Australian Net Filtering - Why is this not a big issue?

I cannot understand why the Internet Filter in Australia that is going to be rolled out in 2011 is not causing such a huge stir on ATS.

Don't think you are safe just because you live in another country.

When the Australian government finally rolls out this plan in 2011, EVERY other government around the world will sit up and take notice. They will see that a country has implemented a strategy that effectively stops its citizens seeing what they don't want them to see.

But SilentShadow... what about China? They are already doing it.

China is not a diplomatic country. This sort of thing is unfortunately expected from communist regimes.

But SilentShadow... it's only blocking out certain kinds of adult material and acts of child abuse. What's wrong with that?

Nothing... but that is not all that is being blocked. Even a site like youtube will be filtered to help cut out examples of free speech. This is Google responding to the government request and some of the examples the government told them it would like to have filtered.

"The scope of RC [Refused Classification] is simply too broad and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information. RC includes the grey realms of material instructing in any crime from graffiti to politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia and exposing these topics to public debate is vital for democracy."

External Source

Our ability to communicate and discuss things online as free speech is going to be compromised. I even shudder to think that our beloved ATS could somehow make it onto the 'Blacklist'.

It is time to stand up and take notice ATS.

[edit on 18/2/2010 by SilentShadow]

There are a lot of issues that need to be written about and talked about online to gain awareness, but then you have to take it to the street, locally in your areas. You can find those in your country online, not just one site, perhaps begin a blog about it, and extend it to a variety of formats, facebook, myspace, wordpress, blogger, (note, even if there is cia spyware on some of these sites one can get a sense of using the bad guys platforms against them....poetic justice!)

Then the next step is local message boards, possibly linked to free advertisers and small groups getting the message out. These local boards can be linked to big sites world wide, and many videos.

Tshirts, banners, bumper stickers, flags for the windows instead of curtains. Basically, this is a really important issue. Along with Greece just losing its right to money transactions over a certain amount and now its right to vote. HUGE ISSUES. But the question is, what do we do about it.

The next step is local and there are issues that need to be addressed.

If enough people in an area get it, then what would you do? Revolution?

I would have 60% or more of the citizens, surround all public buildings, especially their representatives, in rotatating shifts and not go away until they do.

But thats me.

reply to post by SilentShadow


Ironically, folks here are too distracted with 9/11, FEMA, Obama, UFO's etc to realise the very core of our freedom is in the process of being taken from us.

We have had far too much freedom on the internet for far too long, time to control it at the source under the guise of protecting our children.

Nobody cares about what happens in Australia because we are a nothing country but we will be a very effective testing ground for this technology and other countries will quickly follow suit.

Many people here are Americans, and think very differently to Australians.

Too an American, ANY infringement of personal rights is an abomination.

To an Australian, we need some rules of society to limit some extremes of behavior in the community. What the rules are, will be decided by the voters here.

Most parents, teachers and Church groups support a system that will protect our children without being too oppressive on the rest of us.

If the Aussie government can come up with a scheme that works, is practical, and is popular, it will almost certainly be implemented after a trial period.

If there is a huge pubic outcry it will be abandoned.

reply to post by Silver Shadow


There won't be a public outcry because we will be lead to believe that it is being done for the "greater good" and it will be done incrementally.

Sites such as A.T.S. will simply be collateral damage.

This reminds me of something I read regarding the Nazis.

I went something like: When they came for the Jews, I did not care for I was not a Jew. When they came for the Blacks, I did not care for I was not black. When they came for the homosexuals, I did not care for I was not a homosexual. When they came for me, there was no-one left to care.


Forgive me for being so cynical. Government funded home insulation was a great idea and has been implemented effectively and responsibly and has been nothing but positive.

[edit on 18-2-2010 by OZtracized]

Originally posted by OZtracized
reply to post by Silver Shadow

 

There won't be a public outcry because we will be lead to believe that it is being done for the "greater good" and it will be done incrementally.

Sites such as A.T.S. will simply be collateral damage.

You must be joking surely.

Any attempt to ban popular forums or chat groups will cause a fire storm of public outrage. Politicians will be hung from lamp posts.

Banning the worst child porn sites, or terrorist sites that incite fanatics, tell how to make homemade weapons or explosives are a very different thing.

Head over to the first link provided in the OP for more info, but some interesting snippets...

The cyber-safety measures announced today include:

1. Introduction of mandatory ISP-level filtering of Refused Classification (RC) –rated content.

RC-rated material includes child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence including rape, and the detailed instruction of crime or drug use. Under the National Classification Scheme and related enforcement legislation it is already illegal to distribute, sell or make available for hire RC-rated films, computer games and publications.

OK, honestly, so far so good. I honestly have no problem at all with what i see so far...

The RC Content list will be compiled through a public complaints mechanism.

Now i start to get worried.

How long will it take for your average Joe Blow to stumble across at thread on ATS (or similar) and find it offensive.

Then how long will it take for the parameters for the 'RC' content list to grow.

When will 'homeland security' type issues start to become a factor and then be added to the list for 'security purposes'?

Should this occur, ill be looking for black-market ISP's to access ATS and other similar sites.

The problem is, as i experience everyday, the average Aussie sees ATS type stuff as nutty. The way i think ostracizes me and my opinions ALWAYS clash with the general consensus.

My Point? Most people in Australia wont give a second look when ATS becomes black-listed. Collateral damage i think someone else said.

“The Government will immediately undertake public consultation with the release today of a discussion paper on additional measures to improve the accountability and transparency of processes that lead to RC-rated material being placed on the RC Content list,” Senator Conroy said.

Some of the options raised include the use of block pages and appeal mechanisms, notification to website owners of RC content and the review by an independent expert and report to the Parliament.

Not too keen on additional anything. Leaves the door open for that RC content list to grow and grow.

Also, how independent and unbiased will this 'expert' be? I hope im wrong, but im guessing not very.


Fingers crossed this is done the right way.......

reply to post by srsen


Exactly what I was trying to say.

I'm shocked the O.P. doesn't see my point. Not having a go, just shocked.

Well, as a father I happen to agree with what Australia are doing. They are filtering out the extreme stuff which is an affront to civilized people. You may think beastaility is fun, but I don't and I certainly don't want my children to accidently (or through curiousity) have access to it, nor sexual vioence, nore child abuse...

Regards

double post


[edit on 18/2/2010 by paraphi]

i'm sure it will eventually come down to service providers to implement into the distribution.

they'll just use this to milk more cash from the public...

~~~Internet from 60 squillion a month unlimited

or

~~~Uncensored Internet from 160 squillion a month unlimited.

conditions apply so please do not read the fine print

Information should never be blocked, and whenever it is, I smell a rat.

This is wrong wrong wrong.

I don't think these manipulators will win in the long run - just a hunch.

Because if you're against it you're a kiddy fiddler.

The MSM in aussi has a big stranglehold. They're so scared of indonesia and the false flag terror bombings that they'll do anything to fight terror and stop child porn.

Funny thing is most child porn busts are by police setting up 'honeypots', not going through every single URL you have ever visited.

Blocking doesn't work. An educational institute I was a student at and later a staff member installed websense, it's not hard to get around it as a kid, let alone as a computer tech.

reply to post by SilentShadow


G'day Silentshadow

I think it's not so much that we don't care.....

I think it's more that we don't believe that thug Rudd could actually do something like this.

It's disgusting beyond words.

Regards
Maybe...maybe not

[edit on 18-2-2010 by Maybe...maybe not]

This is a big issue for us Australians. Believe me it is being talked about heavily on local forums.

This has been in the wind for well over two years. The trial went well apparently. Many ISP's refused to particpate in it. Mine was one of them. Some of the others that did did so just to prove to the government it was a stupid idea. Government advisers themselves say that anyone can set up a proxy through an overseas sever in half a minute and circumvent it.

This is the crusade of one Senator Conroy. At first when he proposed it it was to block Child porn mainly and most people were okay with the idea.

Then a list of actual sites to be put on the blacklist was leaked and the public realised he wanted to block more than that and objections started to be raised.

Now the scope has widened even further to include all RC content. Might as well just turn off the internet Mr Conroy.

if anyone wants to get involved there is a national day of action on the 6th of march in all capital cities from 12-3 pm at the local parks. be great if you could join us.

I'm always amazed at how quiet folks are regarding the Austrailians and their bans and censorship.

I can largely ignore it when some crazy theocracy likeo e of those Muslim nations run by priestsor when an overt dictatorship like North Korea go on banning things but it hits too close to home to see a nation like Australia go down this road. And apparently so willingly.

It's only a matter of time before it spreads.

Seems like one of the tricks is to set up different pieces of totalitarianism in different countries and wait for them to all merge while the countries populations mock one another. The US goes all big brother and the world laughs while they lose their access to information, have media denied "classification" and their guns taken away.

Sooner or later what has happened to us will happen to them and what happened to them will happen to us. As long as we're too busy pointing fingers and laughing at the other guy in his cage from our very own cage.

Liberty is universal. No one person can be free unless every person is free.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

I started a thread about Operation Titstorm which was the group "anonymous'" response to Australian web filtering.

Several Australian government websites were slowly recovering Wednesday hours after the online prankster group, Anonymous, unleashed a massive distributed denial-of-service attack to protest the country’s evolution toward internet censorship.

The group, which has brought down Scientology’s websites and undertaken a host of other online pranks, dubbed the attack “Operation Titstorm” to protest the government’s move to require the filtering of pornography hosting adult actors if they appeared under age. Other violent material targeting children is also to be censored.

The Australian govt.'s actions are not going un-noticed!

-E-

If your worried about your kids accessing things then you should have one computer hooked for internet access when you can be there to monitor it. Your fear of scarring your children should not impose on the freedoms of other no matter even if it is "beastiality" or some other sick image or video they wish to view.

I truly understand the concern but censorship is a slippery slope and personal responsibility trumps mommy and daddy style government impositions any day of the week.

Cheers

It is a big issue. I and many other ATS members agree it is a significant challenge to Freedom of Speech. I don't think the majority of internet users in Australia - or the world for that matter - feel they need to have content withheld from them to ensure their own safety. Just because some parents are incapable of raising and disciplining their kids, our experience on the internet has to suffer. There are positive reasons for having an Internet Filter, but the number of negatives this Filter WILL bring is disproportionately larger.

Many threads have been made discussing this issue, yet it won't make a difference. Letters, petitions, emails etc. won't do anything. I am just another Average Joe down the street who would like to enjoy his Freedom to use the Internet without having his privacy intruded upon. But what power do you or I really have to stop those in control from enforcing these silly laws?

[edit on 18/2/2010 by Dark Ghost]