Angry govt seemingly backpedaling from its plan to force ISPs to block porn and other content deemed “inappropriate” for kids.
The Australian Christian Lobby is angry over recent testimony by Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy in which he seemed to signal that the govt is backpedaling from plans for mandatory Internet filtering in the country.
They want the govt to institute mandatory ISP filtering of pornography and other “inappropriate” material, offering an opt-out mechanism for those that choose.
Jim Wallace, the group’s managing director, says the Federal Govt, vis a vis Senator Conroy, are breaking their election promise by not forcing ISPs to do so.
“The promise was clearly about providing a safer internet environment for children and to do that you need to mandatorily block in the first instance pornography and R18+, and then provide an opt-in system for those adults who want to access it,” he said.
Alternatively, Australian Senator Nick Minchin, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, says mandatory Internet filtering sends the patently offensive message “that parents cannot be trusted to mind their children online.”
“There is no technological substitute for adult supervision and it’s irresponsible and misleading to infer otherwise,” he adds. “Mandating a so-called ‘clean feed’ has the potential to create a dangerous false sense of security, leading parents to believe ongoing supervision and vigilance is no longer needed.”
More importantly, Senator Minchin makes the important observation that the most dangerous places for children to visit online are unaffected by the filtering plans. MySpace anyone?
Wallace apparently acknowledges that parents are the ones ultimately responsible, but he says that some parents just aren’t tech-saavy enough with the whole Internet “thing” to keep up with their kids and need help.
“It’s not the children of responsible parents only that you’re concerned about here, it’s the children of parents who are either bewildered by the thing or are not responsible and don’t protect their children from this unsolicited pornography,” he said.
It seems to me that Wallace is really the one “bewildered by the thing” and doesn’t realize that it’s unfair for the rest of society to have their Internet connections filtered simply because he and other, presumably Christian in the context of his lobbying efforts, parents are unable to effectively monitor their children.
Opting out shouldn’t be the default Internet connection standard, opting in should.
jared@zeropaid.com
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lol, this is really funny when you think about it. it will be impossible for ISPs to block illegal porn, like files on P2P, files on rapidshare, etc. It’s everywhere.
So basically any kids that manage to go to commercial websites for porn, will no longer be able to, so the legitimate porn companies will be blocked, making youngsters have to pirate it. lol.
I wish this guy would say the same about music.
what about the sex in the church? All those pedophiles hiding under the holy robe of a priest ! Give me a break. I never believed anything that the church delivers as it’s always attached to some special interest. Maybe they should start paying the tax like everyone else then they would get their heads out of their ass.
It is christians like this, ones that feel its their moral duty to make everyone like this that have pissed off the secular world and alienated the average congregant. Get your head out of the sand Jim Wallace and smell the air, clearly your brain isn’t getting enough oxygen.