Child groups slam Conroy's ISP filtering plans

Children's rights groups have spoken out against the Federal Government's plans to introduce mandatory ISP-level filtering, saying it will not effectively protect children.

International child rights group, Save the Children, said while it congratulates the government on its attempt to improve the safety of children online, an ISP-level filter is not the best way to offer protection.

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The article advocates education of child (I know, shocking) as the best way of protecting them from adult material.

Libertus study again:

This research paper contains information about various alarming and sensational, but out-of-date, false and/or misleading 'statistics' concerning the prevalence of 'child pornography' material on Internet Web sites, etc., which appeared in Australian media reports/articles, government agency reports, etc., in 2008 and 2009.

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I've put this up before but I don't think it took. If it had this whole thing would be over by now.

Small breasts and squirting links

Crikey article and comments on small breasts and squirting.

DrKarl tweeted that female ejaculation is quite real and had been written up in New Scientist. That Dr Karl, what a guy.

SMH ran an opinion piece on the topic which caused a comment storm.

So, what's this got to do with net filtering. The body which is being handed the control of the net filter is so worried about small boobs and squirting that they just don't seem to be able to think straight. They are influenced by the missionary position crew and they aren't afraid to let everyone know this. Who would want such a prudish body in charge of what porn is available on the net?

Australia bans small breasts

The Australian Sex Party (ASP) said Wednesday that the Australian Classification Board (ACB) is now banning depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. It comes just a week after it was found that material with depictions of females ejaculating during orgasm are now Refused Classification and Australian Customs directed to confiscate it.

Somebody Think Of The Children blog

Mobile broadband coverage maps - a work of fiction?

Going nowhere fast:

The ISP are lying to us about where mobile broadband will work.

Depictions of Female Orgasm Being Banned by Classification Board

Customs is to seize any video containing female ejaculation, a normal sexual function on the grounds that it is abhorrent.

Customs also has small breasted women on its target list. It's idea is that small breasted women resemble underage women.

Who comes up with this shit? How do people who are this ignorant get into positions of power and responsibility?

Link: Sex Party press release.

The problem is that this level of ignorance, instead of being stamped out, is being given control of web sites available to Australians. Who told them about the web?

Senator Conroy's Great Digital Dog Fence

Lots of links:

Yesterdays announcement that the government will require all Internet Service Providers to implement a mandatory block on pages that do not meet the requirements of a National Classification System has been met with great support from the Australian people. Citizens everywhere gathered both in the streets and online to celebrate the courage of the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in his efforts to protect our children and keep Australia safe from the scourge of the earth.

Link: a nice sarcastic article.

Enex TestLab did not test ISP-level filtering products on internet connection speeds greater than 8 Mbps, raising questions of possible degradation at ADSL2+ and fibre speeds.

Further, none of the nine ISPs who piloted filtering technologies could provide an environment to test Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), an addressing scheme the internet industry expects will be necessary in the coming years as IPv4 addresses run out.

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Australia defends controversial web filter

Australia on Wednesday dismissed as "baseless" claims it was proposing a China-style plan for mandatory filtering of the internet and denied the system could be abused to silence free speech.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy hit back at criticism of his "Clean Feed" plan to outlaw access to sites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse.

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The Federal Government will introduce compulsory internet filtering to block overseas sites which contain criminal content, including child sex abuse and sexual violence.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced the changes today following a controversial trial to filter the internet which was conducted earlier this year.

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Greens go black for internet filter protest

THE Greens will join more than 500 other websites in fading their webpage to black in protest against the federal government's proposed internet filter.

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Many of us aren't aware what is going on in other countries in regard to online e-commerce. However, we think you should become more involved so that you will benefit it. For example, if you see a decent buy on Ebay but it is based in Australia, and is MA15+, you cannot purchase this item as a result of what the Australian government are planning to do. From personal experience, I have found Australia sell the most up-to-date games online and so this will be a huge blow economically.

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Voluntary euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke says the Federal Government's plan to filter the Internet will restrict information about euthanasia.

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Conroy must explain why Christian lobby gets net filtering trial update: Greens

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Inconclusive news from the internet filtering trials might turn out to be bad news for the anti-censorship lobby in Australia. The Australian Government's refusal to explain what exactly would count as a bad result for internet filtering adds to the sense that it will be ploughing on with this regardless.

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We protect the world-but will you protect us?

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Hackers target govt over filterThe group, which dubs itself Anonymous, has achieved online notoriety for previous attacks against the Church of Scientology.

The group appears to have detailed public plans online to start attacking the websites, email addresses and fax numbers of the Federal Government, particularly Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and the Australian Communications and Media Authority after the expiry of an ultimatum published one month earlier.

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Okay, class - it's maths, then porn

As teenagers' ideas of sex become skewed by the internet, a soft-porn director says the answer is to put vice on the curriculum.

If you bumped into Justin Ribeiro dos Santos at a drinks party you would probably assume that, like most of his friends, he worked for an investment bank or at the top end of the wine trade. You might be more interested in his name (English mother, Brazilian father), than his profession.

Timesonline Article:

Education is it! There will always be a sexual issue that society finds challenging. Straight away there will be wowsers calling for the banning of everything related. Rarely do they call for education... or if they do call for education it ends up being a propaganda campaign with a $60 million price tag (I'm looking at you, Howard).

China cries 'imperialism' over Google

The Chinese Government has issued a stinging response to criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the internet, accusing the US of damaging relations between the two countries by foisting its ''information imperialism'' on China.

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China has moved from banning porn to trying to stop cultural influence of USA. Is this Conroy's next step? Banning anything declared Un-'Stralioun. Who are the flags-as-capes idiots who will decide what's Un-'Stralioun

Defining The "Harm" Of Porn - MsNaughty.com

This Australian Institute of Criminology report is a bit long winded.

MsNaughty has put a heap of work in on the analysis of this. Why not swing by and read what she's got to say about it. It's too frustrating for me to read with all of it's circular arguments and special pleading for the disease model of sex addiction, masturbation and homosexuality.

MsNaughty's Post:

Internet to fade to black in filter protest

The Greens say their website will fade to black on Australia Day as part of a nationwide protest against the Federal Government's proposed internet filter.

The Federal Government wants to pass laws to force internet service providers to block banned material hosted on overseas servers, but its decision to press ahead with compulsory internet filtering has come under fire from lobby groups and the Greens.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says he intends to introduce legislation in the first half of 2010.

ABC Article:

A game:

Links:

Stephen Conroy: Dear Crikey, here's why you're wrong.

Anti-Censorship Group Wants To Send Conroy Coal For Xmas

The swift takedown of stephenconroy.com.au

STEPHEN CONROY: MINISTER FOR FASCISM
No no no, it's FILTERING, not CENSORSHIP. . . and anyone who doesn't agree with me touches children!

Electronic Frontiers Australia

Reporters Without Borders: Don't do it, Rudd!

Open letter to Australia's Prime Minister by Reporters without borders.

Australian Government To Delay Internet Censorship Until After Next Election

Labor Senator Kate Lundy speaks out against mandatory internet censorship

Black out your blog!

Black out your blog to protest against the Australian Government's Proposed Net Filter.

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Libertus

AU Gov't Mandatory ISP Filtering / Censorship Plan

Once the witch hunt starts, who'll stop it?

Alleged child pornography and objectionable films seized from sex site boss Garion Hall

SEX website boss Garion Hall has been charged with child pornography offences after Victoria Police raided his business and seized footage of allegedly illegal sex acts.

Mr Hall has also been charged with 54 counts of making objectionable films for gain and possessing a commercial quantity of objectionable films.

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Former nude model claims bonuses were paid for more explicit poses

STAFF employed by the Melbourne-based porn company G Media were allegedly instructed to try to persuade nude models to perform illegal sex acts on camera.

G Media documents seen by the Herald Sun reveal staff were taught how to ``upsell'' models to do more explicit poses than they initially agreed to.

The Herald Sun yesterday revealed G Media boss Garion Hall had been charged with 54 counts of making objectionable films for gain, two charges of possessing child pornography and one count of possessing a commercial quantity of objectionable films.

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I'll be following this one closely. What is it with all this prudish stuff? 19 isn't a teenager! 19 is an adult. You can go to war but you can't get your kit off for a crust.

Clinton's Remarks on Internet Freedom

In the last year, we've seen a spike in threats to the free flow of information. China, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan have stepped up their censorship of the internet. In Vietnam, access to popular social networking sites has suddenly disappeared. And last Friday in Egypt, 30 bloggers and activists were detained. One member of this group, Bassem Samir, who is thankfully no longer in prison, is with us today. So while it is clear that the spread of these technologies is transforming our world, it is still unclear how that transformation will affect the human rights and the human welfare of the world's population.

(Clinton) Link:

Conroy, with his censorship glass half full, latched on to:

Now, all societies recognize that free expression has its limits.

Unfortunately, or conveniently, he overlooked a previous paragraph to do it:

Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world's networks. They've expunged words, names, and phrases from search engine results. They have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in non-violent political speech. These actions contravene the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which tells us that all people have the right "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." With the spread of these restrictive practices, a new information curtain is descending across much of the world.

Senator Conroy. You are not on America's side here. They are trying to gently tell you that you are on the wrong side in this debate.

Links for further reading"
US warns against internet censorship
EFA commentary: Government: "Global Internet freedom" means censorship

The top 10 filtering questions yet to be answered

The Rudd Government's mandatory ISP filtering bill will soon be introduced into Parliament, and we can only hope that the debate there will focus more on the real merits of the scheme - which are few and far between - than empty rhetoric about protecting children. When the debate happens, here are some questions the Government needs to answer under the glare of public scrutiny.

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Broadband billions left hanging as wireless bites back

AUSTRALIANS are flocking to 3G mobiles and wireless broadband devices, bringing into question some of the assumptions behind the Rudd Government's $43 billion national broadband network.

The number of mobile phone services rose 9.5 per cent in 2008-09 to 24.2 million, and wireless broadband had leapt 162 per cent to 2.1 million by the end of June. This contrasts with the number of fixed-line telephone services, which fell 3 per cent to 10.7 million.

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Well. It looks like Senator Conroy is even further out of touch with what people want than even I imagined.

Chinese censors take aim at texts

CHINA has started scanning text messages in the latest move to step up censorship.

Customers of China's two largest mobile phone networks, China Mobile and China Unicom, have had their texting service blocked after sending risque messages, state media says

.

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Senator Conroy's plan gives the likes of China more room to move on its censorship plans.

Australia responds to threats of internet war

HACKERS are launching 200 attacks a month on the Defence Department's computer networks, the Defence Minister, John Faulkner, revealed as he unveiled a new centre to co-ordinate the nation's response to online threats.

Why are we panicking about porn? Hackers are attacking the Defence Force computers and Senator Conroy is fucking around filtering material made for consenting adults by consenting adults. WTF!?

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Add to this the idea that a filtered net makes it harder for policing and you have twice the problem with hackers!

Peer to Peer is evil

Uni network running porn and pirate movies

The Age article:

See government. It all happens via peer to peer... are you listening? If Senator Conroy tries to attack peer to peer networks they'll just dig in a little deeper. Oh! I know. Here's a policy for you to mull over Senator. Why not ban computers at universities. That's a mental policy that wont work! Yay!

The Internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it.
John Perry Barlow

Before the hysterical hand flapping starts, this is pornography, not child abuse material.

NBN neglects those left in broadband wilderness.

THE coverage in regional areas of the Rudd Government's proposed National Broadband Network was yesterday given a severe caning - by one of the members of the Government's own expert panel which gave advice on the project.

Professor Reg Coutts criticised Labor for breaking an election promise to provide fast broadband to 98 per cent of households.

Wasting money on net filters instead of fulfilling the election promise of a Broadband Revolution.

The Age Link:

Another censorship wedge...

All R-Rated Films To Be Treated Like Porn In South Australia

Maybe all lazy parents should move to South Australia, because everyone's favourite state government seems to want to do all your parenting for you. The South Australian government is now enforcing a law that requires all R-rated films for sale or hire to be segregated from all other movies of a lower rating. Not only that, but advertising R-rated films will also be illegal.

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A little bit of censorship starts a rash of censorship. It becomes a competition between various governments to censor because this is held up to be a constructive thing to do to make children safe. Who doesn't want to make children safe. I never speed through school zones. I don't trip children in the supermarket. I don't smash beer bottles in sand pits. All of these things can be shown to do harm to children. People arguing for censorship need t show how children are being harmed by adult material. There was adult material when I was a child. It hasn't harmed me. What has harmed people has been weird reactions to sex that are illustrated by the calls for censorship. If a child sees an adult movie, and you can't tell me that the Bruno or The Hangover covers can possibly harm children unless some moralising fool teaches them an adverse reaction. The hysterical flapping of hands and tutting causes the child to be upset. They just don't see things. I didn't notice porn in my house for years until I really got going with puberty, suddenly they were interesting to me and I snuck a peek, then another, and so on...

So, parents out there, understand that this material probably wont harm children if they aren't exposed to it too heavily (not arguing that all children should watch adult movies) so that your reaction is appropriate.

Google's fight: US-China lock horns.

GOOGLE'S fight with Chinese censors risks escalating into a fullblown US-China showdown over cyber warfare, as claims emerge about the unprecedented scale of Chinese attacks on US commercial and defence systems.

Conroy's mentors are up to no good again.

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The right not to be offended?

Do people really have the right not to be offended?

Aboriginal man Steve Hodder-Watt recently discovered the US-based site by searching "Aboriginal and Encyclopedia" in the search engine.

The entry was tasteless and derogatory but what right does Mr Hodder-Watt have to silence everyone who offends him? Many things and people offend me but I don't run around asking the government to silence them.

So, the blacklist will be extended to accommodate Mr Hodder-Watt's sensibilities. Who's next? I see a lot of people offended by atheist claims that god doesn't exist. I see people offended by critiques on the bible pointing out all the violence and ignorance. I see people offended by cartoons of Mohammed in Europe, offended enough to kill. I see people offended by a quietly spoken, retired English biology lecturer's insistence that life evolved. I see people offended by the idea that whales are nice and shouldn't be killed.

If we ban everything that offends someone we will end up banning everything. How far will this right not to be offended be taken. Once it starts, how will we stop it?

Now Google is being pressured into removing things that offend people from search results. I don't want Google to be my moral guardian. They're a search engine. If they are censoring results, they aren't refining search algorithms... or what ever the hell Google does.

We would be better to move more towards the USA freedom of expression laws than to pander to the terminally offended and lose what little freedom we have.

SMH Article:

Fake Simpsons cartoon 'is porn'

Not a new story. I was looking for it and thought I'd better put it up.

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Iran's censorship list

They said the list, drawn up by a "committee of experts", bans any site that contains pornography, prostitution, sexual deviation or anything considered to be "contrary to the morals of society" in the Islamic republic.

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Conroy is taking his lead from the Iranian government. This is where we are headed. The same absolutist morality, one from Catholicism and one from Islam being forced onto people who do not subscribe to this moral code.

No internet sex please, we're Indian. Web firms observe new law

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It may have given the world the Kama Sutra and the Bollywood wet sari scene, but it appears that India is not yet ready to be exposed to the delicate subject of sex on the internet.

A Guardian investigation has discovered that several internet companies have quietly introduced filters to prevent Indian users from accessing sexual content.