Australia's Internet Filter Switches On In July

[Gindil]

EVERYTIME you want to get legislation passed you bring up two things:

Child porn, and piracy

If you're against child porn, ban the internet.

If you're against piracy, seize the domains.

It never fails that governments just hate any type of freedom on the net and will use various rhetoric to get what it wants...

It's sad that you have to go to the least common denominator of emotional ties such as child porn to get bad legislation passed.

 

[Gindil]

EVERYTIME you want to get legislation passed you bring up two things:

Child porn, and piracy

If you're against child porn, ban the internet.

If you're against piracy, seize the domains.

It never fails that governments just hate any type of freedom on the net and will use various rhetoric to get what it wants...

It's sad that you have to go to the least common denominator of emotional ties such as child porn to get bad legislation passed.

This isn?t legislation read the damn article the government isn?t forcing these Internet providers to block websites they?re doing it of their own accord.

The article as I've been reading it, is the government giving these people a list, then it's implemented on those sites. No oversight at all, just a quid pro quo. It's all in the name of "protection" and this isn't the first time that Australia has tried to pass this.

2007 [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/howard-on-internet-porn-crusade/story-e6frgamx-1111114150318] and the results [http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Teenager-cracks-govts-84m-porn-filter/2007/08/25/1187462562907.html]

If at first you don't succeed [http://news.cnet.com/Australia-pushes-further-Web-censorship/2100-1028_3-6209337.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news]...
fail, fail again [http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Australia-ISPs-Call-Net-Filtering-Plan-Ridiculous-99084]

Oh, and here's the 2009 version [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/03/19/1237054973414.html] where they black list a dentist.

In all of it, it's the same story. Aussie government tries to filter the internet, does not succeed, looks stupid but tries again. It's getting wearing.

 

[minimacker]

By the power of Grayskull.
"Anon!"
"Lulzsec!"

This isn't going to last long.
*Grabs a bowl of popcorn*

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Fuck, you Aussies can't catch a break with censorship. Then again, being as the approximation of how much content will be blocked is "500 websites" they may not be blocking many sites you actually use even if you are a big time porn fiend, but probably bad news if you're a pedo.

 

[Someonetookmyname]

Lulzsec, i summon thee!

I mean seriously how long time will it take before anonymous or lulzsec hears about this, hacks it, and p*isses on the Australian governments body? (At least thecyber part of the government).

All that will show is that lulzsec didn?t read the article since THE GOVERNMENT ISN?T DOING THIS!

I wrote something wrong, even though i had read the article, sry 'bout that, but lulzsec will still target them, definetly the volunteers, and perhaps the government.
Ps. chill on the rage, you have told a ton of people that it isn't the government, but it looks like you are f*ucking angry, if you can't express yourself without raging on somebody that didn't read the article, i don't think you can write on a lot of the escapist articles..

It happens all the time, you'll probaply do it too at some point

 

[Arawn.Chernobog]

I'm not against blocking out Child Porn, but that isn't solving the problem, it's just pretending it doesn't exist (Want to stop kiddie abuse? Persecute the Abusers).

The precedent here being set however is disturbing, considering that the Australian officials so far have demonstrated to have ridiculous concepts on what is and isn't "morally acceptable" - to the point of giving Olde British Puritans a run for their colourless and bland threads of Linen - And apparently private organizations (most likely pressured by the interests of said officials) are falling in line with their desires (as demonstrated in the article)

A few steps further and someday they'll be sure to block out any gamer website (Because some would-be pseudo-scientist with a Psychology degree taken in some worthless College might show up and start campaigning against "digital corruption of the youth" - a bullshit term), every pub/concert/band/festival/art/(anything that might be considered an "influence on the youth") dedicated site as well, then any anti-Australian or controversial politics related or opinion and commentary based website/blog... and while we're at it, let's reinforce Puritan values in Australia's youth, make them pledge an Oath every morning, and praise the almighty and unquestionable choices made from the state or state affiliated organizations (Let's not forget that Gillard is probably masturbating to this piece of news right now for what it will allow her to do in the future in terms of enforcing her personal views of morality upon the general populous and imprison any and all that defy them) for "decency" and "honour" (two ENTIRELY subjective concepts, might I add).

PS: Yes yes, Slippery Slope Fallacy, just saying I wouldn't be surprised to see this happen considering the way Australia has handled recent business regarding Media and, in particular, New Media.

 

[dakratzman]

hai guys, love this site but don't love this filter and what better reason than this for my first post.

to everybody in oz, it said there were four ISP's involved with the filter, telstra, optus and ?? anyone know the other two? the reason i ask is i think we should exercise our consumer rights and simply boycott these companies. no customers = message to governments that any filter is a bad idea.

i'm probably preaching to the converted but i didn't see any posts about a boycott. its simple, legal and has proven results. anyone up for it??

also i know the advocates for the filter are trolls but just incase again "Telstra and Optus, the two largest internet providers in Australia, along with two other small outfits, confirmed that they will begin to block access to "child abuse websites" provided by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and other UNNAMED "INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS" even a troll cannot justify handing over the keys to information to an unnamed, foreign entity is in anyway a good idea morally, intellectualy or economicaly.

peace.

edit: i cannot spel

 

[hexFrank202]

It's nice that Australia is a country that has strong conservative positions, (because why does America have to be the only one?) but it sucks that it has to suffer from the downsides and flaws of said conservatism.

Hey, why doesn't anyone found a country on sanity and good ideas? You know; none of the bitchy homophobia and censorship, but none of the PC environmental bullshit either? Let us do what we want with our culture and our sexuality, but let us do what we want with our money and our property as well? Come on guys, let's all move together somewhere and set this up!

 

[ucciolord1]

What ninnies.

 

[samaugsch]

I wasn't aware that there was such a thing as a "non-pervert".

Well, there's no evidence of their existence, but it's the hypothetical opposite of a pervert. Someone lacking perversion.

Oh ok.

 

[marioandsonic]

Does this mean no more Zero Punctuation?!

 

[Pariah164]

Does this mean no more Zero Punctuation?!

... Oh God.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

It's ambitious to try and stop pedos from getting what they want, but really, how long is it going to take before the filter gets pwned by self-proclaimed Anonymous?

 

[Ickorus]

To be fair, blocking child porn being distributed isn't exactly a bad thing in my books, get back to me when they start blocking other stuff and then i'll be outraged. (Despite not living in Australia)

so its just stopping child porn? thats good so it wont affect me and like everyone else in the country.

wouldnt it be a better idea to not block the websites and just monitor who accesses the site?

Im the sort of guy that does a lot of random searching and browsing online, you have no idea how many times i've stumbled across child porn and i'd really love if that stopped happening. Not only is it disgusting and often upsetting but it also might land me in hot water one day for a crime im not guilty of.

And I mean seriously, im not a paedophile, im not even searching for stuff remotely related to child porn and i'll get it pop up. Once I googled something like 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA' and got a bunch of it appear in images, it was just disgusting.

 

[pwnzerstick]

I'm not against them blocking that specific content, but censorship is pretty easy to get driven out of proportion and turned on things that start limiting free speach *coughvideogamescough*, but in a worst case scenario there are still proxy servers.

 

[pwnzerstick]

Boy I bet it's lonely in your little world.

What gave you that impression?

I just wouldn't say anything bad about any of the governments. They have the military and all. So, as a result, I support anything they go for.

And we might as well get rid of piracy and pornography while we're at it.

They really should make this kind of thing illegal if it isn't already.

The government(And organizations like this) should have every right to block websites from user access.

So they should have the right to censor their opposition from speaking?

Of course.

If the government had the ability to stop criminals from communicating with each other, organized crime would be a thing of the past. And any other crime would be relatively manageable. So yeah, I don't see what is wrong with hindering organized crime.

Okay, 100% guaranteed to be trolling now. No question. Had me going there for a second.

I'm not trolling. What gave you that idea?

I'm fairly certain that SomethingAmazing is not trolling, I remember, a few months back he did a thread about why it would be a good thing to get rid of sex, and he seems to have stayed in character since. Trolls aren't usualy this consistent with their displayed beliefs.

 

[Torrasque]

Hey everyone! I have a solution to all our problems!
Simply PRETEND IT DOES NOT EXIST.
Thats right, you just block your sight of the bad thing, kind of like a child with their fingers in their ears going LALALALALALALALALALA.
Isn't that soooo mature everyone? If you IGNORE something long enough, it will simply go away right?!

 

[LitleWaffle]

You know what, fuck this censorship thing. I'm not even Australian and this pisses me off. To any Aussies that are getting hit with this crap I have something for you:

The Tor Project [http://www.torproject.org/]

For those unfamiliar think of it as an uber-proxy, it takes a bit of TLC to get running quite right, and it's slower then regular internet, but it pretty well unblocks anything that you want once you've gotten it down.

For those that do know about Tor, well, I guess I needn't tell you about it.

They really should make this kind of thing illegal if it isn't already.

The government(And organizations like this) should have every right to block websites from user access.

...You do know this blocking wasn't the Government's decision, right? Its in the op.

Also, think of it this way, if child porn lovers are watching child porn on the internet, what aren't they doing? Raping children. Or at least not as often.

Think about it...

 

[LT Cannibal 68]

Thank goodness.

After a while I hope we can get this in the U.S. too so that we can phase out internet pornography and piracy.

i hope you trolling because if you're not i hope anon visits you in your sleep.

 

[QuadFish]

As I said earlier, my Father has made hundreds of arrests over it.

Your dad has arrested hundreds of people for being unable to ignore their biological impulses as far as quasi-legal crimes who are too afraid to seek professional help because people want to wipe them off the face of the Earth the moment they hear 'potential paedophilic tendencies'?

Wow, big man. What new respect I have for your father.

NB I'm not defending convicted sex offenders. I'm saying a lot of the time these cases are seriously borderline. Have you thought for a moment what it must be like to be demonised for having thoughts? No one can go public about that or try to get help since their lives are basically threatened the moment anyone hears about it.

Wow, what an enlightened opinion! My life in two paragraphs.

Seriously, I think this is the first time ever that I read a post like this, that's writer doesn't want to torture, mutilate, and murder me with all sincerity of his hearth, for having this thing in my brain.

Even if I never even watched any porn with real life underage children involved, and didn't actually HARM anyone, and of course I'm not even thinking about doing anything IRL, I have to spend my days reading about how society plans to hunt down me, the monster.

Though I guess now you will only be seen as the guy whose thinking is approved by the pedo freak, so my praise didn't exactly reach it's intention, sorry about that, but still.

No, I think society is starting to realise that not all people with those tendencies are monsters. I actually watched a report on Hungry Beast that really got me thinking about it, where all the people they interviewed just sounded too scared to talk about their problems without doing it anonymously.

I know this is pretty mad hyperbole, but listening to one talkback radio host literally claiming that pedophiles should be wiped off the face of the earth (I'd quote it but I can't remember the exact wording) I can't help but be reminded of the witch hunts.

At the end of the day, the big thing I always try to get across whenever the issue comes up is that there's a big difference between a convicted sex offender and someone with potential paedophilic tendencies. Oh, one last thing. That first sentence you wrote sounds like massive sarcasm. I figured I should let you know