Vim Fuego

Did you mean to address this to the OP instead?

quoll

Sadly, the thin edge of the wedge. Presented as it was by the Minister yesterday, how could any responsible thinking person disagree with him without being thought of as a nasty paedophile? However, what else might they filter out? Interesting that the civil libertarians arent leaping up and down as they would have done had the previous government done the same thing. Because, say what you will, this is censorship, pure and simple and it wouldnt take much for the government to decide that other things should not enter the Australian consciousness!!!

Mr Rudd does not favour free speech - viz his edict to government departments that all press releases pertaining to his pet projects have to be vetted by his department just in case they present evidence which is contrary to his current policies. The wedge is thickening rapidly methinks.

As for what to do instead? Well, call me naive but I thought that kids had parents. If it isnt a parent's responsibility to keep tabs on a kid's surfing (yes, been the parent of teenage boys) then it sure as hell is not the government's! There are programs out there which will filter content (schools have a content filter as a matter of course) and for a few bucks responsible parents can get Net Nanny or similar. This is a feel good sledgehammer to crack a nut and in no time at all we will be going down the same route of PC thought policing that Nulabour has inflicted upon the UK population.

Pollyana

Exactly my thoughts. Parents have the ability to set up filters to control what their children watch, if they can be bothered. Trouble is that the majority os Australain parents, with their laid-back she'll be right attitude, find it easier to sit back and let Nanny State do the parenting for them.
You only have to read some of the Middle East forum to realise that there are a lot of ordinary sites that can't be accessed, just because the government doesn't agree with the content. What next? They start censoring books and magazines?
Smacks of a police state to me, not a supposedly free first-word country.

Pollyana

But while Google controls the order in which you get the search results, the user still has the ability to surf beyond the initial results. Under this plan you won't even be able to SEE the other results. They will be filtered out before the content reaches your pc.

Nerine

Yep, true. Google's tilt for world domination is based more on selling masses of advertising space than anything more sinister.

Good point about the censorship in the Middle East, China is much the same isn't it. There's always danger when governments start to legislate to restrict personal freedom or to control the flow of information. Strange how Britain still kicks against ID cards yet permits CCTV on every street corner, erodes the rights to silence and trial by jury. A lot of freedom has been lost in the cause of prevention of terrorism IMO, what better way to control a nation than to keep it in a perpetual state of fear?

So why then does the Rudd government choose to restrict access to sites which may be offensive to children, you'd think it would have more important things to spend its time on than trying to do the job of parenting every child in Australia, what is the real agenda here?

Perhaps it's something to do with this promise to provide a laptop for every child - needs to make sure the internet is santised first for children to use?

Pollyana

Yes, from what I hear China is much the same, content very firmly controlled. You could be right about it being linked to the laptop promise. And a lot mroe people here still seem very apprehensive about the big wide world of the internet. Maybe British parents are more accustomed to it, and so are more aware of how to protect their kids through filters and stuff, but I do also feel there's a big Nanny State attitude here where the parents just sit back and expect Big Brother to do a lot of their work for them.

The worrying thing is the sites that will get filtered for no reason. We often have a problem at work because the Department filters don't allow in any emails with anything vaguely sexual in them - sounds good in theory, but when you are trying to run Child Protection Workshops, and need to get material on sexual abuse etc from the presenters it turrns into a nightmare. Every email gets filtered, so we then have to go through a lengthy process for each one to get it released - managers signature, phone calls to IT etc.

Then you end up with a site like BE - some of the threads on here get a bit graphic at times - at what point will sites like this become "unsuitable" for the poor little sheltered Aussies.

Nerine

That's the problem with filters, they're blunt instruments. Someone should do a cost benefit analysis on their usage in a typical work environment (such as yours) see how many 'man' hours are wasted each week dealing with the problems they cause

It's not just the porn stuff that's filtered out - its gambling, online auctions, sports pages, real estate listings, chat boards, private email accounts. Ok, I'm talking about a work situation there, what we do in our own time is for us to decide. Can you imagine the potential for social engineering once a government starts to control access to the net?

What our kids do on the net is absolutely our responsibility, just as it is when they go out to play and we forewarn them about the dangers they may encounter. How can kids learn to deal with a hazard if they never encounter it ?

If the government is hell bent on going down this path perhaps it would be better advised to offer a free netnanny software CD with the sale of every PC/laptop.

ozzieeagle

Hmm bit difficult for me to compare seeing as I've been here for so long. However I have seen plenty of people from the UK complaining on here, shocked at morning radio content, where blow jobs and wanking are regularly discussed, and the ads on TV for premature ejaculation, and billboards for brothels etc. Maybe it's just you've been in Qland for too long ? I'm not convinced that the UK is more liberal with it's media and base acceptance of adult topic than Aus. Sure we dont get too many papers like the Daily sport, but there again in the UK you dont get any shop fronts like Mikes Place, @ 12 Bailey st, West End, Brisbane.

I dont think there is a lot of difference in what Aussies think as a whole of Adult content to UK residents.


As for net Censorship, I'll repeat how can they stop FTP ? Unless the powers that be cut off that whole part of the net, there would be a massive outcry over that.

quoll

LOL Pollyanna, I was in that sort of industry too - and you are so right, departmental filters did restrict quite legitimate enquiries about child abuse issues.

Further on the free laptop issue - I believe that got moderated fairly late in the campaign to "every student yr 9 and over will have access to a (laptop) computer". It was a stupid bloody decision anyway - most kids will have access to far more sophisticated machines than the junk that is purchased by education departments as a rule. And, they will be obsolete as soon as they are issued and probably nicked very shortly thereafter.

Bix

About time some positive action was taken.

Better see if I can buy a ringer somewhere.

POW148

Well said "The Bloke"

themerlin

Just ask any 14 year old kid, they will know a way round the filter

Amazulu

Piss off dude. I'll post whatever I damn well want to. This great country now has this socialist prick KRudd in charge and I will criticise him whenever I want.

Bix

Ahhhh.....so you don't agree then

Nerine

You're not wrong there! my 12 year old and his class mates were doing it all the time at school, sussed out things like proxies in 2 seconds flat.

Every morning (in NZ) they were bombarded with radio ads for prem. ejaculation treatments and "nasal delivery technology" on the way to school. Wouldn't mind but they received buggerall sex education at school, "pubertal change" was as far as it went and even that was too late.