5 Concerns About Australia's New Net Filter

daria42 writes "As you might have heard, this month Australia gets a new Internet filter, using Interpol's blacklist of 'worst of the worst' child pornography sites. In general, it seems like most people don't object to the idea in principle, but concerns are being raised around the transparency of the scheme, which so far has no civilian oversight, unclear backing legislation and an appeals process which does not exactly inspire confidence. Why is it those who want to implement this kind of filtering never quite address these sort of concerns up-front?"

Re:The quick answer:

[Anonymous Coward]

You're assuming the lack of oversight and transparency is a bug, not a feature.

Re:A better question

[NFN_NLN]

A music-industry speaker at an American Chamber of Commerce event in Stockholm waxed enthusiastic about child porn, because it serves as the perfect excuse for network censorship, and once you've got a child-porn filter, you can censor anything:

 

The speaker has a point but it is misdirected. This censorship is really a thinly veiled attempt at shielding domestically produced child pornography from competition. Because child pornography in general is illegal, it is impossible to impose trade tariffs without raising the alarm bells. It is also well known that cheap overseas labour can out-produce more expensive Australian labour in most non-technical industries.

Australian based child pornographers were finding their margins dwindling so they used "special interest" groups to penetrate government and introduce laws to protect their business. It is obvious that anyone in support of the "Australian Net Filter" is simply disguising their interest in strengthening domestic child pornography. :)

My top 5 concerns about the new net filter:

[cyrus0101]

My top 5 concerns about the new net filter:
1) _______________everything______________.
2) _____________________________________________________
3) _______________________________is ______going________
4) _____________to ___________ be ____________________________
5) _______________ fine ____________________ .