Somebody Think of the Children
Posts tagged "internet censorship"

Censordyne: GetUp’s anti net censorship TV ad

Update 11:20PM: Ilic has made the video private and unfortunately can no longer be viewed. Way to put an end to any sort of viral campaign taking off. The ad will now launch Tuesday and it’s anticipated that GetUp! will request further donations. That’s unlikely to go over well with those who donated to their...

With a public intellectual like this, who needs barbarians?

Guest post by Jon Seymour In a year or two from now Australians may wake up to find themselves living in a country unique amongst Western democracies – a country that has imposed mandatory filtering on all residential ISP feeds. It is unlikely that most will notice anything unusual about that particular day – any...

Greens demand answers on net censorship plan

As we saw during today’s live Senate broadcast, Senator Conroy is still dodging questions about his plan to censor the web. Thankfully Scott Ludlam isn’t having any of it. In a press release issued this evening by the Greens, they warn there are too many unanswered questions about the government’s internet filtering scheme. “We still...

Trials already a foregone conclusion, presumption is filtering will not work: Nick Minchin

They speak. Shadow Comm’s Minister Nick Minchin is ‘appalled’ that a Conroy staffer tried to suppress Mark Newton’s critical comments on the Government’s mandatory filtering plan. Minchin told Computer World he’s appalled that a member of Senator Conroy’s staff is apparently trying to bully the IIA over this matter. He also says he’ll wait for...

Should there be a global Internet Bill of Rights?

In November 2007, The Pew Internet & American Life Project surveyed attendees at the second Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro to find out their views on how governments and other regulators should structure policy about the internet, amongst other things. The results? Respondents indicated strong support for the establishment of a global internet...

Sophie Peer from Amnesty International talks about the Great Firewall

I love what Stilgherrian is doing with live video on the web. Today he had a chat with with Sophie Peer from Amnesty International about The Great Firewall of China and human rights. Watch below: You’ve probably noticed the big yellow Amnesty International Uncensor box on the right hand side of this blog for the...

Media reaction to filtering report

It’s a shame that some major news organisations were happy to run a rehash of Senator Conroy’s can-do-no-wrong press release about the Tassie filtering trial report. Thankfully, not all media was so accepting. In Crikey, Stilgherrian points out that even though the report found ‘most’ filters achieved over a 92% success rate in blocking sites,...

Internode and IINet slam mandatory filtering plan, will cripple broadband

It wasn’t too long back that Stephen Conroy was bragging about ISPs becoming flexible to his arguments for introducing mandatory ISP filtering. They had SEEN the LIGHT! We all knew that was a pile of horse shit. Now two of Australia’s largest ISPs, IINet and Internode, have publicly slammed the plan. John Lindsay, Carrier Relations...

Budget: Conroy’s Cyber Safety plan nets $126M, filtering included

Update May 12, 2009: Click here for information on filtering in the 2009-10 Budget. Labor will spend $126 million over four years on their Cyber-Safety plan which Senator Conroy says will create a safer online environment for Australian children. That’d be nice if Mr Conroy’s idea of cyber safety didn’t include mandatory ISP filtering for...

Fielding forces filterted web access upon Senators

Family First’s Steve Fielding is at it again. According to Crikey, he’s convinced Senate President Alan Ferguson to filter every Senator’s Internet access at Parliament House (except the library). Why? To stop them looking at inappropriate content. Senator Lyn Allison says sites relating to reproductive health, the sexualisation of children, drug abuse and rehabilitation, the...

Child Wise CEO wants Gov to re-think ISP filtering

Child Wise CEO Bernadette McMenamin has been copping a lot of flack (and rightfully so) for her article in the Australian calling for filters. But now she’s distancing herself from the Conroy plan and saying all she wants is for child pornography to be blocked. Before I comment on her most recent interview with ComputerWorld,...

Family First wants sites promoting anorexia to go, what next?

I raised a few of my own concerns about what was written in the filtering article that appeared in today’s Australian, but EFA Chairperson, Dale Clapperton, has dissected the article with much more precision. He highlights two of its biggest problems: Random statistics that cannot be confirmed, and Family First senator Steve Fielding’s call for...