This is a modern day spanish inquisition.

The religious amongst us don't understand, don't like the information gained and are fearful of the web contents, so there has been a campaign to censor the internet.

All through the ages it is the religious that have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into progress and enlightenment. Instead of educating themselves and taking steps to ensure net safety, they want a blanket censorship over the lot - how typical!

Instead of accepting that mature, adult Australians are capable of using the internet without wanting to visit illegal sites and kiddie porn, we have to be subjected to a censorship of anything that these people believe is 'unsuitable content'. Not content with controlling their own homes and internet usage, they want to impose their wowser views on the entire populace!

I totally agree with Mark and I hope this attempt to silence public dissent over government controlled censorship is treated with the contempt and criticism that it deserves.

The entire notion of censorship of the internet is blithering nonsense. The agenda here is political.

Make no mistake, the generation of moral outrage - and you fell for it, runner - is the key to building a platform or moral righteousness on which a politician can stand tall to spruik ego-building public presence. Conroy et al have resorted to bullying and bluster when their sham is exposed by people who intelligently dismantle their arguments.

This is yet another attempt by the nanny government(s) of Australia to keep us compliant mushrooms.

I'm more inclined to think the problem is ignorance. I am religious, retired and use the internet for research. I am fully aware of misuse of the internet, but the 'solution' will not solve the problem. It is too easy to bypass the censorship software.

It looks like there is a good chance of defeating this plan. Both the Coalition and the Greens are opposed to it, which means that the Government cannot pass a new law through the Senate unless one of those groups changes their mind. However, there is a risk that those members of the Coalition who appeal to reactionary moralism might be able to get the Coalition to change its position. If that happened, the Government’s scheme would pass. Therefore, to ensure the defeat of the Government’s censorship plans, it’s vitally important to reach people who might be convinced by reactionary arguments and try and convince them with other arguments. Most people arguing against the Government’s plans are not doing this.

...

The correct strategy is to appeal directly to people who are worried about what dangers there might be on the internet, and to show them that there are plenty of ways they can keep themselves and their children free from bad websites. A second strategy is to point out how the Government’s plan will slow down websites that many ordinary, apolitical people use regularly: Sites where you book cheap hotel rooms or plane fares, Ebay, Amazon, Australian media sites and so on.

Make no mistake. The Government will parrot the “Kiddie Porn” line over and over again. And while “people like us”, who support free expression as a basic principle, will see through that for the joke that it is, it will appeal to some people. Maybe even enough people for the Coalition to change their mind and support censorship. If that happens, the plan will succeed and we will lose. We must think hard about how we can appeal to those people, not just the ones we already agree with.

More at http://strangetimes.lastsuperpower.net/?p=144

Perhaps, runner, we should worry about whether Aboriginal and other children living in abject poverty have basic plumbing and maybe a phone line before we worry about exposure to the internet. If you don't like porn, don't look at it. It isn't compulsory. I have never come across porn intentionally or accidentally in all the time I've been on line. I guess you must have to look for it before you need to worry about it.

Runner’s got a point but the problems he cites have been around for many years. The net exacerbates it but censorship will achieve what it does in every other sphere – create a black market, or in this case an even harder to find black market.

I totally agree with the gist of the article. I would predict a patch will be available literally within hours of any filter being activated, and rightly so. It’s little wonder “the new media represented by the blogosphere is atwitter with fulminating dissent"