Friday, October 24, 2008 - 05:18 pm, by: Leon Wright(Techman)
The topic of Internet Content filtering in Australia is becoming more and prevalent and the current government, in particular The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy is pushing for a /0224239Mandatory filter for all Australians. Now the early suggestions where mandatory opt-in, with the option to "opt-out", which did raise many concerns, but Senator Conroy has jumped from that to a now "Two-Tier" scheme, where filtering is mandatory, and the "Opt-out" just removes the restrictive filter.
Mandatory Filter - Filters out all things the government deems "illegal" etc.
Optional Filter - Filters out all the stuff they think our kids shouldn't see.
Given that the false positive rate for blocking (1 in 100), let alone the speed impact it will have on our internet connections, increasing costs to isps, which will be passed onto the consumer (us) and forgetting that these filters do not filter HTTPS traffic, Peer to Peer traffic(bittorent, kazaa etc) or tunnelling traffic over seas.
I honestly suggest people take the time to have a read, find out whats going on and if you don't like what is happening (think, this filter goes beyond what any other country is doing in the world, including china). If you have comments, questions throw them out here, I am happy to respond. I also aware there are other tech savvy people on this forum that might just like to give their 2 cents.
Friday, October 24, 2008 - 06:48 pm, by: Ben Kelly(Ace)
Holy cow, i had no idea that this was on the agenda. I agree with the conclusions of the articles you posted as I suspect will virtually all australians. The obvious worry is what might constitute a banned site in the future and who is in fact deciding. The inappropriate sites could for example include not only pornography but political (think of the broad scope of the anti terrorism laws). I can't see this bill getting passed, is there any indication that it will?
Friday, October 24, 2008 - 07:05 pm, by: Alex Barbieri(Barbieros)
I'm in tech sales and this doesn't look good... I can easily see this going through as "the right thing to do".
But this would be madness- the article is right, there no decent software out there at the moment that will do this properly. Its only gonna result in slow connections and errors.
Peter Nitschke Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31
Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 11:46 am, by: Callum Finch(Sigeneat)
The head of the opposition (who still hold power in the Senate i think?) doesn't like the idea, so we are all safe to Google for beastiality porn for a few more months.
Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 07:29 pm, by: David Vaughan(Davidv)
Senate is controlled by the minor party of Greens and the independents (Xenophon anti-pokie, Fielding pro-christ). Labor leadership outside Gillard appears to comprise a bunch of moralists following on from the Howardite pandering to the trivial middle class (of which he was a solid member) so do not hold your breath for rationality. No political views expressed here; really, none at all
Rod Iseppi DieHard wa uzz31 v8 limited, 86 chev silverado
Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 12:01 am, by: Rod Iseppi(Rod)
wow that will realy suck... better download and save as much porn as possible just in case... we may never be able to watch a chick with a horse again.... AAAGGGGHHHH.....
Rod Iseppi DieHard wa uzz31 v8 limited, 86 chev silverado
Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 12:05 am, by: Rod Iseppi(Rod)
does this mean there could be a black market for porn?? hmm i could do that... instead of runnin moonshine in a big black dodge, we could be runnin porn in a pearl white soarer.... haha....
Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 04:42 pm, by: Leon Wright(Techman)
Funny thing is, most porn and the like come from p2p services and other places, so the filter in effect will just drive things to places that they can't filter.... I'm pretty certain the technology still isn't up to the challenge, so it shouldn't go through on that basis... But I'm not so sure about Senator Conroy's stubborn ideology, it appears that he is oblivious to anything in the real world, going as far as trying to silence his critics.
Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 08:22 pm, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
Brett, I disagree. Control of all kinds is used to suppress the masses and I feel porn (or the lack of) is one of them. I mean it is just another thing representing freedom of choice.
Monday, October 27, 2008 - 09:38 pm, by: Brett Harrison(Bretto)
Mike, I hear what your saying. But really who cares about kids watching porn ? Not authorities thats for sure. Why would they careless. It would be merely a selling point to the "Masses" If anything porn is a good thing by distracting people from the real issues of this world.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 08:04 am, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
Brett, not sure about kids watching porn. What I object to is taking away my rights as a thinking adult to choose what I want to see and hear. I'm sure the authorities are doing what they can, but to suppress information is tantamount to fascism.
Although this comment from their customer feedback page disturbs me:
"David from South Australia I would like to say that; I am so happy using Webshield because I don't have to worry about what the children are doing, passwords or anything. I was constantly keeping tabs on things before, but now I know Webshield is doing it for me."
Honestly If I had kids, I wouldn't be so worried about the content available via the Web, but more predators lurking in chat rooms/instant messaging... which won't get filtered!
Internet filtering is a head in the sand approach, anyone that thinks it's the answer to lifes problems really has rocks in their head. Family computers should be kept in a place where they can be regularly monitored and children should be given the same advice as we would for the real world... Don't talk to strangers!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 07:34 pm, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
Leon said: Don't talk to strangers! I find it really sad that I can't go and have a chat with a child without feeling as if I'm committing a crime. I guess this is where we have come to in our 'enlightened' society.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 08:32 pm, by: Leon Wright(Techman)
Mike Bradberry wrote on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 07:34 pm:
I find it really sad that I can't go and have a chat with a child without feeling as if I'm committing a crime
I don't know, but I'm fairly certain that advice has been around for a long time. I have had it drummed into me as a child and I have seen it in kids cartoons from before I was born. Whilst it is a sad state of affairs, I don't think it has been changed that much over the years, rather it is now more then ever in the limelight, especially with today's need to hype news up to make sales.
Unfortunately you just have to be so careful these days and trying to shelter children doesn't help the problem, it makes it a whole lot worse.
Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 08:13 pm, by: David Vaughan(Davidv)
Conroy is a Catholic and a social conservative.
My interest in this topic arises from my wariness of the idea that we should allow any government to have automated, unseen, compulsory filtering of information.
I lack interest in the particular target of their present campaign but the censorship system, once created, is too easily corrupted to be democratically safe and therefore I oppose it on principle.
Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 10:26 pm, by: Leon Wright(Techman)
David Vaughan wrote on Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 08:13 pm:
is too easily corrupted to be democratically safe and therefore
Indeed, scope creep is an all to scary thought, already before it's even going through technical feasibility tests there are ministers speaking out about their pet peeves they want blocked. Including content that is not illegal to view in Australia.
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