"You'll understand when you're younger"

http://www.peacefire.org/

I tend to think that if your an adult you should be able to see and read what you want,all of this is Howard and co pandering to the Religious right.
Why you would want to pander to a bunch of fools whose main thing in life seems to be interfering in everyone else,s is beyond me,these clods (Hillsong AoG ect)are like the old snake oil sales men, why anyone would believe the crap the pastor peddles just proves the old saying "theres a sucker born ever minute"
If you cant control what your kids see and read don,t expect someone else to do it for you

I am opposed to Internet filtering for several reasons. One is once it starts you no longer know just what is being filtered. I fervently believe adults should be able to see and read anything, excluding obvious illegal items.

I certainly believe children should be protected from being exposed to unsuitable material, but this is for the parents to manage. I do not support filtering by government, even to protect children for one very important reason.

I believe parents depending on government filtering is far more dangerous than a parent having to take 100% of the responsibility. No matter what software filters are in place- the internet is NOT safe. This mantra must be drummed into the heads of parents. You can bet that any software control will be breached and every kid at school will know how to do it. Whilst the parents are patting themselves on the back because they feel confident their children are protected.

Isnt this also related to the attempt by the government to ban and censor books and internet sights which promote or glamorize political violence and/or terrorism.

Most of our his-story is a glorification of violence. A chronicle of "important wars".
Wasnt the USA War of Independence from the British a sustained act of terrorism? And an integral part of the collective USA identity/narrative?
Under the current definitions of terrorism it would be totally unacceptable. Should we therefore ban the study of it.

What about the violent struggles for independence and freedom that are a part of the history of most countries in the world---and their civil wars, including those of the UK.

Wasnt the suppression and wholesale slaughter of the Catholic Irish by Cromwell and his hard heads one of the first acts at Cultural genocide or ethnic cleansing? Yet it is a celebrated aspect of some peoples his-stories.

What about the USA civil war. This carnage is almost glorified by scholars and various entusiasts---recreated and re-enacted year after year even.

Under todays definitions they were all sustained acts of terrorism, ethnic cleansing etc etc.

Nelson Mandela is a hero to dark skinned South Africans. As far as I know John Howard (our champion of "freedom") was opposed to him being released from jail.

Michael Collins is a hero to some Irish. Simon Bolivar is a hero to the people of Bolivia. Garibaldi to the Italians. And so on.

I don't have enough room to post the comments I've already made on this topic so here's the link:

http://jamespurser.com.au/blog/Internet_Filtering_-_Lets_Face_Reality

Kevin is spot on. There are plenty of filters out there. And you can't beat good old fashioned parental supervision. This is a complete waste of taxpayer's money and a blatant election ploy. Then again what isn't in the lead up to one.