All in the name of the Children

Senator Conroy's plan to filter the net in Australia caught the attention of the Leo and the gang on TWiT, the clip is embedded below.

My understanding of the intent of the filter is that it is part of a Cyber-Safety Plan to protect people, and especially children, from being subjected to the worst of human depravity. I agree with the intent. I agree that if public money is to be spent, it should be spent on law enforcement and education, and it is law enforcement and education that the other elements of the cyber safety plan concentrate on.

My issue with is the ISP based internet filtering. And that filtering is based on building a black list from content that is refused classification by the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA). Plus trusted foreign black lists could be incorporated (Part 2, Option 4 of the Consultation Paper on this matter).

I have concerns that should this insanity occur will a citizen:

• know if they attempt to launch a blocked site?


• have access to an appeals process?

Regarding the technology I have a concern about the ineffectiveness the technology will be against those who intend to access the blocked offensive material. My understanding is a system blocking URLs at the ISP could be bypassed via proxies and/or vpn (plus other solutions other savvy net users will find). So ISP based filtering will create issues for people without the intent to view such material, while not preventing the distribution of the offensive materials.

Regarding the potential abuse of power I have a concern that other criteria can be added to the black list.  Materials that should be available on free speech grounds could be blocked, and the less savvy net user would have no idea they are being blocked from accessing these sites.

Regarding legal implications I have a concern that putting these requirements onto ISPs could make them the de facto regulator of content on line. Currently ISPs are consider carriers of packets and no more, similar to the postal system, they do not have responsibility for the content of the packets moving through the system. Once the ISP have some responsibility for packet content, it could be the thin edge of the wedge for making ISPs responsible for all content. Regulatory compliance will add to the cost of the internet for Australian citizens.

Regarding cost of the bureaucracy I have a concern that the ACMA will not be able to keep up with citizen requests for sites to be blocked. An agency that traditionally reviews film and literature will need to keep up with magnitudes of content that gets on the net, this is orders of magnitude greater than then the literature and film created each year. Plus there will be a multiplier as multiple URLs can point to the same content.

My final concern is that with technology that a savvy net user can bypass, or if blocked sites have a standard warning page (Part 2, Option 3 of the Consultation Paper on this matter), the black list can be reversed engineered. This will draw attention to the depravity that people put on line, completely defeating the intent of the Cyber-Safety Plan.

If you're an Australian citizen, check out the Consultation Paper and provide your input. Also EFA's site on the matter, nocleanfeed.com, for other actions you can take [full disclosure, I'm not connected with EFA in any way].

If you live elsewhere; be vigilant of your government or internet industry (as corporations could be doing this without legislative mandate) attempting to clean your internet feed.