Australia plans tough web rules

[pollaxe]

I have a little girl and i can't stand all the 'Filth' on the net!! I know it will never get banned but it would be great if it was!!

I sympathise but don't you see/hear stuff she shouldn't be exposed to just by wandering the streets these days? As a 36 year old misanthropist/reasonably experienced man of the world I know I see and hear stuff I much rather wouldn't just wandering my local town of an evening.

In an ideal world and all that...

In your shoes, I'd probably try to keep my daughter off the web or lock it down to the Cbeebies site. Steps like the one being taken in Oz disturb me and I feel sure it's going to begin happening more and more.

[TheAnimus]

except when searching for:
pirated things ('research' obviously)
rather questionable security research sites in russia
porn

I've yet to come accross anything that is *too* offensive. If you've got a 14 year old daughter and your thinking the worst thing on the net could be her accidently finding a picture of a big fat penis, then your not worrying about the important things (like her taking up pro-ana sites).

I must admit it was when i was researching something about an Outlook Express vun on a russian site i saw an advert for a site that did make me feal sick (ie children are really been abused).

Take something like "wales isn't a country." its hardly worth saying the internet should be taken down because it offends your sensability, and too my amazement there are plenty of hexites who choose to take offense to such a statement. (which is odd, its not as if i was saying england was a country.... devloution eh?!).

[Lucio]

The internet is pretty much on the medium out there that doesn't come under any form of censorship, everything else books, newspapers, TV, movies etc, have some form of government control and regulation and there's no compelling reason that it is exempt other than the fact it's very hard for governments to censor the data.

At the end of the day measures like this have been a long time coming and it's only now the internet is popular main stream entertainment for so many of us that it's worth a government's time to address issues that were already tackled with other forms of media a long time ago. You rarely see people campaigning against the lack of porn on the highstreet do you and yet in the UK, you can still only buy hardcore videos in a licensed sex shop.

As long as there's a clear opt-out policy, so that people can choose to access whatever sites they want, then the measures are nothing different to the laws governing other forms of popular entertainment

[chuckskull]

No-pone wants their kids seeing 2girls1cup, but it isn't for the government to restrict and control.

I just hope opting out and letting the filth of the Internet wash over you, won't be used against people.

[chicken]

Government imposed internet censorship... Book burning for the 21st century.

TheAnimus has a point. If you don't visit dodgy sites looking for warez or porn directly then you'll rarely find anything like that. The problem therefore is less people subjecting your kids to this and more them finding it themselves, which I would say is definitely a parental responsibility, not governmental.

[TheAnimus]

I think its illegal to show certain things to minors. So if you have a site, which has inapropriate adverts say, then surely sue those people. Why waste money on sensorship that will fail.

[iranu]

Government imposed internet censorship... Book burning for the 21st century.

Couldn't agree more. That's the great thing about the web and ultimately it will be the tool that will change the world, that's why governments want to control it.

Who the hell is anyone to tell me, an adult, what I can and can't have access to provided it's within the law?

"Oooh I don't like that, ban it!!", is not a very good reaction simply because it has no end conclusion. On that "logical argument" everything should be banned because it might cause offence.

I can fully understand why parents do not want their children to view certain things whether it be pornography on the web or violent films on TV, however, it's their responsibility to parent their children and ensure that what they view is suitable. If that means sitting down with the child whilst they use the internet for school work or chatting with friends then so be it.

It's not the taxpayers job (ie government) to parent or police children when that child is in the privacy of the parental home. I think that governments will use this as a poor excuse to clamp down in much the same way that anti-terrorist laws have been used outside of their original intent.

[Saracen]

I think its illegal to show certain things to minors. So if you have a site, which has inapropriate adverts say, then surely sue those people. Why waste money on sensorship that will fail.

And if the server in question is located in Azerbaijan? And the company running the site is in Turkmenistan, or Venezuela?

Who do you sue? And in what court, and under whose laws? And what will it cost?

[TheAnimus]

true, but its an option in many parts of the world, for a good majority of websites i'd of thought it would of been more effective than any attempt at censorship thats a ban list, rather than an allow list.