Senator Conroy Demonises Opponents With Odious Comments
Readers from other countries may be wondering what the present brouhaha about internet access and pornography in Australia has to do with them.
In one sense, not much! On a wider scale though, it has a great deal to do with them.
What a government gets away with in one place will soon be copied elsewhere, whether it works or not.
In an earlier post, I linked to a News.com.au article which reports on the British experience in this area.
The article points out that:
- The CleanFeed system can be circumvented
- The filter reality never matches hype
- That most porn filters are ‘too expensive’
The article also reports that after testing a number of filters, internet speed was affected by between 18 and 78%.
This is because each request for a site has to be matched with a blacklist.
Some sites still slip past the filter due to the sheer number of porn sites!
As Tim Dunlop points out, ‘Senator Conroy has already gone the path of demonisation with his odious comments implying that the only people who would object to such censorship are those who want to watch child porn…’
ABC News Report: Conroy says the scheme will better protect children from pornography and violent websites.
“Labor makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road,” he said.
“If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree.”
This is where the problem starts.
Conroy’s words seem to state that people who oppose the legislation on the grounds of freedom of speech are pornographers.
I don’t want pornography in my house, nor on my computer.
That doesn’t mean that I should accept a ‘Nanny State’ solution, with Big Brother constantly looking over my shoulder.
Tim Dunlop says that other problems including who decides how ‘appropriate material’ is to be understood, and that a law enacted to deal with a specific problem is easily extended to other areas.
As for blogger Damian TOAST O’Neil from Exploding Toast, I guess that it would have been far easier to simply make his point, without enlarging on Mr Conroy’s comments about opponents and pornography.
Then again, he certainly turned the heat up on the situation just a tad…
Jon Seymour came up with some interesting alternative ideas.
Jon also reminded me that this has apparently been ALP policy for some time. Please accept my apologies for not checking.
One last point: I have made an effort to safeguard my children regarding internet safety with range of solutions.
At the end of the day, I have to trust my kids to do the right thing, and while remaining vigilant, trust my own judgment.
Doesn’t Mr Conroy see fit to extend that trust to his fellow Australians?
Allan, its always the natural tendency of a number of people with power to act like policemen of the populace or the guardians of public morals. In wanting to eliminate evil, they enforce actions that would infringe on the rights of others, and further declare others as undesirables via a sweeping statement. They don’t seem to realize that what they are doing is the greater evil.
It is also a means to deflect the real intent of the stated action. Such profound demagoguery is a disease common to those who want total control or unlimited influence. Just like the US and their War on Terror, which, by their own definition in their military manual, makes them the biggest terrorist. And for what? Oil for the Bush partners at Halliburton.
I’m rambling already. Anyway, I agree with you. Sock it to ’em! –Durano, done!
Durano Lawayan’s last blog post..Clampdown on Coffee with Cigarettes
As the mother of 4 and 9 year old boys, I am getting fed up with all the people claiming it’s “for the children.” It is my job to be a parent to my children, not a government, especially a government that was supposedly elected of, by, and for the people. Yes, I am an American, and yes, this bill scares the heck out of me because you can’t tell me that our own government (who’s also having issues with trying to become Big Brother) won’t look at what’s happening and try to do the same thing if they think they can get away with it.
In order to protect my children from pornography or any other “hurtful” influences (which I decide are hurtful, not a government afraid of the power of free speech), I have several options which can and will work at the family level, as long as I maintain my job as parent and *supervise* my children. Add to that the fact that any teenage “geek” worth their salt knows how to get around a firewall (is the government going to block firefox next?) and that parents who think the government is keeping their children safe won’t be supervising their sons and daughters as much, and you tell me which ones will be viewing more “unclean” items.
In regards to the “kiddie porn” issue, while I agree it’s a legitimate problem that needs a solution, I don’t agree that this is the correct solution. Putting up a national firewall doesn’t keep anyone from posting that kind of stuff. In fact, if you’ve read any of the reports of police tracking down such pedophiles, you’ll learn that usually the police have to arrive at a physical location and see the person actually on their computer in order to catch them. Why? Because people like that know more about how to use the internet anonymously than almost anyone else does. Creating a national firewall isn’t going to affect either the people who actively post to or visit such sites, instead it will likely make catching such people more difficult since the national firewall will instead get rid of the “weak links” that the government could use to reach the main offenders.
Teeg’s last blog post..Social Networking in 10 Minutes (or less)
Governments who think they can block sites are living in fairy land. The same as locks on houses only keep honest people out, firewalls on the net only stop honest people too.
I am NOT prepared to put up with a slowing down of internet speed. Australians already have to put up with a disgustingly slow speed and it’s even worse when you live in rural Australia. I also agree that it’s up to parents to do some parenting and take some responsibility for the use of the net in their homes and their children.
The biggest problem of course is that with this sort of technology it is possible to ban, (in theory), any sites and can be used to filter all sorts of things without Australians even knowing. Will the Wiggles be next????
Cheers,
What I find interesting is that Senator Conroy uses the term ‘Labor makes no apologies…’!
I thought that now they are in power, that their responsibility would be to act on behalf of All Australians, not simply push a line of doctrine!
Ben Chifley’s ‘Light On A Hill’ burns a little dimmer in 2007/2008!
Thanks Durano,
One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. We need to find a place where we can all work for the common good!
Great comment Teeg, unfortunately Government everywhere seems to think that it is their job to raise families too!
Hey Ric, yes, unfortunately the Wiggles are just too hot to handle for many people.
Even some of the affiliate sites on Ninemsn such as Ralph will probably end up being blocked – will be interesting how it goes, and if the Big end of town gets upset… which is really what it will take to stop this!
Hi Allan,
One issue that is obviously important from an ISP’s perspective is exactly how it will impact their bottom line. Apart from extra costs for customers, the Ovum 2003 report on Internet Filtering found big business will have the upper hand and may be able to quash smaller competition.
It says: Larger ISPs will absorb the costs in the short term to gain competitive advantage over smaller ISPs. This would likely result in the need for legislation to ensure fair competition.
I’ve listed the findings of the report at http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/ovumdcit-report-finds-australian-isp-level-filtering-will-cost-the-customer/
Mike’s last blog post..Ovum report finds Australian ISP level filtering will cost the customer and give big biz advantage
G’day Mike,
This makes me wonder even more why there is such a big rush for ISP filters – it appears to be an easily compronmised system with a lot of privacy concerns at great expense to the consumer.
If it was the BEST answer I might feel better about it, but from where I stand it leaves a lot to be desired!
Cheers
Allan’s last blog post..Young Einstein And Yahoo Serious Put Bubbles In Beer