The government is currently trialling a National Internet filter. This filter is to be used to block mainly child pornography and illegal content, and other "Unwanted Content".
Filtering Australian's Internet means several things:
- The content that is blocked may not always be correctly blocked. Some sites that are perfectly legal and fine for public consumption may be blocked.
- It means that the already below world average of Internet speeds in Australia will be reduced even further, our Internet will be slow, it'll crawl along, as the filter will be acting in a very strong way like a funnel. Try squeezing every Australian into a room the size of a Football Stadium, you'll have a hard time, and it'll take a while before you get your seat.
- A square peg doesn't fit a round hole: A filter doesn't catch everything, and sometimes catches the wrong stuff.
- There are always ways around any kind of filter, be it by sharing over P2P, chat rooms or simply by constantly changing the address (URL) at which the material is accessed.
- The filter is said to block anything else that is considered unwanted material, what is unwanted material? Is it something the government at the time decides we shouldn't here about? Are we becoming slightly communist in the sense of communism Australian's knew about in the 1950's?
- Why should the government take the role of parents to block content from their kids? When the filter won't block content from just kids, it'll block it from everyone. Should an adult see the same as a child?
For more information about the filter, head over to iiNet's page about it.
Find out how to block it.
BLOCK IT, PLEASE!
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