. I can really see a lot of fraud happening, banks and customers losing money. And for what? Why do I as a law abiding internet user and bank customer have to have my banking, credit details and passwords compromised because this stupid filter that hardly anyone wants or needs.
Slow internet, thousands upon thousands of legal sites blocked, compromised security. This is nuts. It just seems to get worse and worse as I look further into the implications of this plan. Truly, will compromising everyone’s bank accounts stop paedophiles sending and accessing child porn images in Australia? Well as long as little 15 year old Johnny isn’t wanking over nude pictures of Jenna Jameson thanks to this great filtering plan, bugger everyone’s security. Getting rid of the porn is obviously more important than banks and customers losing millions of dollars.
By Matthew on Oct 15, 2008
Thanks for pointing that out james– centralising australia’s internet connections may well create a large scale security problem by creating a huge logged and backed-up treasure trove of data containing slightly encrypted credit card numbers.
It’s not just the banks that should be up in arms about this– anyone who plans to use a credit card online should be up in arms too.
By Ben on Oct 16, 2008
Michael (commenter from October 13),
The reason why attempting to technically block illegal content is a spectacularly ill conceived and counter productive idea is that it just makes it much harder to detect and prosecute consumers of child pornography.
If the content isn’t technically blocked, authorities have some chance of detecting that it is being accessed and then prosecuting the offender under existing law. If it is technically blocked at the ISP level, sufficiently motivated consumers of child porn are forced to use covert mechanisms, such as Tor, to gain access to the blocked sites. Use of Tor to access child porn simply can’t be detected or blocked without outlawing the use of cryptography and you can’t do that unless you want to disable any pretence of doing secure financial transactions over the internet.
Once deviants are routinely using Tor (because the Government has forced them to), authorities will lose access to a potential source of intelligence about the activities of porn consumers.
ISP internet filtering will be only marginally effective at preventing online access to child porn and creates infrastructure that allows this or a future government to censor any site on the Internet at will.
Viewing child porn is and should be illegal. However, there is no law of nature that says that we must attempt to use all technical means, no matter how ineffective, no matter at what cost, to physically block it. As I have shown, doing so is probably counter productive, if your intent is actually to detect and prosecute access to child porn.
Advocates of technical blocks will have to justify to themselves their advocacy of a policy that may well make it harder to detect and prosecute the consumers of child porn.
By Jon Seymour on Oct 19, 2008
Thank god most people can see the light on this… this whole thing is seriously scary. This is supposed to be the land of the free right? How free is it going to be once the government starts blocking sites to suit their own agenda? There will be nothing to stop them and noone will no what they are missing. The internet is the only true medium of free speech we have. If we lose this then are one giant step closer to becoming like China. And if you think I’m exaggerating, try reading some informed arguments by logical people on the topic of mandatory internet filtering. I will be writing letters to my local MP and to communications minister Conroy. If you love Australia, I suggest you do the same.
By Tristan on Oct 22, 2008
If you want an inkling of how frustrating this kind of blanket filtering can be, talk to almost any NSW Department of Education teacher or student. these kind of technological “solutions” bring their own problems of wrongly categorised sites, slow updates of site lists, costs, and network slowdowns. The NSW DET started off with a blacklist system, but staff and kiddies soon found plenty of proxies to get them around the blacklist..as fast as the proxies were blocked, more sprang up…and so now they are on a whitelist system (sourced out of the US…another bit of cultural imperialism…).
How long before the proposed Federal filter switches from a black to a white list? Not too long would be my guess…once the infrastucture is in place it’d be so simple fro this or another Gov’t to swap over…all in the name of the children of course…..
By Jim R on Oct 28, 2008
This is a load of garbage. Stopping porn is not what this is about, it is about control plain and simple. Banning porn does not worry me at all, what worries me is whats next. They are talking about blocking access to euthanasia sites, will sites that don’t follow our governments views be blocked next? Will the churches then complain about other religions so we cant even look at other cultures? What really bothers me is the fact they are trying to hide what they are doing. I think Australia really needs to know what it’s government is planning.
To me this is a very vague solution to a problem that has a very easy solution. It’s simple - raise your kids yourselves. Why is it left to society to raise children? Teachers are being forced to raise children more and more these days. Now we all are going to suffer a whole range of problems because a few people can’t control their kids. This has given the government a chance to seize control and they’re taking it.
In reality I don’t think this will happen, once they have trialed this ludicrous idea they will realize that it won’t work. There are far to many undesirable sites created everyday to realistically be managed. What about our health system or our eduction system? Aren’t these things more important? It’s common sense to fix serious problems before even attempting to look at such insignificant trivialities.
I personally think our government is a joke, the politicians are so far removed from real life they should be living on the moon - not making major decisions or running a country. How have we let this happen to ourselves? If something is not done about this things are just going to get worse and worse. I think I am going to start voting green, they definitely couldn’t do worse.
I personally am going to send as many emails as possible to these turkeys in parliament and demand answers. I suggest every one concerned about this do the same.
Wake up Australia we’re being taken over.
By Dylan on Oct 29, 2008
I am worried about the direction this government is headed. Thought censorship thru blocking controversial content. This government is following the footsteps of oppressive regimes like Burma and China. It has already started with Howard’s sedition laws. Little by little, our rights are being eroded. We have to fight this..not only for ourselves but for generations to follow…
Don’t trust this Conroy conman…He is doing what Howard did previously.
By Harry on Nov 13, 2008
I am intensely interested in this controversy because NZ tends to follow OZ. As a NZ user of internet filtering (through watchdog.net.nz) I have found that it works great for preventing deliberate and unintentional access to all sorts of stuff that my family doesn’t want to see: bestiality, obscenity, pornography, etc. We just had a discussion about this and heard all the horror stories our kids new about what other kids had found on the http://WWW. I have been able to get access to stuff that should be blocked but, in general, it is more difficult to circumvent the filter when it is at the ISP.
By Mark on Dec 31, 2008