Internet Censorship or the 'Clean Feed'
“I talked briefly about the internet filter. This is an important issue for all internet users in Australia. It will not catch paedophiles. This will do more than slow down the internet.
What happens when Facebook is added to the list of banned websites? Or Youtube?
Ask our friends from China. This is bad news for Australian Internet users and goes against the freedom that has made the internet awesome for the last 40 years.”
“I talked briefly about the internet filter. This is an important issue for all internet users in Australia. It will not catch paedophiles. This will do more than slow down the internet.
What happens when Facebook is added to the list of banned websites? Or Youtube?
Ask our friends from China. This is bad news for Australian Internet users and goes against the freedom that has made the internet awesome for the last 40 years.”
I find this topic very interesting as I, myself, am a frequent internet user and have been witnessing many fierce debates on internet forums and comments lately on this topic. It seems that not everyone can either agree or disagree with the usefulness of the so called ‘clean feed’ but nevertheless I still believe that this just another way to control the general public through the use of restrictions.
As stated by the Herald Sun, “New polling has found that most Australians - 55 per cent - believe Australia has become a nanny state and that government intervention and control in our daily lives has gone too far.”
And it’s not only being said, people on the internet are now pushing to stop this from happening, there is even a website made purely for his purpose, http://nocleanfeed.com/. Their opening statement claims, “The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and will not make anyone safer.
The filter will do almost nothing to prevent the people who are willfully making, trading, and accessing child sexual abuse material. This type of material is not distributed in the open and we need to fund police to continue to infiltrate and prosecute the groups of people responsible for creating and distributing such material.
The filter will not prevent children from accessing inappropriate material. The proposed category of censored sites will not be wide enough to provide assurances to parents. Parents will be much better served by installing one of the many voluntary filters that are currently available and ensuring that their children are adequately supervised and aware of risks they may face online.
The list of material to be banned includes much more than child sexual abuse material. The category of material that has been 'refused classification' includes websites about euthanasia, controversial movies such as 'Ken Park' and 'Baise-moi', and many games that are designed for people over 16 years of age.
Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home.”
To me, this just about sums up the importance of knowing what our government is doing and really considering how it will impact us. This filter is definitely not in our best interests but currently the only people who are really concerned are the ones who already use the internet regularly and understand the consequences of such an action.
Poll finds most Australians believe Australia has become a nanny state. Viewed 19/09/2011
What is the 'Clean Feed'? Viewed 19/09/2011
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