Govt 'absolutely committed' to filter: Evans

James Riley
Monday, 12 July 2010 23:22

IT Policy - Regulation

The Federal Government remained "absolutely committed" to introducing an internet filter and people should not confuse the just-announced review of the classification system as a policy back down, the Government's Senate leader has told ABC television.

Senator Chris Evans said the review of the classification system was a recognition of community concern that the Refused Classification category may be too broad in scope, but that Government still intended to introduce ISP-level filtering.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced Government plans to review the classification system last Friday, a process that is expected to take a year.

He also unveiled the accountability and transparency measures for mandatory filtering and announced that Australia's three largest ISPs - Telstra, Optus and Primus - would voluntarily filter child pornography and exploitation sites voluntarily in the meantime.

Senator Evans told the Q&A program that just because the policy was complicated and solutions were difficult did not mean the Government would walk away from the issue.

"We remain absolutely committed to (the filter.) We remain committed to trying to protect people from that sort of content," he said.

"We have to try and protect people from some of this terrible stuff that is available on the internet, and while people say that (the filter proposal) is not a perfect solution, we are not going to stop trying because it is not a perfect solution."

"The trick is how do you do it, and what we have done is that we have sought to review the material that's classified (as RC), because we've had a lot of feedback that it is catching material that it should not catch," Senator Evans said.

The Opposition's education spokesman Christopher Pyne says the mandatory filtering proposal gave people false confidence that it would solve the problem of how to protect people from illegal content.

Mr Pyne said the review of classification system was a policy back down announced just prior to the election simply to take the political heat out of the issue.

While the Coalition has yet to announce a cyber safety policy, or to formalise its position on the internet filter, Mr Pyne said he though filters were best used at the "individual circumstance," whether that be by parents in the home or by educators in schools.

"The kinds of people that are going to be involved in child molestation and sexual exploitation is not going to be addressed by having an internet filter," he said.

"It will be addressed by going to the core of what is happening in the first place. And that means addressing social disadvantage, it means educating people from the earliest stage, rather '¦ than trying to deal with it well and truly after the horse has bolted."

Greens Communications spokesman Scott Ludlam said the Government had postponed the mandatory filtering plan because they know it is not going to work.

"It is not broadly enough framed for the people that worry about pornography generally," Senator Ludlam said. "But it is far too broadly drawn for people who are worried about civil liberties and about trespassing on political issues like euthanasia and so on."