Australian Broadband Filter All But Doomed

[TheWriter]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/liberals-would-scrap-labors-net-filter/story-fn59niix-1225901856447

THE Coalition will not support the government's internet filter, opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said yesterday.

Mr Hockey said that if elected, the Coalition would scrap Labor's plans, and they would vote against the "flawed" filter policy if they were in opposition.

"We believe the internet filter would not work," Mr Hockey told ABC Radio's Triple J.

"We believe it's flawed policy. It's not going to capture a whole lot of images and chatter that we all find offence (sic) that is going through email," he said.

With that, there are only two political parties left supporting the filter; the party in power, and the token Christian lobbyists.  Up against the Liberals, Nationals, Greens and key independents, that's almost certainly not enough to hold majority in Parliament.  Looks like we Aussies won't have to quit Elliquiy after all.  This has made my week.

[HairyHeretic]

Good to hear.

[Callie Del Noire]

Yeah I thought that the folks down under wouldn't go for this in a big way and it's good to see that they haven't.

[Jude]

I find it disappointing that they're making a practicality argument while at the same time validating the underlying fault to this entire plan:  it's censorship of the internet based on offense which they "all find offensive."  Obviously everyone does not find it offensive, and even if they did, that doesn't justify clamping down on freedom of speech.

Still, I respect their right to enact whatever laws they want so long as they only affect Australia.

[Oniya]

Teach people how to enable their own filters.  Or would that be expecting too much personal responsibility?

[Wolfy]

Teach people how to enable their own filters.  Or would that be expecting too much personal responsibility?

I don't know about that personal responsibility stuff...I mean, you'd expect a parent to NOT buy a child an M rated game, get offended, and blame the company for their stupid decision, but Ya know they do..o3o

[Endorphin]

As an Australian who believes in free speech, I am pleased that this policy has received another large setback.

[TheWriter]

Teach people how to enable their own filters.  Or would that be expecting too much personal responsibility?

I like to think it's because that would make too much sense.

Fact is there isn't enough accountability on the part of the parent.  You hear horror stories from the States of kids as young as eight or ten shooting siblings or parents because they had their video games taken away.  Everyone points to the video games themselves as a trigger for violence, and no one asks how the child came into possession of a gun in the first place.  The whole thing stinks of irresponsibility, and no one wants to say anything about it, opting instead for the easier scapegoat.

A parent should be taking an active role in their children's technological development, be that with the internet, through video games or whatever.  But the fact is, with this generation at least, it's far too easy for the parents to feign ignorance to avoid responsibility; claiming "I didn't know my child could access that sort of thing!" when it's in truth their responsibility to know.  This broadband filter was being pushed as a stop-gap, something for the more irresponsible parents of last generation to fall back on.

My ultimate problem with it is that by next generation it'll be useless.  The children that grew up with the internet will become parents themselves, and having that better understand of just what their kids could get up to on the net, will take an active interest in their browsing habits, making the widespread censoring of the internet a costly and wholly unnecessary step.

[Oniya]

Fact is there isn't enough accountability on the part of the parent.  You hear horror stories from the States of kids as young as eight or ten shooting siblings or parents because they had their video games taken away.  Everyone points to the video games themselves as a trigger for violence, and no one asks how the child came into possession of a gun in the first place.  The whole thing stinks of irresponsibility, and no one wants to say anything about it, opting instead for the easier scapegoat.

That's precisely the sort of thing I was driving at.  :-) 

[Aleph]

Interesting to see that Joe Hockey left out the other reason they wouldn't support it, when his party where in power several years ago they tried to do the same thing with about the same results as the current party (which is one reason why I'm so disappointed the current government is thinking about it, though the last I heard they were letting it die a quiet death too)

[Endorphin]

Interesting to see that Joe Hockey left out the other reason they wouldn't support it, when his party where in power several years ago they tried to do the same thing with about the same results as the current party (which is one reason why I'm so disappointed the current government is thinking about it, though the last I heard they were letting it die a quiet death too)

Good. Don't want to end up like China!

And yes, there definitely isn't enough accountability on the part of the parent(s). With anything. Parents are responsible for the behaviour of their children - not the schools, or the governments or anyone else!