RichardB

I am alarmed and outraged that the government is misdirecting resources into an ultimately futile attempt at censoring the internet. And all for pandering to a very small minority of people, and I suspect one or two senators. 1. Censoring things out in the public realm, essentially "Broadcast" for broad uncontrolled access , that people have little control over - Billboards, TV, Newspapers etc -is one thing. But censoring what I specifically select to read or look at it in the privacy of my own home is quite another, a place no democratic government should go. 2. If some people want censorship (and it is clearly a small minority of the users of the internet), let them choose censorship for themselves, and their family. Let them choose to take a Censored feed. I should be free from THEM imposing their will on me. 3. We accept some censorship in the public realm because of the inability of people to avoid contact with the material broadcast. But even there, people know what is being censored. There are public processes in place to effect censorship. And any censorship is subject to judicial appeal. Whereas it would seem what is currently proposed for the internet is a very secretive form of censorship, where the public do not even have the right to know what is being censored. Far from being open and above board, and subject to judicial processes and appeal, it will be secret (not even revealed under FOI), and ultimately a matter of judgement for some officer not accountable to the public. The scope for personal agendas and taste to come into it is too tempting. Not to mention political influence to please internal and external lobbyists. This makes it a very dangerous form of censorship proposed. 4. What you are proposing to do is have an automatic system attempt to make judgements on every item I look at or transact. And yet nothing like this exists in the real world – no-one opens all my mail (I believe it is illegal). No one is allowed to monitor all my phone calls. That too is illegal. So what on earth makes you think that you should be able to do it on the internet traffic ? 5. If censorship comes in, it will play into criminal hands as much as Prohibition of Alcohol did in the 30’s in the USA. Those who want to maintain their freedoms will either learn how to get around the censorship, or pay other people to do it for them. You will be making petty criminals of a very large number of people, and putting them in contact with organized crime who will be only too happy to provide an uncensored feed. Is that what you want. To encourage a new breed of Al Capone’s 6. The whole issue is completely exaggerated in the first case. I have two teenage daughters who have free access to the internet (in the family room for our house, but not in all their friends’ houses). Whenever we have discussed this matter, they have openly admitted to once or twice looking at porn (but not much because they don’t have credit cards to pay for the serious stuff). But they simply laugh it off, and don’t bother with it. They have much better things to do like sharing photos over the internet, messaging with their friends. It is not an issue to them or their many friends. It is not an issue to any of our friends, who believe in open communication with our children. Just who is it an issue to ? I suspect it is an issue to the type of people who try to scare their children with tales of the “bogeyman”, and then try to “protect” them from the world. To me, it is far more worrying to contemplate going into a 1984 type of world, where some anonymous bureaucrat has the right to monitor and control what I read and look at fro my own private purposes. who monitors those innocent photo swaps and messaging chats of my daughters. Who elects to break the security on my banking transactions. That is scary. 7 Senator Conroy appears very reluctant, perhaps even recalcitrant, when it comes to answering questions about these proposals. And seems to be completely ignoring the overwhelming advice from the experts. That too is a very worrying. Are we going to have our future Digital Economy designed for us by the likes of senators Fielding and Xenophon ? I voted for a rational Labor government, hoping to get rid of the fear mongering one we had which pandered to tiny minorities, and enjoyed trying to scare us. I am very very concerned by these very irrational developments.