Somebody Think of the Children
Posts tagged "mandatory filtering"

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...

Fast broadband network will increase bad behaviour: Conroy

Senator Conroy may not be Santa Claus, but he knows when you’ve been bad! According to our favourite babysitter in Canberra, his planned national broadband network will mean we’ll see an increase in cyber-bullying and other bad behaviour online: “With the development and roll-out of Labor’s national broadband scheme, we expect that there will be...

Conroy’s cyber-saftey party in full swing, but only one dance allowed?

Senator Conroy has announced those who will assist the Government as part of his Cyber-Safety Consultative Working Group, but has the group been designed from the get-go to be in favour of mandatory ISP filtering. When you consider people like Anthony Pillion, manager of filtered Australian ISP Webshield, and Child Wise CEO Bernadette McMenamin are...

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...

7:30 Report removes filtering video from website (watch it here)

The 7:30 Report has taken down video of their mandatory filtering story. Thankfully, I downloaded it last night and have uploaded it so you can see just how bad it really was (the transcript doesn’t do it justice). Why did they remove it? It might be because some viewers found the dreadfully racey images shown...

The Internet is a monster loose in suburbia

When it comes to reporting news about the Internet, the media hasn’t progressed very far from the days of gloomy Time magazine covers and articles on how your child is building bombs using lemons and baking soda. Tonight’s 7:30 Report on Australia’s Clean Feed proposal might suggest the ABC hasn’t moved at all. It used...

Australia will filter Internet

Senator Conroy has given the green-light to ISP filtering, acknowledging it could affect internet speeds. In his speech to the Internet Industry Association last evening, he confirmed that the Rudd Government?s election commitment to introduce ISP level filtering would go ahead.Secure Computing Magazine reports: ?Labor has never argued that ISP filtering is a silver bullet...

Just 800 websites on filtering trial blacklist

The most important news from today’s Senate estimates hearings was that the Tasmanian trial of ISP level filtering is using a blacklist containing just 800 URLs (the current ACMA blacklist). This is a miniscule number when you consider Senator Conroy expects his cleanfeed to blacklist not only illegal material, but also a large percentage of...

Geeks fuming over filtering

Stilgherrian’s latest article in Crikey explains why Child Wise’s Bernadette McMenamin got hammered for her comments in The Australian: Geeks get angry when their knowledge isn’t respected. Too right. There’s a little more to it though as Stil explains: Two completely different problems are conflated. One, preventing distribution of already-illegal child pornography to anyone. Two,...

Bernadette McMenamin responds

Stilgherrian has published a cracking letter sent to him by Child Wise’s Bernadette McMenamin. Whilst McMenamin’s drive to protect kids is one I fully support, she clearly shows from her communication with Stil that she is wiling to do it at any cost — even without knowing its potential to actually reduce child pornography. Here’s...

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,...

Industry rejects sanitized Internet

Computer World and PC World (both part of IDG) have published part one of a series of articles looking at mandatory filtering in Australia. The first, Why Content Filtering Will Fail, highlights a number of concerns that all of us have, especially ISPs. A director of a small Sydney-based ISP, who requested anonymity, said the...