AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER SEEKS MAJOR WEB CENSORSHIP

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AL JAZEERA - A plan by the new Australian government to censor
pornography and violence on the web has been criticized by industry and
civil liberties groups. 
The plan to force service providers to implement filters will reduce
access speeds and erode political freedoms, taking Australia "in the
same direction as China and Singapore", critics have said.

Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister who was swept to power in
November, had pledged during his election campaign to introduce the
filters to protect children and provide an internet free of
"inappropriate" material to homes and schools.

The government has said the so-called clean feed - expected to go on
trial this year - will be achieved by getting the communications and
media authority to prepare a blacklist of unsuitable sites. But Peter
Coroneos, a spokesman for the Internet Industry Association, said that
trying to put millions of pornographic websites on the blacklist would
result in "a potential for slow downs in access". . .

The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties went further, calling
the plan a "gimmick" that would lull parents into a false sense of
security and discourage them from monitoring their children's internet
activities.

"What is dangerous about these filters is that parents will think their
children can't access pornography on the internet when in fact . . . 
anybody who's computer-savvy can work their way around these filters in
about two minutes maximum," David Bernie, the council's vice-president,
said.

The government's move also had "serious implications for freedom of
expression", he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"When you start filtering material on political grounds - even if the
material is objectionable or quite awful - we're heading in the same
direction as China and Singapore."

Under the government plan, residents who want unfettered access to the
web will have to contact their service provider to opt out of the
censoring service. 

"Will there be some database of people who want to access adult
pornography, which is legal in most democratic countries?" Bernie asked.
. .

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5DBD37ED-CC8C-4B86-A58A-84391B76FB14.htm


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