Internet Filter Recap for the Resurfacing

So, Stephen Conroy’s Australian Mandatory ISP Internet Filter was featured in a Yahoo! news article today, but the comments are limited to 1000 characters. If you’ve been paying attention it’d be pretty clear theres no way that’ll be sufficient for my ramblings, so here’s the full response below:

(Note: if you’d like to leave a comment on the Yahoo article yourself – what with Yahoo being the closest thing to mainstream publication the Filter is likely to get until it’s voted on, click the link above and get your two cents in. Except you smarmy types with your attitude and <daddymode>yucky attitutudes</daddymode> )

For those who have no idea what just happened, it’s geek/Dad humour. Don’t worry, neither group will likely think it funny either, given the crossover.

” It’s not that I mistrust our Government, nor do I expect them to abuse the filter. For one, they won’t be controlling the list of filtered sites, the ACMA (http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/HOMEPAGE/PC=HOME) are.”

” .. while opening the censorship door theoretically allows any future government to take this process back and abuse the ability to filter net content, I don’t really think any Western Democracy could get away with it (for too long), in this era of Global Accountability.”

” Spending large amounts of taxpayer money.. can be effectively acheived with Google SafeSearch (http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=510)  on (which it is by default) and the most basic of parental control options of any number of free or commercial Security Suites..”

” ..It’s time we opened our eyes and recognized our own responsibilities in both the creation and perpetuation of a public mindset that allows child abuse to occur without confronting it directly, and in not stepping up as individuals to protect our children from our own ignorance.. “

” .. civilized folk should be aware of infringements of civil liberties, here or abroad, and it seems to me that censoring examples of such infringements (even the nasty RC stuff Conroy wants to) is the societal equivalent of sticking our fingers in our ears and yelling “La La La!” at the top of our lungs. “

List of organizations who have publicly announces their opposition to the filter:

(Feel free to contact me if you have someone to add to the list, or a direct link to statements issued by those listed below)

Mandatory ISP Filtering – Further info