david

Mr. Conroy, I have no doubt that your heart is in the right place - you wish to protect Australians from the blight of internet exploitation of minors among other evils. However, it's a slippery slope you wish to lead us down. As you are no doubt aware, outside China a search on the words "Tiananmen Square" will provide 1,180,000 hits, the majority of which relate to the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters. Inside China the same search yields less than 300 hits, all of which are officially sanctioned historical or tourist sites, none of which mention the massacre that the government continues to deny to it's citizens. Is this kind of censorship the path you wish to lead Australia down, in the name of "doing the right thing?" I won't even go into the technical issues, but you must be aware by now that filtering HTTP sites will not prevent those intent on obtaining illegal material from doing so. That fact raises suspicions that you really have an ulterior motive, that of making sure that the technologically illiterate (who tend to use HTTP as their only conduit for internet access) are to be restricted for dictatorial political purposes. Do you really want to be remembered in history as "Conroy the Communist"?