Internet Cleaned Up - Film At 11

Anonymous Coward writes "According to this story on The Australian IT site, the Australian Federal Government claims that its content regulation laws have "boosted Internet use in Australia", by assuring families of the safety of the Net. A quote: "When asked if the Government believed the laws had successfully removed all such [extremely offensive] content from the internet, a spokesman for Senator Alston replied: 'can you prove (that content) is still out there?'"

Hate to do this, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Email him this one:
www.goatse.cx

While we're at it...

[Anonymous Coward]

I find site advocating censorship extremely offensive... can I complain to the ABA and have these sites removed as well?

Re:Hate to do this, but...

[Glytch]

Never in my entire life did I ever expect to see that website posted to Slashdot in a relevant comment.

Re:Government intelligence

[thogard]

Even based on the absurb notation that international web sites involve international phone rates, he should look at my phone bill. I've got several calls to the US that are cheaper than calling the other side of the city.

I'm not sure what I take on Alston is. He seems to almost seem to have a clue about some things and then completely miss the boat. Maybe he's got a few clued in advisors. Maybe he should get some more.

My complaint...

[Vuarnet]

Dear sirs, all of these [yahoo.com] sites promote drinking. I'll ask you to remove them from the Internet. If the US wont do anything about it, then perhaps you will.

Next week I'll send you the list of all the Web sites with the word "sex" on them. I'll be expecting you to remove these as well.

Sincerely,
John Doe.

Re:can you prove it?

[dvd_maximus]

Senator Alston is <[e-mail]>. He was referring to "extremely offensive material, such as paedophilia".

Re:While we're at it...

[thogard]

I wish I could find some details but I heard that someone in Germany is trying to get its censorship people to slap an "adult only" rating on the bible. I'm not sure how thats going. The same thing could happen in Oz but its going to take someone with about AU$4000 (= ~US$.02) to get it done.

I did find something else. According to one report, Mein Kampf is very hard to get in Germany.
A reference is here: search for 95-221 [eff.org]. While I don't agree with the contents (I've only read a small bit), its one of thouse books that parts should be required reading. It shows that if your a good speaker/writer and can talk about your country with pride and blame others for the problems, you can go far in politics.

What you must keep in mind

[SweenyTod]

is that like the rest of the world, our politicans are near to complete morons, or being advised by people who are.

We're talking about a country that makes it legal for government security organisations to hack (crack - whatever) into our computers and cover it up, a government that wants to set up a nation wide filtering system to stop us from seeing Bad Things.

It's doomed, they know it, we know it, but in typical political style, they refuse to admit it.

can you prove it?

[radja]

>Senator Alston replied: 'can you prove (that content) is still out there?'"

Do you have an email-address, mr Alston?

//rdj

Government intelligence

[Yabada]

The guy who introduced these 'highly successful' (hehehe)anti-porn laws, Richard Alston (our esteemed Minister for Communications, information technology and the Arts) showed his true understanding of internet on the ABC's [abc.net.au] 7:30 report (in response to criticism of the Commonwealth Government's plans to ban internet gambling - which undoubtably will increase internet uptake even more!) by saying that people would not go offshore to gamble on the internet because they would not want to pay international call rates to access offshore sites. Anyone who believes this would probably also believe that internet is porn free thanks to Australia's oh-so-effective anti-porn laws!

Followup story:

[HugoRune]

I can just imagine the follow-up story:

Teens approve of 'Censorship' Laws

A new survey shows that Australia's new censorship laws are an overwhelming hit amongst young male internet users. Surprisingly few of the young people surveyed stated that they felt the laws had restricted their Internet use, and many felt it had actually been enchanced.

One teen (who wished to remain anonymous) said "I think these laws are great. Until recently, my parents wouldn't have dreamed of allowing me to have unrestricted access to the Internet. But now that Senator Alston has convinced them that there is no offensive material any more, I now have my own PC in my room and I can look at all the pornography I want."

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

[Tackhead]

> The Australian Federal Government claims that its content regulation laws have "boosted Internet use in Australia",

Hogwash. An Aussie friend of mine claims it's the continued stench emitting from the pile of foetid dingoes' kidneys that's responsible for the increase in internet use in Australia.

And I claim it's the fact that I ate kippers last Tuesday that's led to the increase in internet use in Australia.

Just because it happened after a stupid law passed, doesn't mean it happened because the stupid law passed. It's a sad commentary on the state of public education in any Western "democracy" that its politicians can pass off the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy as truth and get away with it.