Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Internet Censorship

THE Federal Government is planning to make internet censorship compulsory for all Australians.

When the idea was first mooted, there was the concept of an "opt out" option, where users could contact their ISP and say "no, thanks" to this filtering.

This option has now been REMOVED.

When the plan comes into effect sometime next year ALL internet access through Australian ISPs will be censored.

As far as I am concerned, this is a very dangerous path to start walking down.

The Senator in charge of this travesty is Stephen Conroy and, despite trials being planned for later this year, he doesn't know what content the mandatory filters will bar!!!

According to this article there will be two levels of filtering - one level of mandatory filtering for all Australians and an optional level that will provide a "clean feed", censoring adult material. So we're not just talking about porn here.

There was a comment against this article which listed email and contact addresses for Senator Conroy and various other people who support this initiative, however, I can not longer find that comment.

Here are contact details for Senator Conroy:

Senator Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002

Phone:.....(03) 9650 1188
Fax: ......(03) 9650 3251
Email:.....minister@dbcde.gov.au

I urge you to contact him to express your opinion about this proposal. A proforma letter can be found at No Clean Feed.

Additional Links:
* Petition against internet censorship personal contact is best, but this is another option
* Somebody Think of the Children a blog about censorship and moral panic in Australia, with a particular focus on Internet censorship.
* No Clean Feed a website against internet censorship
* Letter from a mother definitely worth reading this view from a Christian mother

5 comments:

NotClauswitz said...

Absolutely Orwellian. Would outside input have any effect on these busy Ministry of Truth operatives?

Julie said...

dirtcrashr ... hi there ... thanks for stopping by .. unfortunately, probably not, i'm not sure they actually will listen to australians :) (no harm in trying though!)

... BUT if you know any aussies or read any aussie blogs where this hasn't been commented on please make them aware of it.

I posted it on another australian site two days ago and had heaps of people respond saying that this was the first that they had heard of it. For some reason it's just not sinking into people's consciousness.

Anonymous said...

That's some pretty f**ked up s**t right there.

But hey, when Obama wins the presidency, he'll institute the same crapola in the US. He might even point to your senator as a "beaco of hope". Asstards. Great post!

ST said...

Back in 1993 when the internet was just starting to take off in a big way in Australia, i said to my colleagues that "the information superhighway leads to hell". I still maintain that view, in as much as the internet being a network of roads, and it's up to us whether we take the low road or the high road.

It's a matter of choice. I censor myself, and don't need a helping hand. It's bad enough at work, where I have to jump through my butt to access a site that is quite legit but is blocked by filters.

Bloody politicians. They wouldn't know their arse from their elbow.

lele said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.