Infotropism Kirrily Robert’s blog

Here comes another one, just like the other one

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Labor Senator Stephen Conroy’s new Internet censorship policy:

Federal Labor will improve existing government programs in this area by:

Providing a mandatory ‘clean feed’ internet service for all homes, schools and public computers that are used by Australian children, so that ISPs will filter out content identified as prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The ACMA ‘blacklist’ will also be made more comprehensive to ensure that children are protected from harmful and inappropriate online material.

(emphasis mine)

The difference between this load of steaming horse shit and the rather similar load that got dumped on us in 1999 is that this time the mainstream media actually know what’s going on:

• The Australian
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Courier Mail

When a Queensland newspaper’s headline reads “Nanny Rudd censors the internet”, you know the times are a-changin’. So, I have some hope that this idiotic proposal will either get ditched entirely, watered down to pointlessness (as 1999’s was), or worked around to a significant degree. I won’t be here for it, but good luck with that.

This is symptomatic of a government who seeks poor advice from within their ranks. They did not spend enough time seeking someone with a clue about IT (like yourself). Instead they spent money on the usual channels trying to push out a message - because the current mantra in politics is all about the “message”. People have woken up the the message is not, in fact, action.

They spent vast sums on NetAlert - a filter which anyone can circumvent in two seconds flat. $189 million to develop a suite of games and a filter (http://www.netalert.gov.au/programs.html). Bloody hell.