Attention Aussie Internet Users

[Spec8472]

If you havn't heard about it - there's a plan by the current Federal Government to implement mandatory filtering of all internet access.

The basics of this are that there will be a blacklist of known banned sites, and in addition a "dynamic" keyword based filter.
The long and the short of it is that if you are in Australia, then under the planned filters the entire Sennadar site will be blocked, regardless of your preference to switch from the 'Unsuitable for Children' filter to the 'Unsuitable for Australians' filter.

So, if you've got any concerns about a hugely costly filter that will arbitrarily block content - and be easily bypassed by anyone with a spare five minutes - then you should check out http://www.nocleanfeed.com/ and contact your MPs.


Technical note: It's rediculously easy to bypass the filter - Any site admin willing to install a SSL Certificate on their site can let users bypass the dynamic keyword filter. The downside is that it costs a few hundred dollars a year to maintain, and slows things down as all the content is encrypted and cant be cached by the browse. Any other form of filtering/blacklisting would also be easily bypassed by using TOR or other proxying services.

[Phantom]

Don't they know the internet is for ......"PORN!"

Interesting I wouldn't have considered Sennadar.com (NSFW)
And here i thought our Goverment was Nutts.


Phantom

[Spec8472]

Interesting I wouldn't have considered Sennadar.com (NSFW)

Well given some of the discussions, and Fel's writings - at the very least it would be rated R18+. Then because we have no age verification system (i.e provide your CC so that we can verify you're an account holder, and thus over 18) the site would be included in the static blacklist.

In addition to that, there's a bunch of links on the site which go to sites that would be considered Refused Classification (i.e: completely banned) and they would trigger any dynamic filters to block the site.

[Byte Storm]

You could always use a VPN to another computer out of country, and send any web requests over the VPN. As long as it is a secure VPN, they will not be able to detect it.

[Spec8472]

You could always use a VPN to another computer out of country, and send any web requests over the VPN. As long as it is a secure VPN, they will not be able to detect it.

My point isn't that you can bypass it -- that's really easy, and takes all of five minutes.

My point is that the government is going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars slowing down Internet access for everyone, for something that can be bypassed in five minutes, and thus stopping nothing.

[boballab]

Spec its a Government program what do you expect? When I think of Government programs I expect Big, costly, boondoggle and campaign payoff in that order, I never expect them to work or to be logical.

[Spec8472]

Spec its a Government program what do you expect? When I think of Government programs I expect Big, costly, boondoggle and campaign payoff in that order, I never expect them to work or to be logical.

I expect better from my government - it's my tax money they're spending, and it's my life they're impacting when they create policy and law.

To paraphrase someone else, people shouldn't be afraid of the government - the government should be afraid of the people.

[GBLW]

To paraphrase someone else, people shouldn't be afraid of the government - the government should be afraid of the people.

So, does Australia have recall legislation for their political idjits?

[Metatrone]

"idle hands are the devil's workshop"
Though I guess it's stupidity's workshop in this case.

[dellstart]

Whilst I agree you have to do something to stop kiddies accidentally coming across porn.-yeah , if your a parent this is a huge worry.
Nevertheless I don't know if this is the solution.

[boballab]

That's the thing Dellstart it is something government can't fix for people. The best preventive is involved parents not "big brother" trying to use a techinal bandaid because they never work.

[dellstart]

That's always true, but someone has to draw the line somewhere.I agree Government might not be the solution ,but i do worry for my kids.
Its not like I can tell them put on the idiot box, and as long as its on certian channels (or certian times of the day) I am safe.One wrong click or misspelled word and you have a chance of exposing them to who knows what.That's why our computer is in the living room and I check (religiously) what they are surfing or viewing. However whats to say, that some kid somewhere got hold of the net , then who knows what.Society does have a responsibility to its children.

I am no liberal or Democrat , i just want to make a bit safer for kids and at the same time not restrict the right to a adult to read or watch they want.There has to be a happy medium.

[boballab]

That's always true, but someone has to draw the line somewhere.I agree Government might not be the solution ,but i do worry for my kids.
Its not like I can tell them put on the idiot box, and as long as its on certian channels (or certian times of the day) I am safe.One wrong click or misspelled word and you have a chance of exposing them to who knows what.That's why our computer is in the living room and I check (religiously) what they are surfing or viewing. However whats to say, that some kid somewhere got hold of the net , then who knows what.Society does have a responsibility to its children.

I am no liberal or Democrat , i just want to make a bit safer for kids and at the same time not restrict the right to a adult to read or watch they want.There has to be a happy medium.

You have already done more to protect your kids with what you are doing then what the governement is proposing, because it is not only the immediate dangers to them you also are giving a good example for later in life. That is something alot of parents forget, how they live their lives is the biggest influence on how their kids live theirs.

Something else to always remember is that even though you want to protect them from everything, you can't. That has been something every parent has struggled with since the dawn of man.

[Phantom]

Spec its a Government program what do you expect? When I think of Government programs I expect Big, costly, boondoggle and campaign payoff in that order, I never expect them to work or to be logical.

I expect better from my government - it's my tax money they're spending, and it's my life they're impacting when they create policy and law.

To paraphrase someone else, people shouldn't be afraid of the government - the government should be afraid of the people.

Isn't that why they took away your Guns ?

Phantom

[Spec8472]

Whilst I agree you have to do something to stop kiddies accidentally coming across porn.-yeah , if your a parent this is a huge worry.
Nevertheless I don't know if this is the solution.

[

In Australia, there's already a Federal Government funded service that provides free Internet Filters (download it, or they'll mail you a CD) for the home PC AND guidance on installing/configuring it (with a toll-free number to call for any issues). see http://www.netalert.gov.au/ There's versions for everything from Windows 98 to Vista, and Mac OS 10.4 and above.

Once you've got a filter you can install one of the free filters and configure it to only allow permitted sites amongst a bunch of other things.
This service was started by the previous Government, and so this government is labelling it as a failure. The reason it's being labelled a failure isn't because people couldn't make it work - but because it didn't achieve huge widespread takeup.

So, again, Parents that are concerned about what their kids see online should instead be installing this on the PC AND combining it with education and some form of monitoring -- i.e what you're already doing.

Instead, the government's going with this heavy handed approach that will attempt to ban all illegal content to ALL people (you can't opt out).

And for what it's worth, Illegal content isn't just Porn - it can include sites describing personal accounts of substance abuse, anorexia, abortions, and others. Plus, given the 'dynamic' keyword filtering - any site happening to trigger a few banned words would also be blocked too.

The 'opt-out' portion will relate only to material that is rated R18+ and comes with an age verification system.