Three ISP heads say filtering won’t work
October 30, 2008 – 7:55 pmTelstra Media’s Justin Milne, Internode’s Simon Hackett and iiNet’s Michael Malone all have their say on ISP filtering in this video. They detail technical, legal and ethical reasons why ISP-level filtering won’t work.
Three majors sinking their teeth in. Ouch.
I do have one small criticism though and it’s to do with Michael Malone’s comment that filtering Refused Classification content might actually work as filtering through a small list of IP addresses or URL’s is viable.
Much of the legal adult pornography available on the Internet today would be considered RC by ACB standards. By no means would a list of RC content be a small list. It would also be impossible to collate accurately because X18+ material and RC material are too similar and would required countless hours of human review.
I understand Malone probably meant Refused Classification in regards to child pornography, but that is only a very small subset of the RC classification. RC material in Australia consists of content that ‘offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults.’ That’s a lot. Bondage videos in particular are often rated RC and and Fallout 3 was refused classification in Australia because of in-game drug use (it might not have been given an R18+ even if the rating existed). There’s of RC content that is legal to possess in Australia, but illegal to sell or exhibit.
9 Responses to “Three ISP heads say filtering won’t work”
While I’ll admit that bestiality (mentioned as an “obvious target” along with child porn) can be viewed as obnoxious unlike Child Porn it has been available in New South Wales and even unpoliced. Unlike child pornography it is NOT illegal to purchase (and thus be in possession of) nor own bestiality in New South Wales.
I believe I even purchased a few sample tapes - some of them falsely rated “X”.
Bestiality was also quite common in the days of 8mm film when it was shown in the “penny arcade” type (book) shops in Pitt Street here in Sydney.
Bob
By Bob Bain on Oct 30, 2008
One hopes conroy is watching
By Sean the Blogonaut on Oct 30, 2008
Some very interesting snippets of information there. Internode’s guy made quite a number of good comments. Nice video.
By zzap on Oct 30, 2008
Hang around the forums at http://www.whirlpool.net.au and you’ll see that Simon Hackett is one very smart guy. I totally agree with everything they say. If the government is smart(ha!), they will listen when 3 of the biggest ISPs in Australia tell them, “This is a bad idea”.
Oh, and i loved the way Simon called the law “spooks” at the end
By Spikeles on Oct 30, 2008
Great to see the ISP’s having input,I think this is the first time they have said something(apart from Mark)
By rick_au on Oct 31, 2008
Just a quick note to point out that Fallout 3 was only refused classification because we have no R18+ category for games (MS15+ is the highest). It would not have been RC’d if it was published in the form of a movie.
Without that context, and in the context of this post, it looks like Fallout 3 got RC’d because its content was more extreme than permitted under R18+ guidelines - which is probably was not.
By Sam on Oct 31, 2008
Thanks for all of your comments guys.
@sam: Fallout 3 could have been RC’ed due to the drug use. It could also have been rated R18+ if it existed. However, I do acknowledge it was not the best example. As such I’ve updated the post. Cheers mate.
By Mike on Oct 31, 2008
That’s a shame about fallout 3. I’ve enjoyed playing that game immensely! Hardly something worth banning. I can’t see any reason why it’d be banned apart from the occasional swear word in it. Great game though, sucks for the Govt. that banning it hasn’t stopped me from playing it.
Also, anyone know which ISP’s will take part in this live trial? I’d like to know if I need to take my business elsewhere.
By James on Nov 2, 2008
The Government is moving from PC filter which was introduced by previous Government to ISP level filtering only because they say not many families have been using them. I’m not sure if many families know they can get a free filter from Netalert website because there has been hardly any publicity about them. They work far better than ISP filters and have many features that if the reason for any filter is the safety of our children, then PC filters are the way to go.
By Alan on Nov 2, 2008