Eideard

The Australian government is due to start a series of field trials this month in order to filter websites that are harmful to children. The ‘cyber-safety plan’, spearheaded by Australia’s Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy, will cost around AUS$126 million and will be implemented over a period of four years.

Opinion is sharply divided about how well the system will work, according to Radio New Zealand’s Technology commentator Simon Morton who looked into the issue for the BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme.

Many from the internet industry and freedom of speech groups fear that if the filtering system is implemented, then other illegal content as well as material the government deems inappropriate could be added and blocked in the future.

“This would see the government establishing a blacklist of websites it deems harmful and ISPs providing a clean feed of the internet,” said Mr Morton…

Countries like Britain, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand have all implemented similar filtering systems, but they are all voluntary and not government-mandated. Such systems are also limited predominantly to blocking child pornography and are run by ISPs that customers can opt into…

This is not a new concept in Australia, as the previous administration trialled a free internet filter that people could use if they wanted.

“The difference is that it was an optional filter, so Australians could choose if they wanted to use it rather than this latest plan for a mandatory filtering system,” said Mr Morton.

Nanny State advocates tend to stick to the same range of jive rationales. It still comes down to individuals losing the right to choose. The government takes on the responsibility of mommy and daddy. There’s always some crap religionist at hand to define morality and security – for everyone else.