Stan Beer
Wednesday, 10 December 2008 15:14
Opinion and Analysis
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Some
worrying signs concerning our basic freedoms have begun to emerge
throughout the free world, with the UK and Australia at the forefront
of a disturbing trend to censor the Internet. Two recent events
indicate an erosion of our rights as citizens within a free society.
Before we go any further, I feel compelled in the current climate
of Internet McCarthyism to insert a disclaimer. As a parent and
concerned citizen, I find child pornography repugnant and believe that
any perpetrator of it should be dealt with mercilessly by the law.
That
said, organisations and persons who whip up unnecessary hysteria to
support their cause and who falsely label opponents as supporters of
child pornography are to be condemned. Likewise, pinning a child
pornography charge on a person who is at most guilty of a far lesser
crime is outrageous. Both these occurrences serve to diminish our hard
won freedoms.
At present, in Australia we have a Communications
Minister in our Federal Government who is hell bent on trying to censor
the Internet at the ISP level by forcing them to use content filters.
Despite
the fact that the move has been almost universally lambasted as
technically not feasible, ineffective in its aims and an unnecessary
burden on Internet traffic, the Minister has simply labelled his
critics as supporters of child pornography. Whether this is all "part
of the act" to seem stern is yet to be seen, with those opposing
blanket ISP filtration certainly hoping so.
This week an
incident in the UK has served to highlight the dangers and folly of
selectively imposing Internet filters - mandatory or otherwise - at the
ISP level.
In 1976, German rock band, Scorpions, released an
album called Virgin Killer. The provocative title (although the song
was simply about the passing of time) was accompanied by an even more
provocative album cover photo of a young naked girl. At the time, the
photo, an idea dreamed up by the record company (and not the band
members themselves), caused a stir and was subsequently withdrawn and
replaced by a pic of the band.
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