Australia pushes further Web censorship

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RE: Australia pushes further Web censorship

Thailand blocking YouTube videos with reference to their internal political troubles is one thing. It has never been a real, full-fledged democracy, in spite of some cosmetic appearances in that respect. But Australia is supposed to be a fully democratic country, so this opens a very serious precedent.

I have no children, but if I had them, I certainly wouldn't want them exposed to pornography (most particularly pedophilia) - at least not before a certain age. (Teens *do* watch pornography anyway, and that is a simple fact of life. I think that as their sexuality blossoms, they are ready to watch it - in various degrees - and also need to be gradually exposed to real life, instead of the fiction that they will get it all at once at 18, 21 or whatever. You are free to disagree and flame me for that, but before throwing the first stone, be sure that you didn't do it yourselves before you were of legal age - which in some jurisdictions never arrives...).

Even if you disagree of my opinion and different cultural perspective, parents already have private means to solve the pornography problem - NetNanny and the like.

However, while pornography was mentioned in the bill, judging from Jo Best's report, they appear to be more worried about political issues and that umbrella expression "homeland security" - of which you American readers are too well aware of its potential for abuse. Well, I totally disapprove of racist, sexist, Neonazi, anti-gay and all kinds of hate propaganda, but this can be addressed by common law, covering both on-line and off-line activites and criminalizing hate crimes and related offenses.

But let's suppose some big corruption scandal happens one day in Canberra, someone denounces it on the Internet and they invoke this law to shut down the "offending" on-line material. This could be easily done, especially if the server was in Australian territory.

This law is definitely, unequivocally authoritarian and unworthy of a democratic country like Australia. It could very well pave the way to, say, Macquarie or the Cocos Islands as an Aussie version of Guantanamo Bay. I really hope this law gets challenged, the Australian Supreme Court annuls it, and thus they are prevented from having a "Great Internet Coral Barrier" to make company to the well-known (but increasingly crumbling) "Great Firewall of China."

Posted by: goyta   Posted on: 09/21/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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