No Clean Feed Petition
As most readers will no doubt be aware, the Federal Government, will introduce legislation into parliament early this year which will make ISP level filtering of the internet mandatory. The filter will block any material rated RC (refused classification).
The details of the way this will work are still sketchy, but on basic principle, the Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice oppose the filtering of the internet. Our concerns are that, while the government assures us that it will not use the filter to block forms of political expression, history tells us that there will always be some sort of ‘creep’ with legislation like this. We also don’t have this guarantee from future governments (because that would be impossible). The filter will do nothing to stop the spread of child pornography which is supposedly the purpose of the filter. Finally, the way the debate has been framed to date gives concerned parents who are not as familiar with the goings on of the internet the false impression that their children are regularly stumbling upon highly objectionable imagery when the rest of us know this just isn’t true.
Electronic Frontiers Australia are doing a fantastic job to raise awareness of the issue and fight against it.
They have launched an online petition which I’d urge all of you to sign. It can be found here.
The internet has thrived because it is so open. Let’s keep it that way.
