SeekTheTruth

Well said WakandaMa, Oh Come on & others! The speed loss is negligible. Even if there is a temporary very small drop in speed, this is a small price to pay for protecting children and women. There is a lot of hype and misinformation in the media about this at the moment - mostly put out by the porn trade and movements like GetUp who obviously have vested interests. They also ignore the fact that the United Kingdom and Sweden have voluntary ISP filtering which has been adopted by virtually the entire industry in those countries, without the loss of freedom of speech or internet speed, and it has proved effective. It is far from a waste of money or idiotic, as some suggest. These people obviously do not have kids. For those over 18 who choose such a lifestyle, legal porn will still be available by opt in, so this is not even an issue for them. It is true that peer-to-peer and vpn networking will not be blocked, but most families and children do not use these anyway. So ISP filtering is not even an issue for them either. It is naive to think that ISP filtering will stop freedom of speech. No one is being stopped from viewing anything legal. If you want legal porn you can get it! (If you want illegal porn such as child porn, then you have a serious problem and need to seek help.) It is like saying that speed limits are an infringement of our freedom. We may not always like them, but they are there for the betterment and protection of society. So with ISP filtering. Our politicians can scrutinise ACMA and any blacklists to ensure free speech is not impeded by the plan to block porn. It offers benefits of protection for those who are wanting it for their children and homes. Agreed, this filtering will not bring perpetrators of child porn to justice or necessarily help the victims, but maybe it will stop someone from getting into porn, who once addicted (yes it has been proven porn is an addiction - google it!), may end up in child porn. It all starts somewhere! How about thinking of our 'responsibilities' to the future generation, rather than just our selfish 'rights'. We expect the government to provide clean drinking water - it is our choice whether we want to drink the clean water or to drink polluted water. At least we start with the clean water. It is better to have healthy people to start with, rather than trying to heal those ill from the polluted water. Well done to the government for this initiative.