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Australia to filter internet

Wandered Off

Wandered Off

Sporadic Driveby Member
SYDNEY – Australia plans to introduce an Internet filtering system to block obscene and crime-linked Web sites despite concerns it will curtail freedoms and won't completely work.

Adopting a mandatory screening system would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among the world's democracies. Authoritarian regimes commonly impose controls. China drew international criticism earlier this year with plans to install filtering software on all PCs sold in the country.

The government said Tuesday it will introduce legislation next year for the filter system to help protect Australians, especially children, from harmful material on the Internet. Critics say it will not prevent determined users from sharing such content, and could lead to unwarranted censorship by overzealous officials.
...
Critics say illegal material such as child pornography is often traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter.
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The filter would not likely not be in place before early in 2011.

Countries such as Egypt and Iran impose strict Internet controls, and bloggers have been imprisoned. China has a pervasive filtering system.

Controls in democracies that value free speech are less strict, though Internet providers have at times blocked or taken down content deemed to be offensive.

Canada, Sweden and Britain have filters, but they are voluntary. In the United States, Pennsylvania briefly imposed requirements for service providers to block child pornography sites, but a federal court struck down the law because the filters also blocked legitimate sites.
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Australian government to introduce Internet filter - Yahoo! News

This seems surprising to me, but I know little of Australian politics. Thoughts from Aussies?
 
Mr Cheese

Mr Cheese

Well-Known Member
strewth mate!

Well Aussies are a bit "cracked"

for example...part of their constitution is based on "mate-ship", a "mate" being a really good friend....

I think its all the wallabi meat..its turned them strange.

From what I hear though, Australia has gone more right wing and conservative in the past decade, as far as the outward face of politics is concerned....
 
Valjean

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
They're just ticked off 'cause the All Blacks kicked their arses three times this year.
 
The Neo Nerd

The Neo Nerd

Well-Known Member
Damn i'd better start downloading as much porn as i can.

This has been threatened over and over again. I can't actually believe they are doing it.

There is a lot of concern amongst pagans that a lot of their stuff will also be filtered.

I get a sneaking suspicion there is something going on that we don't know about and it's not the porn or the kiwis.

-Q
 
Smoke

Smoke

Done here.
Quaxotic said:
I get a sneaking suspicion there is something going on that we don't know about and it's not the porn or the kiwis.
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Of course there is. For Christ's sake, how many people really want to **** kids? I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of them, but it's got to be a ridiculously small percentage of the population. It's just nice if you can gain extra control AND look like you're serving the public. Sort of like McCarthyism and the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
 
J

JewishLeftist

Member
As long as they are filtering hateful ideas such as racism and sexism, and stay away from filtering things which truly represent freedom of information and thought, I have no problem with it. Otherwise they are no better than Iran or China which attempt to censor the internet to oppress people rather than to maintain an orderly liberal society.
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
When they come for your freedoms, they always say they must take them away for the sake of protecting your children.
 
zenzero

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friends,

Australia to filter internet
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When a child is small or young, parents have to take care of them.
Australia is a young child and the parents are doing well to protect them.

Eternal cultures like India are unique; it has allowed everyone to plunder it, rule it, etc. and what not but always transcended it all like its dharma which is eternal viz. *sanatan dharma*. After all, all living beings and non-living are all ONE.Some may be lost their path and act as terrorists or walk the other side of the law BUT always have equal chances of merging with the universal.

Love & rgds
 
Dirty Penguin

Dirty Penguin

Master Of Ceremony
Ozzie said:
Suck my dagwood dog mate, its great to be Aussie.
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Wow...man... I didn't mean to hit a nerve. Shucks...I meant it with no disrespect dude. I was trying to convey that at the current time we're not under such rules. I didn't mean to imply that it was not great to be an Aussie. I could never speak to that considering I'm an American.

As far as the filter, I hope Aussies put up a fight to have a free exchange of ideas and access to the content they want to see over the cyber highways. By profession I'm a Network Engineer for a local school district and we, as a state policy, have to censor and filter internet content in and out of our network. I employ these same techniques at home filtering my kids from content I don't want them to see or access. I personally think that kind of power should be left up to the people. So if you have internet at home then it's on you to police your own network.

Ozzie said:
As for the filter, I'd rather have disappointed pedophiles and live my life with blinkers on officially.
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To each his own. I don't have any problem with your choice. Mine is not to live like that for something I pay for. We have content issues like that here in the US with radio. Terrestrial radio is censored and paid for in part by corporate sponsors. So there's a lot of commercials. I've been listening to satellite radio for a few years now. I pay for the convenience of not having my radio censored by the government. This is also the case with TV.
 
imaginaryme

imaginaryme

Active Member
Dirty Penguin said:
It's great to be an American......
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It's great to be an anarchist in America, is my take. :D

But yeah, this is still a decent place, all things considered. Censorship - in any form - is not and should not be a function of the government, but rather the individual. Screen yer own dang net, leave mine alone.
 
imaginaryme

imaginaryme

Active Member
And feeding into the paranoia is not a solution. All this noise about pedophilia and racism, where does it lead? Suppose Phoenix had an enlightened mayor (yeah, I'm stretching it; bear with me); all I would have to do to get rid of him would be to break into his place and place some "questionable materials" on his hard drive... and he'd be all done. With the level of craziness already in effect, even if I was caught red-handed; the guy would be under a permanent shadow... and he'd be all done.
 
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