Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 12 December 2008 09:28
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Australian Shadow Communications Minister, Senator Nick Minchin, has
also taken the time to congratulate the Australian Federal Police (AFP)
on their stellar efforts in tackling the scourge of “peer-to-peer”
child pornographers.
The AFP are receiving hearty congratulations from both sides of Australian Federal politics today after catching at least 22 child pornographers in Australia, with more arrests expected.
Just as the Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy has
praised the Police, so has his opposition counterpart, Senator Nick Minchin, with both saying “how effective law enforcement is the most powerful way of tackling” illegal online child pornography.
However questions have been raised over “the [Federal Government’s] removal of $2.8 million of Australian Federal Police funding to combat online child sex exploitation and to promote international cooperation” as noted in iTWire colleague Stuart Corner’s recent
article, called “Substance and spin over AFP's child porn sting.”
Senator Minchin has also asked whether the money to be spent on a mandatory filter would be better spent on funding the AFP instead.
Senator Minchin said: “The AFP is to be congratulated for its year-long operation which has resulted in the arrests of 22 with more expected.
“Of great significance was the way the AFP was able to crack this network, which operated via peer-to-peer file sharing, through cooperation and support from Brazilian authorities and also Internet Service Providers.
“According to police, these ‘peer-to-peer’ networks enable paedophiles, anywhere in the world, to share files online, including horrendous images and videos, without having to access a central network server and bypassing content filters.
Senator Minchin’s comments and his questions over where the money to be spent on filtering should be spent instead continue on page 2, please read on!
