Travellers to be searched for porn (Australia)

Travellers to be searched for porn (Australia)

www.smh.com.au

Australian customs officers have been given new powers to search incoming travellers' laptops and mobile phones for pornography, a spokeswoman for the Australian sex industry says.

Fiona Patten, president of the Australian Sex Party, is demanding an inquiry into why a new question appears on Incoming Passenger Cards asking people if they are carrying "pornography".

Patten said officials now had an unfettered right to examine travellers' electronic devices, marking the beginning of a new era of official investigation into people's private lives. She questioned whether it was appropri

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is a red herring.. the goal of most governments nowadays seems to be the elimination of all privacy so that we can be sorted and categorized and dealt with as the whim of those in power. Porn? What exactly constitutes porn? Seems to me that one of the ongoing legal issues that has NEVER been resolved is determine what is obscene by some objective standard. Or will customs officials be able to decide that if they think it is porn, then it is?

The darker side is that once the powers have been granted, the definition of porn is easily modified to include religious materials, politically unacceptable materials, material critical of the government. You get the idea.. if we don't like it.. it's PORN and you are going to jail. Gotta protect those "right thinking" people in power.

www.smh.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

I don't know, can you say biased here, a little bit?

The woman interviewed is a member of, "The Australian Sex Party."

I'm not from Australia, so not sure what that party is, so, still, I think she is being biased just based on her representation.

Also, the article doesn't state if they plan to search everybody.

Makes you wonder how they are going to profile who exactly to search for this, though.

Australia has been heading to hell for a long time now. This is just the latest step along the way

Yea Australia seems to have taken a very Orwellian downturn.

Who knows how things will change in the coming years.

Knowledge is Power.

Our "leaders" are trying to create a prison planet where they monitor and record every single thing about every single person.

When you know everything about everyone you have power over everyone.

[edit on 20-5-2010 by Bobbox1980]

reply to post by metamagic


Someone beat you to posting this thread by a couple hours.

It is here.