Richie

I am a 27 year old male from Melbourne. I don’t have children but I would like to one day so I care about their welfare very much. In this letter, I would like to express concern over the proposed ‘internet filter’.

First and foremost it can’t be guaranteed that a child will not be able to view harmless material after the implementation of this filter because as the government tests have shown, harmless material still gets through.

Secondly, blocking pornographic websites will do little to hamper paedophiliac behaviour as most of them use other internet methods such as chat rooms and computer to computer transmissions to target children (so I have read). A website filter will do nothing to stop this behaviour.

These are the two main reasons why the Government’s proposed filter is fundamentally flawed. The whole purpose of the filter would be to stop children accessing pornographic material and to stop paedophile activity. As you can see, neither of these things is guaranteed. Also, there are ways to get around internet filters on an individual machine if the child is any good with computers.

Other reasons why the proposed ‘filter’ should be banned:

1) Slows down the internet between 2 and 87% (results of Government tests)

2) Parents should play a more active role in their children’s lives, not a less active one. By implementing a filter, parents will be lured into a false sense of security about their children’s safety.

3) Legitimate sites will be blocked (shown in Government tests). For example a site that provides educational material about breast cancer may be blocked because it contains the word ‘breast’.

4) Slow down legitimate web activity e.g. commercial and educational websites, making Australia the laughing stock of the world. Slow internet speeds and blocked legitimate websites could also have negative effects on our economy if our internet does not perform on par with other countries.

5) So far, millions upon millions of dollars have been spent on this internet filter that will not work at the most basic level. Please stop squandering our hard earned money.

Australia already has slow internet compared with other countries. Whatever happened to the high-speed fibre-to-node internet network promised by Kevin Rudd in his speeches in the run up to the election? Would that not be a better option to spend all these millions of dollars on?

Let’s make our country more competitive and at the forefront of internet technology. I would like to be proud of Australia’s internet network, not embarrassed. Internet censorship should be done in the home through education and supervision.

Our Government has a huge responsibility and with responsibility comes power. Please Mr Conroy, do not abuse this power and do what is right for the citizens of Australia.

Take our country into the 21st century not back to the dark ages.