SAGE-AU says net filter tests unrealistic

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 17 December 2009 06:43

Your IT - Home IT

The Systems Administrators Guild of Australia (SAGE-AU) has questioned the test results that formed the basis for the Federal Government's decision to proceed with ISP level filtering.

Earlier this week, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced that the Federal Government will go ahead with plans to introduce mandatory ISP-level filtering of Refused Classification material on the internet based on a blacklist system.

Conroy said the Enex Lab report found that a blacklist could effectively block listed RC material "with 100 per cent accuracy and negligible impact on internet speed."

SAGE-AU disputes the validity of those results as the trials did not test filtering at the speeds called for by the stated criteria.

"The decision to proceed with Internet filtering based on evidence from the trials is incompatible with the Government's aims for the National Broadband Network (NBN)," said SAGE-AU president Donna Ashelford.

"While the NBN aims to provide access to users at 100 Mbps, no test result was at speeds faster than 8 Mbps, despite the criteria for testing to be up to 12 Mbps and higher. The likely degradation of higher Internet access speeds needs to be adequately tested," she explained.

SAGE-AU also questioned the validity of the report in terms of the performance of the filters, as full details of the number of participating users were not disclosed.

"Large numbers of participants would obviously have a greater impact on performance than a smaller number," said Ashelford.

"The only widely quoted figure from a test participant was a handful of clients, which did not produce any significant load. Significant sample sizes are essential to understand the effect that Internet filtering may have on service performance. Another concern is that the report admits that 'a technically competent user, could, if they wished, circumvent the filtering technology'.  Anybody who uses Google could find ways to access censored content," she said.

SAGE-AU is also concerned that every filtering system failed to work properly with heavy traffic sites such as YouTube; no filter blocked peer-to-peer, chat or instant messaging; and that despite the terms of reference, no false-positive data was published for ISPs that were only blocking the ACMA blacklist.

Since the trial did not demonstrate the effectiveness of filtering, SAGE-AU is encouraging the Federal Government to support and promote the existing Family-Friendly ISP program, invest in parental education, and provide additional funding for the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Australian Federal Police.