Despite Public Concerns, Australia Pushing Forward with Nationwide Net Filtering

Published December 17, 2009

| NewsCorp Australian Papers

The Australian government is pushing ahead with its controversial plan to filter the Web, saying illegal material can be blocked "with 100 per cent accuracy and negligible impact on Internet speed."

It has just released results of its latest live filtering trials, used as proof that a national Internet filter will work. The government will introduce legislation next year requiring all service providers to ban "refused classification" (RC) material hosted on overseas servers.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says RC material includes "child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence and the detailed instruction of crime and drug use."

"Most Australians acknowledge there is some Internet content which is not acceptable in any civilized society," Senator Conroy said. "It is important that all Australians, particularly young children, are protected from this material."

The proposed scheme will place Australia with 15 other Western democratic nations that have or are preparing to implement ISP filters. Denmark, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Germany and The Netherlands operate similar ISP filter systems that operate from blacklists detailing which sites contain inappropriate material.

However, in those cases the filters are voluntary, while Australia's is mandatory.

The ISP filter plan has attracted a chorus of criticism from industry and Internet users, who claim its introduction will strangle Internet speeds, curb free speech and be used by the government to ban content it deems "undesirable."

Advocacy organization GetUp's petition against the proposal has garnered more than 120,000 signatures.

"It's shocking. This great firewall of Australia is going to hand control of the Internet to the moral minority," GetUp acting national director Oliver Maccoll said.

In March, the proposed trial came under fire when a list of about 1,000 sites secretly banned by ACMA was leaked online, revealing that harmless sites, including YouTube links and gambling sites, had also been blacklisted.

But after the successful live trial ironed out many kinks in the initial plan, the filter has now been given the go-ahead by the Government. The list of banned sites will be maintained by an independent body.

Senator Conroy said the list would be "compiled through a public complaints mechanism," but the Government will add sites containing "known child abuse material" obtained from "highly regarded international agencies."

Currently, the Australian Communications and Media Authority issues take-down notices for black-listed content hosted in Australia.

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