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Australian Internet Filtering

Revision as of 13:02, 6 November 2008 by Oztrailrider (Talk | contribs)

Contents

About

  • The Government plans to impose mandatory Internet filtering at the Internet Service Provider (ISP) level. There are two lists, a 'child' safe list which filters both illegal content and hardcore pornography; a second which users can 'opt-out' to which only filters illegal content.
  • Senator Stephen Conroy, the Government Senator responsible for this project has stated that they will also be looking into the possibility of filtering other content that may be illegal in Australia. Which would for example include: euthanasia, abortion, drug-use, etc.
  • Other political parties and members have made their intentions clear to include further content to be banned, such as overseas online gambling, and as suggested by Family First Senator Steve Fielding - hardcore pornography.
  • Mark Newton, a Network Engineer from ISP Internode was the victim of bullying by the Office of Stephen Conroy over his criticisms of the Government's Internet Filtering plans. Conroy's policy advisor Belinda Dennett, sent an email to the Internet Industry Association (IIA) board member Carolyn Dalton stating requesting that Mark Newton rein in his comments over the Government's proposal. This email was accompanied by a phone call demanding that the message be passed onto Senior Internode Management. Mark Newton has made it clear that his comments are his own and do not reflect the opinions of his employer.
  • Senator Conroy accused Senator Ludlam (Greens) of suggesting that people should have access to child pornography when questioning him at committee meeting whether users would truly be able to "opt-out" of the system. 1 2
  • Email, Peer to Peer, Instant messaging, newsgroups and any other custom application protocols are on the ACMA report as things that the Government is also planning to apply the ISP-Level filtering to.


Further Information

Misleading Claims

Senator Stephen Conroy has asserted a number of times that the UK, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand have already implemented similar filtering systems with no impact to performance. Mark Newton an engineer from the ISP Internode has outlined that these claims are misleading where these countries are operating filtering systems that are contrary to Senator Conroy's claims.

In the UK the Government is excluded from online censorship by the Communications Act and British Telecom only provides a private voluntary clean feed system to their customers. In Canada eight ISPs run a voluntary parental control tool - there has been no Government intervention for the ISPs to provide this service as there is no legal obligation. A single ISP in Sweden runs an optional blacklist - this system later came under heavy controversy in regards to 'Scope Creep' by the Swedish Police threatening to add the Torrent site The Pirate Bay to the child pornography filter blacklist. New Zealand has no filtering system - an examination of the British Telecom filtering system in the UK was found to only block 10-15% of the targeted restricted material. libertus.net Whirlpool (Mark Newton)

It has also been claimed that users would be able to 'opt-out' of the filtering system when in fact two blacklists would be operating, users who choose to 'opt-out' of the filtering would be still be filtered according to a list of illegal content determined by the ACMA.

The definition of opt-out has been varied by Stephen Conroy, he has first claimed that it was not possible to opt-out of the filtering system competely, however in a recent comment by Conroy on SkyNews he mentioned that it would be possible to "opt-out" from the cleanfeed. The definition of the cleanfeed at this time possibly meaning the filter list that includes hardcore pornography.

Social Issues

  • The ACMA Report in June 2008, has shown the Government's interest in applying filtering/blocking to non-web protocols. These include normally considered private/personal methods such as e-mail, instant messaging, newsgroups and other custom defined non-web protocols.
  • The definition of the 'illegal content' has not yet been determined, however it has been made clear that the Government will seek to ban content that is considered illegal under Australian law. This would include content concerning euthanasia, abortion, suicide, and drugs.
  • In the implementation of the filtering system, it is likely that many parents would become complacent and assume that the "Internet" is then safe for their children to use without supervision which they would otherwise have maintained a careful vigilance over. eg. More parents would allow their children to use computers in their own bedrooms/personal privacy without supervision.
  • In the event that once the filtering system comes into place, it is highly unlikely that the filtering system would be removed from use at all. (Government admitting defeat on filtering solution).
  • No guarantee in future on what content would be restricted or monitored.
  • Through the denying of inappropriate content, information resources that allow the population to educate themselves and create their own unbiased opinions over issues such as abortion, euthanasia or anorexia would be denied.
  • Sufferers of particular social problems would be restricted contact with online support groups (forums, newsgroups, Instant messaging, irc chatrooms). These types of contact allow adults/teenagers to seek support or varying opinions from those that would normally be within their everyday real life peer groups.

Technical Issues

  • Slows the Internet. Performance degradation may be introduced by the filtering systems onto Australia's Internet infrastructure.
    • Even if a user were able to opt-out completely, performance degradation (PPI in the ACMA report) is still present to an extent.
  • The filters are not perfect, not all of the illegal and pornographic content will be censored by the filter.
  • Websites which are not meant to be filtered or blocked, will be mistakenly blocked/filtered.
    • An ISP may receive 100,000 webpage requests per second - under best scenario conditions would mean that 3,000 of those requests would be accidentally blocked (delta filter which however is also not appropriate for large-scale deployment - ACMA report June 2008).
  • Websites which are banned that share a webhost IP address with other websites will result in those other websites being blocked as well.
  • There are currently no filtering systems that support IPv6 - in future the planned filtering systems may be made redundant; or their performance capacities may be different to what has currently been tested so far.
  • Filters are currently not able to handle encrypted data, and other non-web protocols. However, 5 out of the 6 filters tested were able to filter HTTPS traffic potentially making all online purchases and banking insecure.

Financial Issues

  • The Internet will become more expensive for the end user. Ongoing maintenance costs of the filter will be passed onto the consumer.
  • Smaller Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may not be able to afford the costs associated with the filtering. Initial setup costs and costs to provide adequate network infrastructure would be comparable to larger ISPs who are more able to provide the necessary funding.
  • The costs are going to be far beyond what the government has budgeted for. $189M.
  • In the event that a website be blocked (and subsquently added to the blacklist) accidentally, Internet oriented business stand to lose entire days of profits. The same can be said for non-Internet oriented businesses as where they are communicating and advertising to potential and existing customers.

Legal Issues

  • Illegal content is not defined uniformly between the State, Territory and Federal levels. What may be legal in one state/territory, may be banned by the filtering system.
  • May hinder Police and cooperative International Police operations in the task of tracking child sexual offenders. Operation Auxin (2004) made use of the current ability to track specific user's "paths" along international data networks. In terms of escalating technological efforts of both sides of the law, it will force offenders to utilise methods which the policing bodies have no ability to monitor.
  • Contents of the blacklist (inappropriate material) may be released to the public and would enable offenders access to a list of where to find illegal content (eg. Child pornography)
  • Would limit the content of illegal content available to Australians over the Internet. However would never stop such material from being available without being a breach of freedom of expression. (Australian Institute of Criminology)

Action against the Government's Plans for Internet Filtering

  • Get in contact with your local members or Senators. (Letter, email, phone call).
  • Spread the word to all your friends and family. Let them know what it is about and what they can do.
  • Join facebook groups.
  • No Clean Feed
  • Contact local and national newspaper outlets. (eg. Herald Sun, Courier Mail, The Age, your local city newspapers, etc)
    • Write Letters to the Editor
  • Contact television and radio productions. (eg. ABC, ACA, TT, 3AW, FoxFM, etc)
  • Contact businesses and companies other than those involved directly in IT. Essentially every industry utilises the Internet in some form in Australia, even farmers.
    • casgeroth has written an excellent letter to contact banks/credit card companies, here.

Responsible Parenting and the Internet - The Right Way

Facts

Media Coverage

Some duplicates exist due to the nature of the media industry.

2006

  • A study on server based internet filters | Performance Graphs - NetAlert - 2006
  • Giants say no to porn filter trial - AustralianIT - 18 Apr 2006
  • Australia to give away porn-filtering software - CNET - 21 June 2006

2007

  • ISPs give cautious welcome to PM's porn crusade - Ninemsn - 10 Aug 2007
  • Howard's net porn crusade - The Australian - 10 Aug 2007
  • Australia to spend $189 million on anti-porn tech initiative - ars technica - 14 Aug 2007
  • Labor's plan for cyber safety | Stephen Conroy - ALP (pdf) - Election 2007
  • Conroy announces mandatory internet filters to protect children - ABC - 31 Dec 2007

Early 2008

  • Australia's plans to filter Internet under fire - The Age - 02 Jan 2008
  • Rudd porn filter fails: experts - AustralianIT - 03 Jan 2008
  • Stephen Conroy wades into child porn net flood - AustralianIT - 08 Jan 2008
  • Web porn software filter a dud - The Age - 17 Feb 2008
  • Costs threaten NetAlert - AustralianIT - 26 Feb 2008
  • Govt sticks to guns on internet porn filters - ABC - 06 Mar 2008
  • The end of the free internet? (Opinion) - ABC - 23 Apr 2008
  • The slippery slope towards internet censorship continues - Crikey - 21 Sep 2008

13-20 October 2008

23-24 October 2008

  • Australian Government Censorship 'Worse Than Iran' - Slashdot
  • The high price of internet filtering - ABC - 24 Oct 2008
  • Filtering out the fury: how government tried to gag web censor critics - SMH - 24 Oct 2008
  • Read this while you can | Andrew Bolt blog - Herald Sun - 24 Oct 2008
  • Australian Govt's Plan to Censor the Internet is stricter than 'Iran' - Zero Paid
  • Aussie government now censors Web critics - Fudzilla - 24 Oct 2008
  • 'Appalled' opposition hits back at Conroy's Internet censorship - PC World
  • Cheap tricks not the right response on internet filtering - Crikey
  • Aussie govt: Don't criticize our (terrible) 'Net filters - ars technica

25-27 October 2008

  • Australia trials national net filters - BBC - 25 Oct 2008
  • Australia trials Internet filtering - what happened to person choice? - TECH.BLORGE.com 26 Oct 2008
  • Australian Government Ignoring Problems With Proposed Filters - Slashdot - 26 Oct 2008
  • Let's just file that idea away under naivety - SMH - 27 Oct 2008
  • Net filters may block porn and gambling sites - The Age - 27 Oct 2008
  • SAGE-AU defends right to criticise content filtering - IT News - 27 Oct 2008
  • Who censures the censor? | Simon Hackett - Business Spectator - 27 Oct 2008
  • Conroy filter gag sparks sysadmin rage - ZDNet Australia - 27 Oct 2008
  • Minister under fire: IT Professionals say net filtering won't work - ITWire - 27 Oct 2008
  • Stranglehold on the internet - AdelaideNow - 27 Oct 2008
  • Interview with ‘Bullied’ Network Engineer on Australian Gov’t Net Filters - Network Performance Blog - 27 Oct 2008
  • Australia readies mandatory Internet filter - The Argosy - 27 Oct 2008
  • Freedom of speech depends on the right choices | Editorial - The Age
  • Filtering out our freedom - Adelaide Now
  • Australia now wants to ban Internet porn - The Inquirer - 27 Oct 2008
  • Proposed Aussie Bans Generating Heat - Online-Casinos.com
  • Push to censor online gambling, porn - LiveNews - 27 Oct 2008
  • Australia tries to Silence Web Filter Critics - guru3d (us) - 27 Oct 2008
  • In Conroy’s muddy waters you'll never know what’s being filtered - Linux World (aus)
  • Australian censorship minister tries to censor critic: time to go Conroy - The Inquisitr

28 October 2008

  • SAGE-AU defends right to criticise content filtering - CRN Australia
  • Editorial | Freedom of speech depends on the right choices - The Age
  • Australia's Internet filter: could legal content be banned, too? - Ars Technica
  • Greens, independents cautious on Conroy's proposed Internet filters - CommsDay.com
  • New internet filter imposed on all web surfers - Courier mail

29 October 2008

30 October 2008

31 October 2008

01 November 2008

02 November 2008

03 November 2008

04 November 2008

  • Online filtering recognises families' concerns - ABC Anh Nguyen
  • Top 5 reasons to fight government ISP filtering - APC Mag
  • We don't want Stephen Conroy in our bedrooms - Courier Mail
  • Comments, corrections, clarifications, and c*ckup - Crikey
  • Why Clean Feed Internet Plans Are Wrong - Lifehacker
  • America turns left - Examiner.com National Australia's Internet filtering is cited.
  • Colin Jacobs: Filtering at Odds with Broadband Revolution - GetUp
  • Rethink needed on web censorship - Border Watch
  • Online filtering recognises families' concerns - ABC

05 November 2008

Opinion

Blogs

Groups

Mark Newton | Senator Kate Ellis

YouTube Videos

Mention Worthy Quotes

"It is not the function of Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error."
- Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S. Judge

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"
- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American Statesman

Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real. Somewhere in their upbringing they were shielded against the total facts of our experience. They were only taught to look one way when many ways exist.
Charles Bukowski

"The press is easier to strangle than to look in the eyes."
-- Winston Churchill

"All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships."
-- George Bernard Shaw

"Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest of cowardice."
-- Holbrook Jackson

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."
-- Adolf Hitler

“When governments start covering the eyes and ears of the whole nation, however, there is a real problem. We only need to look at those governments that have taken it to the extreme and burnt books to understand that. But there are more subtle ways to inhibit the flow of ideas that we need to be just as alert to.”
-- Kate Lundy, Australian Labor Party Senator SMH

"Don’t shrink from a new technology just because it may be subject to criminal abuse. Exploit its strengths, while controlling its weaknesses. This will be the way to survive in an increasingly competitive world."
-Dr. P.N. Grabosky Australian Institute of Criminology

Terminology

Cleanfeed
The term referring to the content that has been fed through an Internet filtering system after it has filtered or blocked content that exists on one of the two blacklists.
ISP
Internet Service Provider
Key word filtering -
Latency
The delay (time) for a packet of data to move across a network connection between one point and another.

People

Anh Nguyen 
2006 Victorian Election candidate for Family First.
Retrieved from "http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/index.php?title=Australian_Internet_Filtering&oldid=13557"

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