Says that the professor who insinuated that an unfiltered internet had no place in a democracy is misrepresenting the issue.
Yesterday, we highlighted a professor who called people at the EFA “Extremists” on Australian IT. Now, Electronic Frontier Australia has issued a response to what they consider, among other things, misrepresentations he published.
The EFA says that the filtering scheme is a “policy mess”, won’t protect children, will not be useful for law enforcement and is not exactly the most public move the governments ever made.
From the response:
Let’s humour our critics for a moment and don the cyber-libertarian hat. Are there also good reasons here to oppose filtering? There are of course many amongst EFA and those sympathetic to its work that do admire and cherish the open, anarchic free-wheeling nature of the Internet. It’s hard to deny this is part of what makes the net such an exciting and valuable medium for culture and entrepreneurship. Heavy-handed regulation could, in theory, damage this and make the Internet less useful for everyone.
On the other hand, the Government clearly has the right to legislate on content and networks in Australia. There could be many cases when government regulation and intervention could be positive for the net – bolstering our network capacity and ensuring fair competition in the market for network services come to mind. The outlawing of images online that depict actual child abuse is a good example of a content law that few would oppose, and is one that is actually enforceable and is gaining convictions. It would seem silly, then, to simply oppose all internet regulation as a matter of principle.
The EFA also says that there are home-based filters in existence today to help control what children see online. They also say that education and adult supervision are also options to help protect children in the first place. Additionally, they say that Hamilton is merely attacking a straw man.
Related
- Professor – Unfiltered Internet Has No Place in a Democracy
- Parody of Conroy’s Controversial Australian Filtering Plan Surfaces
- Australian Internet Filtering Plan Will Be Mandatory for Everyone – No Opt-Out
- Public Forum on Internet Filtering This Monday in Australia
- Aussie Internet Filtering Plan to Include P2P Traffic
