Comments on: Filters mandatory for all Australians: DBCDE

By: Internet Censorship: It is a big deal! - sw'as

Internet Censorship: It is a big deal! - sw'as — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:10:04 +0000

[...] to discussing internet (or any other kind of) censorship in Australia. Some recent posts include: Filters mandatory for all Australians: DBCDE, No opt-out from ISP filtering: Two black lists and you can only opt-out from one, Mobile [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:44:01 +0000

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 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: Dnosauria » Flirting with Absurdity:

Dnosauria » Flirting with Absurdity: — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:08:47 +0000

[...] Early October 08 – Bloggers pick up the nugget and run with it. MSM catches up two weeks later. [...]

By: Harry

Harry — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:39:12 +0000

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: Australia embraces web censorship | Antony Loewenstein

Australia embraces web censorship | Antony Loewenstein — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:35:02 +0000

[...] why move forward? Leading Australian blogger on this issue, Somebody Think of the Children, says it best: Criminals accessing child abuse websites will still be able to do so and the horrendous production [...]

By: Dylan

Dylan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:31:43 +0000

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: Jim R

Jim R — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:46:21 +0000

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: Tristan

Tristan — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:15:48 +0000

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: Jon Seymour

Jon Seymour — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:13:57 +0000

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: Mandatory filtering gets international coverage - Somebody Think Of The Children

Mandatory filtering gets international coverage - Somebody Think Of The Children — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:47:35 +0000

[...] alarmingly silent on the latest development in the Government’s mandatory filtering plan: There is no way to completely opt-out. The good news is international outlets understand the importance of stopping what’s about to [...]