INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN AUSTRALIA
When you think of Internet Censorship you immediately think of China, or Iran, or North Korea. Australia doesn’t censor the Internet at all. No. We have a democratic society which values free speech. Which is why Australia has some of the most strict censorship laws in the western World. One of the new policies implemented by the labour party is to force all Australian ISPs to block access to all websites on a government blacklist. This blacklist will include child pornography, X rated material, scenes of actual violence and other ‘inappropriate material’. In short, any website which receives a ‘Refused Classification’, an R-18 or an X-18 rating will be blocked by the filters. Such websites may show scenes of underage nudity be it sexualised or non-sexualised, websites which incite, promote or instruct in criminal activity, and websites depicting extreme violence.
The problem with internet censorship is that any website appearing on the blacklist has to, under law, be blocked by all ISPs in Australia. Any ISP which refuses to block a website faces serious charges and fines. So the government might just slip in a website or two which holds differing beliefs of those in power, such as a pro-liberal, anti-labour stance and then all ISPs Australia wide have to block them or risk being charged. But that example is a bit far-fetched, I mean we have to have faith in our Government that they won’t lie to us or censor serious issues. I mean, when has to the Government ever lied to us?
If we take China as an example we have a mountain of evidence that shows China is censoring websites that probably shouldn’t be getting blocked. On my blog http://blog-my-ride.blogspot.com/ I have a search engine that Amnesty International have created. If you use Google China to do a search for, say, Tienanmen Square and you’ll be greeted with beautiful scenes of happy smiling tourists enjoying a fun family trip to the biggest square in the world. Do the same search on Google Australia and you get images of Tank Man and people being shot and protesters bleeding profusely. My worry is that bit by bit we will be subjected to the same kind of online biased politicking as they are in China and then next time you go online to get some information on the Sandon Point protests you’ll be blocked and redirected to a page with happy smiling people and digitally enhanced scenery.
And lets look closer to home, at TAFE for example. Whilst researching this article I did a Google search and came up with a result:
Australia Joins China In Censoring The Internet
It sounded promising so I clicked on it only to be greeted with a great big:
When you think of Internet Censorship you immediately think of China, or Iran, or North Korea. Australia doesn’t censor the Internet at all. No. We have a democratic society which values free speech. Which is why Australia has some of the most strict censorship laws in the western World. One of the new policies implemented by the labour party is to force all Australian ISPs to block access to all websites on a government blacklist. This blacklist will include child pornography, X rated material, scenes of actual violence and other ‘inappropriate material’. In short, any website which receives a ‘Refused Classification’, an R-18 or an X-18 rating will be blocked by the filters. Such websites may show scenes of underage nudity be it sexualised or non-sexualised, websites which incite, promote or instruct in criminal activity, and websites depicting extreme violence.
The problem with internet censorship is that any website appearing on the blacklist has to, under law, be blocked by all ISPs in Australia. Any ISP which refuses to block a website faces serious charges and fines. So the government might just slip in a website or two which holds differing beliefs of those in power, such as a pro-liberal, anti-labour stance and then all ISPs Australia wide have to block them or risk being charged. But that example is a bit far-fetched, I mean we have to have faith in our Government that they won’t lie to us or censor serious issues. I mean, when has to the Government ever lied to us?
If we take China as an example we have a mountain of evidence that shows China is censoring websites that probably shouldn’t be getting blocked. On my blog http://blog-my-ride.blogspot.com/ I have a search engine that Amnesty International have created. If you use Google China to do a search for, say, Tienanmen Square and you’ll be greeted with beautiful scenes of happy smiling tourists enjoying a fun family trip to the biggest square in the world. Do the same search on Google Australia and you get images of Tank Man and people being shot and protesters bleeding profusely. My worry is that bit by bit we will be subjected to the same kind of online biased politicking as they are in China and then next time you go online to get some information on the Sandon Point protests you’ll be blocked and redirected to a page with happy smiling people and digitally enhanced scenery.
And lets look closer to home, at TAFE for example. Whilst researching this article I did a Google search and came up with a result:
Australia Joins China In Censoring The Internet
It sounded promising so I clicked on it only to be greeted with a great big:
Now because the image is a bit fuzzy and I can't be bothered touching it up I shall read it to you. it says:
The site http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/30/australia-joins-china-in-censoring-the-internet/ is blocked. It has been classified in the category/ies Technical/Business Forums .
OH NO!!! NOT A FORUM!!! THEY PROMOTE FREE SPEECH AND THOUGHT!!!
We need to censor websites.
Child porn is evil and pornography is morally dodgy. However when you block a website because it contains a forum things are going a bit far. Lets keep things nice and easy. We don't need to be like China with their 30 000 internet police. We need to be like Australia, with two guys in a room playing Pong, glancing occasionally over at the internet to see if anything is amiss.
So please people, block dodgy websites but always be on the lookout for the moment when free speech is destroyed because I don't want to live in China.
-Ben Hurry
GO HERE ----> http://www.wikipedia.com/ (alot of information on internet censorship. Alot of sources cited as well)
ALSO GO HERE ----> http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Censor/cens1.html
AND HERE ----> http://uncensor.com.au/uncensor/the-facts/10926/
No comments:
Post a Comment