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26 Nov 08
Save The Net
Over the centuries millions have given their lives fighting to gain and protect the right to say what they think and to read what they want. Many millions more have died in silent anonymity having been denied those rights. Given the suffering that was required to gain the freedom we currently enjoy and the even greater suffering that occurs in its absence I find it absolutely astonishing that Australia is in the process of instituting a mandatory filtering system of arguably the greatest tool for the preservation of free speech ever invented, the Internet.
This filtering system cannot be opted out of and exists to prevent access to websites based on a secret black list of "inappropriate" content. To censor what the citizens of a democracy can read at all is unacceptable. To censor by measuring content against such a subjective yardstick and to do it out of view of the Australian people is unforgiveable.
If you want to offer parents filtering as a means to help shelter their children then by all means do so. Do it in the form of controls installed on their computer or require ISPs to offer an opt-in system. But whatever you do don't try and institute an opt-out or mandatory system that slows down the Internet for everyone and inadvertantly blocks appropriate content while blocking content deemed to be undesirable by people who would be better off spending less time worrying about what others are reading, hearing and seeing.
To those who are pushing this solution, you disregard the warnings from your constituents to abandon this fools errand at your peril. At best you're going to throw away tens of millions of tax payer's money to create something which won't work at all. At worst those concerned with protecting their freedom will make it their personal mission to break this atrocity over their knee and your political careers with it.