[WSIS CS-Plenary] Australia opts for education vs filtering ofchild pornography

[Alex Byrne]

Dear Rik and colleagues

 

This result is the result of sustained advocacy by the Australian Library and Information Association, Electronic Frontiers Australia and others coupled with valuable research reports on Internet filtering produced by our national research organisation, CSIRO.  Despite strong lobbying and political leverage in the Senate by Senator Brian Harradine and others, the Federal Government has supported a complaints based scheme for handling offensive content and an educational scheme centred around NetAlert.

 

In the face of considerable community concern about child pornography and pedophilia, beaten up by the 'tabloid' media, this is a satisfactory result if not as liberal as many of us would prefer.  Few "take down" notices have been issued under the regulatory scheme and the threat of mandatory filtering has been avoided although it is still imposed in some schools.  The focus of the legislation is on protecting minors.

 

Regards

 

Alex

 

 

--

****************************************************

Dr Alex Byrne FALIA FAIM

University Librarian & Deputy Chair of Academic Board

University of Technology, Sydney

Tel +61 2 9514 3332        Fax +61 2 9514 3331

alex.byrne at uts.edu.au        http://www.uts.edu.au/ <http://www.uts.edu.au/> 

 

President-elect 2003-2005, President 2005-2007 

International Federation of Library Associations and 

Institutions (IFLA)                  http://www.ifla.org <http://www.ifla.org/> 

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________________________________

From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf Of Rik Panganiban
Sent: Friday, 3 December 2004 6:35 AM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Australia opts for education vs filtering of child pornography

 

Interesting article from News.com.au on the Australian government's decision to not adopt filtering technologies to keep out child pornography, instead opting for public and parent education on the dangers of the internet: 

 

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11555864%255E15306,00.html 

 

Interesting implications for internet governance and content restrictions / censorship issues. 

 

Rik Panganiban 

================================ 

 

December 1, 2004 

 

THE Federal Government had rejected mandatory filtering of the internet to stop child pornography, Parliament was told today. 

 

Communications Minister Helen Coonan said the government had recently reviewed ways of preventing child pornography, including a British-style national internet filtering system but rejected it. 

 

Senator Coonan said the study had found such a filter would cost around $45 million a year initially and $33 million a year in later years. 

 

She said it also had the potential to choke the internet and drive up costs for consumers and small business. 

 

"The biggest issue is not so much the money but such an expensive scheme would not necessarily solve the problem and small to medium ISPs (internet service providers) would be driven out of business for little or no benefit," Senator Coonan said. "What does work is greater information and parental supervision and that is the kind of program that the government is promoting." 

 

The government has provided $30 million to educate parents about the perils of the internet and ISPs are required to provide cost-price filtering software to subscribers. 

 

Senator Coonan's comments were triggered by a question from Independent senator Brian Harradine. 

 

"Why won't the government at least for the start prevent child porn being transmitted into Australia either through the internet and ISPs or via satellite?" Senator Harradine said. "Why won't the government take that action since we've got laws against child porn?" 

 

AAP 

=============================================== 

RIK PANGANIBAN Communications Coordinator 

Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) 

web: http://www.ngocongo.org 

email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org 

mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524 

 

** Please note CONGO's new mailing address: CP 50, 1211 Genéve 20, Switzerland.  Our physical office address is 11, Avenue De La Paix, 1st Floor, 1202 Genéve, Switzerland. **



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