Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008

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Australia cracks down on internet content

By Arthur Crowson

The Australian government is taking steps to insure that children will not be subject to pornography, violence and online gambling (including poker).

The Australian government is taking steps to insure that children will not be subject to pornography, violence and online gambling (including poker).

As of Dec. 31 Australian Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy announced a requirement for Internet Service Providers to provide a clean feed to all schools, homes and any public PCs accessible by children. The clean feed would restrict access to adult content.

The move to filter internet has since come under fire from a number of directions and many have compared the censorship to the stifling restrictions prevalent in China. The major difference between China and Australia's new internet laws is that Aussies can still get the unfiltered feed if they request it.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will be responsible for deciding what gets filtered out.

According to a story with Agence France-Presse News Australian Privacy Foundation chairman Roger Clarke said the plan would be detrimental in several ways.

"Many pages will end up getting blocked that shouldn't be blocked," he said in the story. "We don't need that, we need an open internet. It's not the government's business to control information flows."

Other critics point to a potential decrease in internet performance, which the government actually promised to speed up.

Suffice to say Conroy disagrees.

"Labor makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road," he said. "If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree."

The new laws are scheduled to come into effect Jan. 20, 2008.

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