Porn could be ISP banned in Australia...

[OICW]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=77589

Internet service providers (ISPs) will be forced to block violent and pornographic material before it reaches home computers if Labor wins the next federal election.

Under the policy, announced by Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, international websites would be banned by the Australian Communications and Media Authority if they contained graphic sexual or violent material, rated R or higher.

The bans would be maintained by ISPs.

The policy aims to protect the two-thirds of Australian households where no internet filters are in place because of a lack of technical knowledge or cost.

Mr Beazley said all households would be included in the policy unless there was a specific request for access to such material.

It was "too hard" for many parents to install internet blockers on their computers to prevent offensive material being downloaded, he said.

"The point at which you can do that (effectively ban such material) is with the ISP," Mr Beazley told Southern Cross Radio.

"The ISP provider can cut it off.

"They (websites) can be controlled by Australian law and they (ISPs) can control them at the point at which they enter the country."

Similar systems operated in Sweden and Britain, he said.

In the past, Mr Beazley has called on the federal government to provide free internet blockers to all Australian households.

FYI, Kim Beazley is the head of the Labour Party; our current Prime Minister is John Howard who heads the Liberal Party (which has historically been very conservative).

You've got to be kidding me. Our Labour Party sold out and is now pandering to the moral do-gooders and Christian zealots (they used to be left-wing, but they're somewhat less conservative than the US Republicians). I guess they're taking their cues from both the Republican parties and some of the hysterical "won't somebody please think of the children!?" Democrats.

 

[Kyllian]

I'm sorry :\

Wait... could they end up including online games as "violent content"?

 

[OICW]

The chances of the Labour Government winning the next election aren't very good IMO; whilst I think this is a stupid measure, I don't want to be under a John Howard government any longer.

According to the Swedish and English people I know, getting around such a ban is relatively easy, but whatever happened to the idea of letting adults indulge themselves in private at home? As for the children issue, that's where supervision and informing your children come in.

 

[DEFkon]

Well the good news is that even in the case that something like this goes through for you, it sounds like an opt out voluntary situation.

"Mr Beazley said all households would be included in the policy unless there was a specific request for access to such material."

Unfortunatly that sounds pretty vague.. it could be implimented as simple as googles "do not filiter" toggle switch, or it could be a list that you have to have your name on. In either case i'm not a big fan of either "solution". For some reason this made me think of the then unbelieveably absurd plot of Metal Gear Solid 2 in which some faction of the goverment routes all of the internet traffic through a facility that filters the information for the purposes of controling the population. At the time it came out the concept was so ridiculous that it was laughable at best. The biggest concerns that spring to mind are that now the goverement is going to have lists of citizens and choices of content, and secondly that the gov't has in place the power to censor/edit/ect the information on the internet. Not that this is a new threat... About 15 or so years back for a school project an older friend of ours had to write a paper on a species of animal of their choosing. Long story short, the animal in his paper never exsisted, and all of the references to the creature were from websites that he, and his friends wrote. AFAIK the pages and articles still exsist, and to add further insult to injury i was told that the fictional woodland creature was lobbied by an enviromental group and added to an protected species list.. So hows that for a social expierment.

 

[Pipe_Dream]

Jesus Christ! That sucks. I thought Australia was more liberal than this.

 

[Hadmar]

Don't worry, by 2050 all the world will live in Teletubby land.

 

[MP_Lord_Kee]

Same ****e been planned in Finland I think...but it is rather stupid as you can circumvent that so easily and access whatever sites you want...
Some people in politics just don't have a clue when it comes to technology...:/

//K

 

[Cap'n Beeb]

It was "too hard" for many parents to install internet blockers on their computers to prevent offensive material being downloaded, he said.

Is it "too hard" for parents to talk to their kids about the odd and new things they see on the internet as well? Fuck these people.

 

[JaFO]

Don't worry, by 2050 all the world will live in Teletubby land.

At the rate we're going it's more like 2010 ...

... some people in politics just don't have a clue when it comes to technology...:/

Only some ? It's pretty much anyone in politics that lacks any kind of clue as to the nature of this tech around here. There's even a law as proof for that (watch Hadmar's Hitler-sig) ...

 

[UN17]

... unbelieveably absurd plot of Metal Gear Solid 2 in which some faction of the goverment routes all of the internet traffic through a facility that filters the information for the purposes of controling the population.

Uhm... How can I say this in a funny way? Well I can't. It's funny in a "haha, if they only knew" kind of way.

 

[_Zd_Phoenix_]

Same problem here with party naming...we've got a Labour government who are right of center and a conservative opposition that have moved to the left of center. None of 'em do what they say on the tin.

Internet restriction definitely sucks. Although given who has ultimate control over the internet, I think it's amazingly un-censored.

 

[2_SeeK_U]

Ahh crap, now what am l sposed to do?

Thats the labour party for you though, they always have some extreme views that make me vote liberal everytime.

 

[Logan6]

Man, no guns, no porn.

Think I'll be taking my vacation somewhere else.

 

[mat69]

Because the only thing you are doing is playing with guns and watching porns?

 

[Logan6]

Well, there's not much else to do in the middle of nowhere in Texas.

 

[mat69]

Nobody said you have to go to the middle of Australia.

 

[Harrm]

watching porns?

I am putting this in my profile posthaste.

--Harrm