Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 21 March 2006 13:32
IT Policy -
Regulation
Page 1 of 2
This story also available here
An ALP plan to require all ISPs to provide filtered Internet services to protect children from undesirable material has come under fire from the industry and the Government.
ALP leader Kim Beazley announced the plan today, saying: "Under Labor, all ISPs will be required to offer a filtered 'clean feed' Internet service to all households, and to schools and other public internet points accessible by kids."
This system, he said "would prevent users from accessing any content that has been identified as prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, including sites containing child pornography, acts of extreme violence or cruelty, and X-rated material."
He said that the prime minister, John Howard "just defends a failing system of regulation which doesn't do enough, by advising parents to 'do it themselves" with Internet filter software." He added: "The reality is that cost and poor computer literacy mean almost two-thirds of parents don't have Internet filters on their family computers."
The filtering would be applied by default and "adults who still want to view currently legal content would advise their ISP that they want to opt out of the 'clean feed' and would then face the same regulations which currently apply," Beazley explained (these regulations prohibit Australian sites from hosting certain content, but cannot be applied the majority of, overseas hosted, sites).
Beazley claimed that a Government report last year had "confirmed that the technology to implement mandatory filtering by ISPs is feasible and won't slow the internet down," and that "leading telecommunications companies overseas like British Telecom and Telenor are already employing this technology."
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