Australian government to censor the Internet by 2011

Every country has religious fanatics (including yours) who are a minority by far but act as if they are the majority forcing there values and believes onto others who don't share them. And yes you are right about them being hypocrites, but by no means is this a US issue alone.

And proxies will become extremely popular there. Good luck with net neutrality guys.

That's because Aussies are so layed back, they say they are "Christian" when asked (and I note that your survey results were from 2006/2007, even if they are the latest or not)
But in reality :rolleyes: They are not church going "religious" practicing people
I can honestly tell you that 99% of all people here don't go to church on Sundays.
So to say that you follow one religion or another, does not mean you actually practice that religion (so it would seem)
So those results show nothing. And can I just throw in another point here, do your best to get rid of "in god we trust" from your coins, it really is pathetic. We have moved on from the 16th century


Back to topic I'm all for the specific sites censorship, as I have kids (I note that most of you probably are kids and have a different view on this)
Yes supervise your young kids, but hello.. just a simple google should not show this rubbish (even on "moderate" settings)
They come home with an assignment to do (on lets say, animals) do a search and get god knows what (I note that the 8th pic out of 150,000,000 with Moderate search on, yielded a naked woman ??? WTH ?) I do note that this is mild.
Sure that's not one of the "sites" that's censored, but what's it doing there anyway? God forbid they search child modeling! Us parents have to constantly not make reference to such words.

So you kids might not see the issue. But us parents are a little sick of the easy access to anything freely available. When I was young :rolleyes: The best we could hope for was a "people magazine". The Internet needs governing and it needs censorship else the children will grow up thinking that this normal behavior of animals and people (being one of the censored areas) That's just sick, and meant as a sick joke, unless some of you are turned on by a horse :dead:

its clear that though OZ was founded by criminals it appears that criminals still rule OZ by passing laws to make things only availbale on the Black market so those criminals can make ez tax free money

I don't believe that censorship is a good thing, especially when done by any controlling party on such a wide scale. Any law that requires people to give up certain rights is not good. They may start off with good intentions, such as blocking porn, malware, etc. however over time they start blocking new and different ideas. Instead of a law like this, maybe resources should be put in place to educate users on some of the dangers of the internet and how to mitigate them.

why not create a a proxy server that you can opt in for filtering

nanny state!

There is a fine line with this, however they already have many laws that we would all consider beneficial for the common good. How about speed limits, drunk driving laws, illegal drug usage, etc. . I have heard many people make the point that these effect others and not just yourself. Well Porn and scamming affect others dramatically as well, and are not just affecting yourself either.

The real reason for censorship is to block anything that the government deems as anti-government sentiment whether it's political blogs, videos, etc.

I agree comp, your 'fine line' is indeed what i called a 'slippery slope'. I believe however, that the Governments control should be minimal....and kept to just the basic things, whereas to keep the 'big guy' from squashing the 'little guy'. The problem I have is that you could extrapolate that out, and rationalize that to apply to anything. you listed drug use as effecting "not just yourself" that is true, however, you could also then say that dad eating to much meat will leave a widow and children behind when he drops dead of a heart attack at 50......so then should the Government require the cholesterol card?
I know where my line is, i would be interested in hearing yours . BTW thanks for debating, and not going on a hyperbolic screed....that's kind of rare around here

That's really sad. Thank god in mexico the government doesn't give a f*ck about technology.

So because that’s true in Australia, it cannot be true here in the US? It’s the same way (less so in the southeast). From personal experiences everyone makes themselves sound better (who wouldn’t?) but in reality it’s the major holidays when everyone really shows up. Just shows everyone everywhere is usually a hypocrite.

I like our "In God we Trust". Rather have that then Queen Elizabeth II on our coins personally . Putting monarchs on coins is soooo B.C. .

I don’t know the average age of the audience here but I’d guess midish twenties. You're right about Google though even on moderate it does have a tendency sometimes to show inappropriate material. But if you as an adult can’t handle that either moderate it with your child or stop using Google and go to a safer alternative. I'm sure you know of some, there are plenty here in the US that are content and censor controlled for children in school, I’m sure you could find something.

Blaming the technology and internet is a bit ridiculous, especially when there are alternatives before needing government intervention into everyone's lives. Giving up freedoms for temporary security for kids which is a nice smokescreen for ulterior motives is just to much for me imo .

But in the end it’s your country and if you like the censorship that's your choice. Sadly though the bigger picture is more important.

"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale"

Shakespeare

as tyrannical as mine seeds may find me, the governing bodies shall not be the censors in my dwelling. I shall be.

Me

....hey, I think I just Shakespeare'd all over myself! :haha:

So Australia doesn't have nuclear weapons right?

We don't have weapons of mass destruction.

Oh wait, you're talking about Uranium :rolleyes: , oh we have loads of that stuff: http://www.uraniumsa.org/about/aust_uranium.htm

Every child gets a free sample to take home with them

No problem with this one, because passing laws and then implementing them is a very slow process. Then, the lawmakers will find out the fast pace of technology has a solution to get around their laws.

Does anyone want to guess what the internet will be like in 2011? My only guess I have it will be more expensive.

Bill

The UK government is debating a similiar bill that would censor content it deems as harmful

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/10001.13-19.html#j158

In China the communist government demands anybody that wants to register a domain to present company seal and a business license

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/331fb794-e9e2-11de-ae43-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

"“Officials said the measure was part of a campaign to rein in pornographic content, but bloggers and internet activists interpreted it as a broader attempt to enforce internet censorship more heavily,” writes Kathrin Hille.

There is an U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html

News will always spin these laws as something good but the reality is it is a lost of personal freedoms of the people. We need less government in our lives because the more power given to governments the more corrupt they will become.

Gee, after their internet gets crippled, the Aussies will have to regress to their old school methods of entertaining themselves. By this I mean their cultural proclivity toward suffering, "paranoid delusions of Crocodile Dundee-hood"....!! (en masse).

Both reasonably and practically speaking, religious affiliation is (or has become) an assigned social status, nothing more.

It seems the path to true enlightenment is rife with minutia. Why waste the time, we just ignore it. Besides, the "God bless America" thing gives our leaders another convenient lie to tell. One that so many of the unwashed masses seems to be on board with hearing.

Hong Kong "wire movies" (Kung Fu) are bristling with violence and gore. However they shy very far away from nudity and sex. That's just silly, on so many levels. Sure, the internet interferes with a puritanical belief system, but really, what's wrong with naked women. I know it scares many women, since it gives their men something to compare them with. I say bring back the old "pig in a poke" Victorian dress code, if it'll make them feel better about themselves. (well that's a "not"). But as to children and the internet, if you're that concerned, perhaps your time might be better spent supervising your own offspring on the internet, rather than pontificating toward censorship on Techspot.

Hold on to your bootstraps, America, everyday our government is taking away more and more rights
from the American people. It starts overseas and spreads around the world. We are on the fast track to socialism, faster since Obama took office. So us Americans should not be so smug to think
it won't happen here.