noise

this has nothing to do with freedom of speech or raising children or any of the other crap people are spouting. the government is only filtering material that is already illegal to view/possess. they are merely enforcing the law. what's the big deal?

it's like getting mad when drug traffickers are stopped at the border. you can shout all you want about how your right to sniff the drugs was hindered when the government prevented them from entering the country. just don't forget that "your right to sniff the drugs" does not actually exist.

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my flac collection

Captain Awesome

Well what about legalised drugs? You realise the only reason drugs like heroin, cocaine and weed are illegal is because the government haven't found a way of justifying making money from it yet. Tobacco and alcohol are just as harmful but they're legalised because the government can make a giant profit from it.

What worries me is how far will this go?


Also...

"i would understand censoring websites which were a threat to the state (e.g. advocating domestic terrorism), that doesn't seem to be the issue here"

i agree with what you're saying^

and this to...

"to put filters on the world so that parents don't have to broach nasty subjects like sex, drugs and violence. it's just a matter of time before "parenting" has **** all to do with raising your children."

extremely good point^

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"If we're all merely players in a play on this great stage,
the problem is the script writers ain't on the same page,
I echo through the mountain when I'm singing in the air,
from my lab a lad with lavish lyrics living in his lair."


"Wake up and listen, hear what's not for the public's ears
Pinocchio poets played by profiting puppeteers"

Zarko

The fallacious reasoning in this argument is that there is ALREADY a hearty process/filter that is aimed specifically at illegal material. It's not like we are such a backwards country that this is all of a sudden a focal point, this is straight up censorship of material that our Government, in all it's fabulous glory, decides what is 'right' for our eyes.

There is NO Opt-Out, which is just ridiculous in the first place. This was a big issue a year ago when its discussion was 'all the rage' on Australian forums. The testing of the best available filter massively slowed down the Internet (Which is already slow, but besides that, it was slown down ridiculously, indefensible if it is ONLY for illegal material). ot only this, but there are 'normal' websites that were blocked and, whilst weren't illegal, were 'against' what our nanny state Government was trying to push. It is ridiculous.

Of course, there will be a way to get around the filters - However, this isn't a solveable issue in that sense. Being a direct filter that is applied from the first step, there is no way to step around what is meant to be crippling internet speeds.

Nowadays, the 'ment is trying to push a 'multilayered filter', one aiming at tykes and one for those who want a less stringent choke on their internet browsing ability.

Not to mention the fact that, as a filter, it will directly ignore one of the bigger hubs for illegal-searching users on the net - Things like BitTorrent.

The title of the filter - Clean-Feed. I don't need a bunch of stuck up arsehole politicians deciding what is clean and what is not.

10,000 out of every million websites will be incorrectly blocked. This is actually a fair amount, at least one to question the validity on a techincal level, along with the internet slowdown.

Whats even funnier - You opt out of the second level, so you can 'view adult conyent' and you get put on a list.

An old list of websites on the 'black list'. Most of which - Porn, but some interesting additions throughout.
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Australian...%2C_6_Aug_2008

Most of the poker websites gone... Yes, because children can gain access to a credit card easily and pump money into an account to play online..........

It's funny that the Thai filter degenerated from stopping child pornography to now filtering anti-Royal Family websites.

Captain Awesome

Poker and anti-royal family websites banned? I was worried about them going to far in the future not the present.

I wonder what would happen if the whole of australia refused to log on to the internet if these changes were put into affect? The government would lose so much money. Shame it'll never happen.

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"If we're all merely players in a play on this great stage,
the problem is the script writers ain't on the same page,
I echo through the mountain when I'm singing in the air,
from my lab a lad with lavish lyrics living in his lair."


"Wake up and listen, hear what's not for the public's ears
Pinocchio poets played by profiting puppeteers"

Freebase Dali

I wonder what your stance was on Bush's wiretap program...

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boo boo

Instead of censoring the internet we should just ban all the stupid people from using it.

Then again AOL and Youtube would go out of business if that happened.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

Neapolitan

In all fairness, Youtube does provide videos of live performances of bands you might not see otherwise - and not to mention official music videos before they get banned. So Youtube does have some value to it - musicwise.

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Scarlett O'Hara

Ok 1) Australian people can access alcohol and drugs easily; 2) parents allow 18+ games in their house; 3) it's up to the parents to censor the internet; 4) freedom of speech; 5) it's not suppsed to be a communist country; 6) New Zealand is cooler

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Astronomer

1) What do drugs and alcohol have to do with anything on this topic?!

2) Actually Australia doesn't even sell 18+ games on the shelves... that's the whole point of the debate surrounding the issue.

3) Agreed.

4) Agreed.

5) Agreed.

6) Definitely agreed.

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Scarlett O'Hara

I'm drunk. I am making up assumtions. Glad you agree on the rset though!

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