Update June 16, 2009: Looking for news about the Abby Winters – G Media police raid? Click here.
One of Australia’s largest owned and operated adult websites, AbbyWinters.com, is included on a list alleged to be the ACMA blacklist of prohibited websites. Also banned is the TheHun.com, one of the web’s longest running and most visited free adult link directories.
Although AbbyWinters is hosted overseas and accessible now, it would be blocked to all Australian Internet users if mandatory ISP filtering is introduced.
AbbyWinters, which is owned by Victorian company GMBill, complies with 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements, meaning all models are over 18 years of age. In my opinion most of the material on the site would be rated no higher than X18+, which is legal to purchase and view in Australia.
Another GMBill website, Ishotmyself.com, is also included on the list.
Given that the list is secret and that there is no formal appeals process, GMBill would have likely found out about the inclusion of their websites after they were potentially blocked to the entire Australian adult population. The equivalent of arriving at your place of business one morning to find Kevin Rudd has chained the door and boarded the windows. Not something I’d call good management of the economy.
Comment is being sought from GMBill.
In the meantime, find out more about the leaked Australian blacklist of banned websites here.
34 comments
Sam D says:
Mar 19, 2009
If it turns out that Abbywinters is on the ACMA list, rather than having been added by the filter vendors, then the shite is going to hit the fan.
Beyond The Fringe » Blog Archive » Australian ACMA banned sites list published says:
Mar 19, 2009
[...] Legal adult sites also feature on the list. Although AbbyWinters is hosted overseas and accessible now, it would be blocked to all Australian Internet users if mandatory ISP filtering is introduced. [...]
ACMA Blacklist has been leaked! | OzSoapbox says:
Mar 19, 2009
[...] has highlighted another website, Abbywinters.com (WARNING: Not safe for work), which is currently on the blacklist; [...]
Ms Naughty says:
Mar 19, 2009
So Mike, time to worry about the possibility of $11,000 fines. You’ve just linked to Abby Winters in this post. No doubt doing so caused thousands of children to be harmed.
Carol says:
Mar 19, 2009
actually, i think children and adults will be harmed by a website like Abby Winters. Pornography, even ‘legal’ stuff screws up people’s values and warps the way people see themselves and the opposite sex. I don’t think this ACMA filter is the best way to go about filtering the net, but I applaud the government for taking this filth that creaps into our homes seriously.
Sam D says:
Mar 19, 2009
Have you actually seen that any Abbywinters material? I can tell you now it is some of the most benign softcore stuff on the web.
Ms Naughty says:
Mar 19, 2009
Carol, care to quote your scientific evidence that porn causes harm?
You are entitled to your personal opinion, of course, but nobody is forcing you or anybody else to see porn. It doesn’t “creap” into homes. The internet is a pull medium.
If you feel concerned about children and adult content, research the already-existing software-based filters that have been on the market for years.
OzSoapbox says:
Mar 19, 2009
Carol how are children and adults going to accidentally stumble across Abbywinters. It’s not like kids are sitting there typing http://thewiggles.com into their address bars and then one in a hundred of them get randomly directed to porn sites.
They’ve got to actively look for it, in the case of kids why the hell aren’t the parents supervising and in the case of adults, who are you or me to tell other adults what they can or can’t look at legally on the internet?
How can you judge what is screwing up people’s values or the way they see other people?
Nikki J says:
Mar 19, 2009
While I agree with some comments here, thinking of the children in a literal sense would mean closing most of the Internet down from the public. People under the age of 15 is less than 20% of Australia’s population, meaning the rest of us are able to legally look at most pornography and gamble online. Should our government allow us to.
As for pornography screwing up values, there has been stacks of recent research to dispute this, and some even not so recent. Going back fifty years, I’m talking. I no longer believe this to be something of concern and to think pornography is damaging to responsible adults is a seriously backwards concept.
ACMA Blacklist leaked, contains legal websites - Somebody Think Of The Children says:
Mar 19, 2009
[...] Legal adult websites blacklisted: AbbyWinters and The Hun banned – Amateur adult site xTube.com makes Aussie ban list – Poker, betting websites hit by Australian [...]
Kate says:
Mar 19, 2009
abbywinters.com regularly submits their own site to internet filters in an effort to “protect the children”..
Mark G says:
Mar 19, 2009
Hey Carol, you’re a creap. I bet you’re too frigid to even look at Abby Winters. 80% need be infantalised because of 20% of the population?
People like you need your own planet far away from mine
Ilaeria says:
Mar 19, 2009
Carol’s comments sound suspiciously like half the comments posted on the AustralianIT “superblogs” a few weeks back…”Pornography, even ‘legal’ stuff screws up people’s values and warps the way people see themselves and the opposite sex”? Seriously? Then I must be some kind of sociopath…
Anyway, isn’t STOTC hosted overseas? I wonder if its been added to the ACMA list yet.
Jarrod says:
Mar 19, 2009
Nikki J said “meaning the rest of us are able to legally look at most pornography and gamble online. Should our government allow us to.”
Unfortunately it’s actually illegal in to provide an online gambling service to Australian’s (Interactive Gambling Act 2001)
Mavrick says:
Mar 20, 2009
I think this going to go to far and everybody should think about this, can we get the Australian Government Website blocked
1) site has links to terrorism
2) it also makes this country a terrorist target by giving out information on this country
3) it has previously been hacked to the point of offering porn
4) the website breaks the privacy act
This list can go on and on but I thought I would only give a few points
Ms Naughty says:
Mar 20, 2009
Today I sat down and counted the URLs of legitimate adult sites that I’ve heard of before. There are at least 40 domains blacklisted. All feature consenting adults and most of them have warning pages before the content and ICRA tags to assist with filtering.
Why are those sites on the list?
If an ISP put them there because they are not safe for work, the government needs to come and out say those 40 sites are fine. Otherwise it’s a very obvious example of the way sexually explicit content is censored according to ill-defined personal “moral values” – the sort of thing that an enshired freedom of speech law would protect against.
OzSoapbox says:
Mar 21, 2009
Well the ‘actual’ list was leaked last night and there’s still a heap of legal adult sites on there.
There’s no legal process for sites to be added to the list, all that is required is some random at the ACMA to think it’s offensive and onto the list it goes.
don says:
Mar 21, 2009
“actually, i think children and adults will be harmed by a website like Abby Winters. Pornography, even ‘legal’ stuff screws up people’s values and warps the way people see themselves and the opposite sex. I don’t think this ACMA filter is the best way to go about filtering the net, but I applaud the government for taking this filth that creaps into our homes seriously.”
Hi Carol. Look on some level I actually agree that porno can contribute to an unbalanced view of sex and sexuality (Although as a relationship aid, its great). But I need you to look at a broader picture here.
Its not JUST porno sites being blocked here. Its Christian sites. Its feminist sites. Its youth culture sites. Its minority political opinion sites. Porno is always the flag the censor waves when he goes after your politics, because at the end of the day its always about the politics.
You know Thailand went through the same debate a while back, and the government implemented a blacklist supposedly to keep out the kiddy-fiddler sites. Well it got leaked, and pretty much the entire list was sites critical of the King.
Abby Winters sticks out here a bit for two reasons. 1) Its a soft-core site, that is it doesnt feature penetrative couple sex. 2) Its an australian site that has gone out of its way to stay well within the law and work with authorities to stay that way. They volentarily rated themselves as not suitable for young people and provide information to parents how to protect their kids from seeing porno on the net.
Thats why people are outraged that Abby Winters is on the blacklist, because the site is about as close as a porno site will get to being a good citizen on the net, proving that anybody (did I mention there are also anti-abortion sites and the like on there too?) is in danger from censorship if the government decides they dont like the message.
toaster sex will rot your brain.. « Stinginthetail’s Blog says:
Mar 21, 2009
[...] personal, porn, religion, sex, sexism It gets funnier – people have had a chance to go through the list of sites to be completely banned in Australia. One of them, Abbywinters, was winner of the Best Adult Site in Australia, the last three years [...]
OtherBlogger says:
Apr 26, 2009
And what is the government going to do about the commercial TV channels propagating unrealistic body goals, spreading greed and consumerism etc.
What does more damage to the children, a potential stumbling across nudity, or the “Bratz” dolls teaching under 5YO girls to use makeup and be sexy for the boys?
The whole issue of “prtecting children” is nothing but a veiled attempt at introducing censorship.
rustypumpkins says:
May 10, 2009
Really people have to realise that this has nothing to do with saving children from porn. Its their way of removing alternative media sources and freedom fighters from speaking out. People are now finding out the truth through sites like infowars.com and prisonplanet.tv and renegade videos on youtube.com
Funny thing is these videos on youtube.com which provide people with the truth that the banking elite don’t want you to see are being removed systematically. Same as wikipedia. Content about the Bilderberg group is being constantly edited out. Type in Bilderberg Group on youtube.com and get educated.
By the way… think of the little things that make their way on mainstream media. Riot squads being hailed as heroes on 60 minutes, the government expanding the military to the same as WWII, people being enlisted as civilian corps, the bullshit about the swine flu and the stockpiling of “tamiflu” tablets (do you know who use to be the president of the company that makes these tablets….Donald “I swear Iraq has WMD” Rumsfield. Bet you didnt know that or the fact that swine flu was created intentionally and tested on US soldiers on US military bases in the 70s.
So get educated people
infowars.com
prisonplanet.tv
Nufff_Respect channel on youtube.com
Chris Billington says:
May 29, 2009
Actually, all these kinds of bans are going to achieve is to create a boom in people paying for anonymous proxy server access so they can surf freely round the world without government interference.
The problem is that this is exactly the kind of technology that terrorists use and at present it stands out when someone uses it. The more people who start using it, the harder it will be for our security services to track down the real bad guys.
Bin Laden or Abby Winters ? I vote that they spend all their time on Bin Laden !
paladisious says:
Jun 14, 2009
“The internet is a pull medium.” lol
Seriously though, someone on here has to “creap” back into the last century… McCarthy ’11!!
Kevin says:
Jun 16, 2009
What do you expect with a Socialist Totalitarian thinking government?…they are adherents to the Communist/Marxist/Soviet mindset…they “know whats right for you”…meanwhile over 20 million were killed in the process…fight Marxists, fight Socialists, fight the filthy left because they are the greatest threat to a free society.
Rod Rye says:
Jun 17, 2009
The ACMA list includes material likely to be rated X18+ (much of the content on the site described) even though that content would be perfectly legal sold on a DVD from the NT or the ACT.
There is some content on the site that would be RC.
Never mind that it’s entirely harmless.
Thus, it’s not a mistake the site is on the blacklist, it’s potentially a mistake with what constitutes a blacklist though. Why should media that is legal to own be illegal to view on the internet? Do they honestly think it’s going to make a difference when it’s legal in the US to make and host it ? We borrow all their copyright laws, why not their content laws?
Iamcuriousblue says:
Jul 3, 2009
Don writes:
“Abby Winters sticks out here a bit for two reasons. 1) Its a soft-core site, that is it doesnt feature penetrative couple sex.”
That’s an oddly heteronormative way of looking at the site. AW actually has copious pictures and videos of female/female couples having sex, much of which could be said to be “penetrative” even if it doesn’t involve cock.
But anyway, its not like there’s anything wrong with showing penetrative couple sex of any gender combination.
Reason A Bubble says:
Dec 3, 2009
Lets face it – Garion has turned Abby Winters into a classic example of how to duplicate and spam your content under as many different product names as you can muster.
It’s the oldest trick in the book and although it provides turn over I doubt if it will keep said site at the top of the heap when Web 3.0 really starts to kick it hard.
AUSTRALALIEN says:
Dec 22, 2009
What interesting comments from a variety of views. I agree with most people about the inclusion of Abbey Winters web site being on an Aussie black-list. I’m not surprised, our Prime Minister is a wowzer of the Ninth Degree. Much like the misinformed Carol, who probably has sex in the dark with her nightie on (that’s if she is married of course). Or a nun from the last century.
Why is it that we can show people getting killed, but not show people having sex? Wouldn’t you prefer love over death.
I notice that one comment had absolutely nothing to do with the censorship debate. Just a diatribe of Right Wing Anarchist nonsense calling himself – Kevin. He’s a person who believes in death over love and should be told to go and fuck himself with a very large cannon. We do not need his ilk around in this world, the rotten Fascist pig dog bastard.
Fred D says:
Jan 6, 2010
Most of you people are out of your minds, thinks about this, i have been the adult industry for 17 years, i can tell you right now and i can prove it if need be. When xxx Porn DVD come into this country who do the importors pay custom tax to, who else but the goverment. 99% of people have sex, everyone knows about sex. Sex and porn does not destroy people, drugs, gambling, and goverments destroy lifes. people grow up and look at the people that make the laws what a load of rubbish my god
Sly says:
Mar 20, 2010
Unfortunately for the government, regardless of its domineering censorship drive it can’t actually totally enforce its so called blacklist.
Network overlays such as TOR or IP2 can effectively tunnel straight through any such firewall and the thing about them is – the more people who use it, the faster and more secure it becomes.
Just look at China – the government there is rampant in its censorship yet network savvy chinese are able to get through (though not as fast) the Great Firewall using this kind of software.
So get between a man and his porn and the man will find a way…
Eric S. says:
Mar 30, 2010
I think that anyone who thinks that the onslaught of this stuff is not harmful should pull their head out. I’m no fanatic, I don’t think every guy turns into Ted Bundy who participates in pornographic viewing. But I do know that sex crime statistics (increase) are directly affected by its use. Some might argue and say there is no way to prove that. I would say those people might also argue that the Pope isn’t Catholic.
Hamish Rock N Roll Cash says:
May 10, 2010
What needs to happen the Australian public need to stand up and fight for our right to watch porn if its in good taste and not illegal such as bestiality and Child pornography. Any person with a morality knows what is right and wrong. With isp filtering also comes banning of any musical downloading with BLASPHEMY messages because it is fact that Government and Religion go hand in hand Like little bitches. Well look at what happened overseas Rock music was blacklisted in Russia AC/DC was on the list the public fought back and WON. The real argument is not Internet censorship to protect the children its to PROTECT THE FAT RICH FUCKING POLITICIAN PIGS AND LIARS for not being able to BRAINWASH the majority of the Decent public with there Media Propaganda Agendas.
EpicurienfromCanada says:
Apr 21, 2011
Reading this discussion has been a helpful read (I think).
As a single part-time father of a 5 and 7 y/o girls I was concerned about my own consumption of porn and how it made me a “hypocrite” or worse, an irresponsable parent.
I wonder how many “surviving porn models” would be forced to acknowledge that their lives were negatively affected by their decision to pose in porn?? Geez, what if one of my daughters one day stumbled upon the “opportunity” to make some easy cash through a “harmless,sexy legitimate photo shoot”, but then fell victim to prejudice and disrespect for the rest of her life because of it??
I don’t think I should look at AbbyWinters or TheHun anymore . . . But that’s my decision not for the government to impose it on me.
Gerorge W says:
Sep 10, 2011
Widespread porn and most posters here defending it shows what garbage “western” societies have become. Simply stated, people are morally bankrupt – those formerly of the Christian faith (which happens to be most “Christian” hypocrite countries). That’s why Islam is slowly but surely taking over. You see this warped sense of values of the west is also connected to lifestyle. In the west there seems to be an endless supply of women willing to permanently make a record of their life as immoral degenerates, and this is what I have never been able to figure out. Are women this desperate for a few bucks? And are they this trashy that making porn is just another day? It makes me speechless when I think about it. To that clown who suggests porn does not destroy, drugs do, I say get lost. Porn and drugs go hand in hand, as do porn and atheism, and porn and divorced homes.
Face it, you people in porn, you are not the height of society, you are at the lowest point, and it is you and your kind that ultimately bring down a society, that is, the disease of immorality which all of you here are too eager to contract, not drugs and crime. A hopeless drug addict eventually overdoses and dies, but immoral “normal” people slowly infect a society and kill it like a cancer.
Good luck with your pitiful short lives on Earth, and you will need even more of it when you meet your Creator.