Copyright Law

Aussie Christian Lobby Wants X, R-Rated Content Filtered Too

By Jared Moya

Says govt’s proposed mandatory filtering proposal should be reexamined in 3yrs so as to extend it to cover “other harmful X and R-rated material on the Internet,” proving critics of the plans worst fears.

Today Senator Stephen Conroy, the Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, finally revealed ?cyber-safety measures? to ?improve safety on the internet for Australian families.?

The scheme would require mandatory ISP-level filtering of Refused Classification (RC)-rated content and would introduce a grants program for encouraging ISPs to voluntarily ?block additional content as requested by households.?

Critics like the Australian Democrat Party have pointed out that the plan establishes a bad precedent for allowing the Government to control the flow of information before it reaches households and that it’s hard to imagine this and future governments would be able to resist the temptation to add content to the list when lobbied by powerful business, religious, or social group lobbies.

As if right on cue the powerful Australian Christian Lobby has chimed in, demanding that after three years the filter be reviewed to possibly extend it to “deal with other harmful X and R-rated material on the Internet.”

ACL’s Managing Director Jim Wallace said that in an era when children are growing up using the Internet for both education and entertainment it is crucial that Internet safeguards be “provided, and extended in scope to provide even better protection.”

It’s not clear if he’s proposing that X and R-rated content be filtered for all, but it illustrates that allowing the govt to establish an ISP-level filter in the first place is rife with danger and is susceptible to abuse.

Isn’t censorship a greater danger than children having access to pornographic material?

What the govt really needs is a mandatory filtering of uninvolved parents who don’t want to have to bother with monitoring their kids PC usage.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on December 15, 2009 (boomark / email).