I agree with you Nina Funnell "wholesale', being a allied friend for someone who has recently committed suicide. A preventable death. I join you in advocating that it is 'unwise to ban'. There is for more to this.

Given you are talking about the internet I hope you don't mind me putting an additional comment that is inter-related. Like myself my friend was a professional, educated person trying to influence and change things adverse happening within the community. The journey became increasingly alienating. We tried a number of things including working locally, to raise awareness on Crime Prevention. Only things within the local enviornment only got worse. Local servicies be them Government or Health are out of touch with things occuring inside the local community and the stronger you are, the more server the alienation. A factor I put central to why this person did not survive.

As I have tried to report myself... I too am attracting the alienation.

If I can explain... there is a need for Australians to take note. I ask if you can look at the link I wrote to former PM Howard.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6526&page=0#96964

There is a lack of two way communication and there is a lack of glue. Rather then me re-explain I ask you read some of my posts.

Since then I have been attempting different ways to problem solve. Given the Candoo NGO got swashed, I have been calling from the internet. The problem I note now below.

Open Transparency is an issue for Australia. We have a TRUST ISSUE, or is it a democratic Freedom of Press/Speech issue (in this case a web speech) and civil rights issue?

What ever it is that is... it is a betrayal, and from a community level it is political.

more below;

I hate to report this: Something/one is interfering with the www.miacat.com's computer - as if monitoring what I am doing on the web. The situation is most disconcerting.

If you have seen the www.miacat.com reports over past weeks you may have noticed - as I have tried to indicate the alert. We/myself and a few other residents in Cooktown do not know who it is.

I believe Internet crime potentially is becoming the misunderstood or most hostile of propaganda crimes. I believe it to be someone(s) doing it direct through the phone-line. We lack the technical know how and support to know how to stop it.

Given I have reported this crime to the Federal Police 3 times, in the past week. To Crime Stoppers 4 times within the two weeks (plus the 7 times as it was occurring at odd times between 2007 APEC and the 2007 Elections), I contacted the IP web-page server a number of times, ABC Brisbane a number of times, and the ABC News Room in Sydney (a number of times) AND, I'd rung Telstra at different times pervious. Trust has become the issue here.

Each time it occurs, it is at a moment when I am writing something... editing something... that involves a sensitive response to a news item or issue. Similar to my OLO posts.

I ask that the BEST journalists at ABC look into this.

I ask that the Federal Police outside of Queensland as well as inside Queensland to look into this.

Frankly I am fascinated that anyone would care enough to go to the trouble given miacat is merely a civic voice - a dot-page on the internet among millions of others.

While outspoken the copy is not attempting to threaten anyone. The motive is geniune and merely to comment or speak out as a citizen ought to on things in the national conversation, in current affairs, I work to encourage others to help make the connections that might matter.

I believe all anyone has had to do is communicate, like make the attempt to use the phone.

http://www.miacat.com/

The author deliberately conflates thinspiration with moral and group support – this is not what the ban on such sites is about. Many actively advocate anorexic behaviour but despite being the motivation for banning these sites was not touched upon.

The host of other, tangential reasons given for not banning sites – it’s an affront to free speech, it’s impossible to police, it’s ineffective - apply to any website on any topic. Fair enough. Should we condone promoting this behaviour? Might we condone ‘legal’ porn for the same reason?

Oddly no mention of males suffering from this condition. 5 to 15 percent and rising, according to http://anorexia.emedtv.com/anorexia/anorexia-statistics.html.

One rationale for tolerating thinspiration sites is that they borrow images from mainstream media. Mainstream media should also be held to account for its promotion of impossibly thin models and unhealthy lifestyles. "Everybody else does it” is not very convincing.