[ojk007]

The internet is not a childs place.

The internet is realistcally, when viewed as a whole, a cross-section of society. It holds up in that cloud the knowledge, wisdom and histories of the planet. By histories I mean everything from infinately detailed accounts of wars, to what John Doe made for dinner. Everything on the internet has some importance to someone, and everyone finds something interesting. Who has the right to decide what is interesting and proper?

As a detailed cross-section of mankind, the internet is full of as many flaws and atrocities (and illegalities) as civilisation. I don't agree with, and don't like a large portion of the internet. Many places are home to the most foul bottom feeders of society.

And yes I think all this activity should be discouraged (hint, hint), but if history has ever taught us anything it is that you cannot take freedom away. Someone will always fight it. Censorship does not work. PERIOD.

The solution to this problem however can also be found in history. The solution is called education (politicians: its pronouced "ej-oo-key-shuh", and means "the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills"). By educating children, in our schools and at home, about what the internet is and how we can use it effectively. Then we can cater for everyone.

You wouldn't let a 5 year old roam the city at night.
Yet you want them to roam the internet with a drunken, dopey, and downright blind bodyguard?

You wouldn't let a 5 year old visit a warzone during a conflict.
Yet you want them to roam the internet with a shy, shaken up, and stupendously blind bodyguard?

You wouldn't let a baby go somewhere new by itself.
Yet you want them to roam the internet with a psuedo-neurotic, near-sighted, and nieve nanny?



The internet is not a place for children. It is an adults and an adolencents domain. Children are allowed, but please bring a parent.

[jack112006]

Excellent article. If I want to filter my internet I will do it my self. We are not in China!!! We aren't at the reigns of a dictator and his pals, right? I hope not. "Dad, why did they make the Great Firewall of Australia?". "Umm... Because Therase wasn't happy with Kevin's late night viewing...".

[RobD]

The arguments for censoring the Internet today are no different from the arguments for censoring books and films from the 1930s to the early 70s, when Don Chipp, as Minister for Customs, pretty much put a stop to it. Then, as now, the argument was that children had to be protected; but nobody ever produced any evidence that children were being harmed, or were even in danger; and there was never a trace of evidence that the censorship did, in some mysterious way, actually improve their lives.

The joke in Melbourne in the 1960s was the prolonged adolescence of "Mr Rylah's teenage daughter"; he was the Victorian Chief Secretary, always justifying a ban on this or that book or film because he would not want his teenage daughter to read it. Poor girl, she must have had a very dull life, probably eventually allowed to have her 21st in a nursing home.

The three essential truths are that pixels are no more capable of harming children than words on a page or pictures on a screen; that politicians and bureaucrats don't give a stuff about harm to children, but are in love with the idea of controlling other adults; and that most harm to children is inflicted by their own parents or other close relatives.

Net censorship is just the same old wowserism that censorship has always been.

[Ecto1]

This is stupid. The internet servers providers (i.s.p) should of looked at ways of combating children safety on the internet years ago. I.s.p should offer family with children filtering, but on there end and not the family end. That way the kid's can safely surf children friendly sites and chat rooms ( Which should be monitored) With out the risk of taking to people who risk there safety.

All so if i.s.p offer this serves, a police check will need to be put in place to stop the evil ones from pretending to have kids.

[aspro]

Originally Posted by Ecto1

This is stupid. The internet servers providers (i.s.p) should of looked at ways of combating children safety on the internet years ago. I.s.p should offer family with children filtering, but on there end and not the family end. That way the kid's can safely surf children friendly sites and chat rooms ( Which should be monitored) With out the risk of taking to people who risk there safety.

All so if i.s.p offer this serves, a police check will need to be put in place to stop the evil ones from pretending to have kids.

I'm confused, you think we should have police checks to use the internet on top of censorship!?

[WoWTopia]

this is like forcing it upon use and its just going to encourage more hackers

[ojk007]

Originally Posted by WoWTopia

this is like forcing it upon use and its just going to encourage more hackers

more we will all endup called hackers after bypassing the system

[WoWTopia]

thats sorta wat i mean cause everyone will want to by pass it depending on the site i mean say if they blocked say youtube myspace facebook or a site u really like

[Andrew T Chadwick]

First the internet,then the fanatics get into education,banning everything that doesn't agree with their own interpretation of the book.Look what happened in America with Darwins theory of evolution versus the creation theory (as told in the Bible).It appears we are all children according to these lunies and cannot be trusted with our own oppinions.Given half a chance these bastards will be telling us what to beleive next.Lets show the Chinese how censorship should REALY BE DONE!

[MacRobbo]

I don't care if they go ahead with it, I just don't want my favourite sites blocked

[wholikespotatoes]

Would putting the nocleanfeed site on digg be a good idea if it hasnt already?

[lefty22]

It's the parents responsibility, there's plenty of information out there on how to effectively monitor and block particular traffic by applying your own filters. Let alone it'd be much more effective as this is a subjective matter from family - to - family.

[adamd]

This "censoring" thing is a load of crap.

We have a proxy server at our school, infact most schools have them now. How damn easy is it to bypass them?
Me and my friend have HTTP/PHP proxies on our web-servers, and almost 1/2 the school uses my friends'. He's just clicked to 1,005,000 hits this year. Doesn't sound like much, but 90% of hits are coming from within our school and during school hours (ie: none during lunch and recess/before/after school).
Putting a filter like this in place is basically going to force people like us to set up some form of VPN tunnel to America, so we can access any website that we want. Think about it, with this filter in place, doing that will make it quicker, if not the same speed as a normal connection.

If the government does this, I will seriously consider moving to Cupertino.

Parents should know what their kids are doing on a computer. Although my parents don't know EXACTLY what I'm doing on my computer, they have some form of idea (MacTalk, MSN, Myspace etc), but I'm 17, I shouldn't need to be sat on while I'm on a computer.

But seriously, comon government, I would prefer you spend the $15mil+ on upgrading the Australian Internet's infrastructure. MAKE IT FASTER NOT SLOWER.

[adamd]

Originally Posted by MacRobbo

I don't care if they go ahead with it, I just don't want my favourite sites blocked

You will care when you internet speeds become 1/3 slower. Trust me.

[mab]

Originally Posted by adamd

This "censoring" thing is a load of crap.

We have a proxy server at our school, infact most schools have them now. How damn easy is it to bypass them?

Sounds like the network people at your school don't know how to set up a firewall and transparent proxy correctly.

[zizdodrian]

For my first post after a long period of lurking: This is a egregious invasion of my civil liberties.

Everybody with half a brain and no political or moral agenda could tell you that, presented with the unbiased (uncensored) facts on this proposal.

What I'd like to know is - are there any plans for counterattack?

An advertising or other form of awareness campaign? Most people I've spoken to would be very affronted at this invasion of personal space, but hadn't the faintest idea that this ludicrous scheme was even on the table.

I've donated to *and* joined the EFA. I won't stand for this.

[LarryH]

I've got a gut feeling that if this is enforced, it'll get to the point of China's Internet. And that's just bizarre.

[zizdodrian]

Originally Posted by mab

Sounds like the network people at your school don't know how to set up a firewall and transparent proxy correctly.

My school had a very, very vigilant (ex US Defence Force) sysadmin who had set up a very robust network. Nice guy, too - we got along at a personal level.

As per school/government policy, he implemented a content filtration system some time around 2002. Students hated it. Teachers hated it. He probably hated it - whether he had to put up with it or not. It was a fairly poor filter, mandated variety from on-high, and we began to have a little arms-race as far as breaking the filter was concerned.

First it was PHP Proxy. Then TOR and JAP. Then a secretly installed proxy on a solitary computer sitting on an unfiltered subnet. The measures only lasted so long.

But every increase in his anti-proxy-bypass repertoire would be met by a counterattack of my own. I became very good at disguising HTTP traffic, right down to modifying packet timings. When it got down to steganography, there wasn't much he could do - and still have time on his hands to do actual administration. Thankfully (for him) by that point I had only a few weeks of school left.

[decryption]

Originally Posted by zizdodrian

I've donated to *and* joined the EFA. I won't stand for this.

I just joined the EFA too. I don't know how I can contribute exactly, but I try and raise awareness of their efforts

[mattydee]

my school has a very up to date website blocking system. i have worked out that they even subscribe to web proxy mailing lists!

all of my friends use the your-freedom.net product if we want to break free

this just tunnels through to the USA, UK or other European country and feeds us internet at a maximum of 64kbps (i know its slow, but it works and it is OK for MSN etc)

my school uses 2 iron ports (IronPort, now part of Cisco | Enterprise Spam Solutions for Email and Web), if we can get past this easily, i think a fix for the government solution would be as easy.

my only remaining concern is the lowering of speed!

matt

who wants to go and have a chat to Senator Stephen Conroy - Minister for Communications, Broadband and the Digital Economy?

he lives at:
Level 4
4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002

im sure i could collect 5 people myself!