Internet Censorship

[Pladio]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_hi_te/as_tec_australia_internet_filter

Australia plans to introduce an Internet filtering system to block obscene and crime-linked Web sites despite concerns it will curtail freedoms and won't completely work.

Adopting a mandatory screening system would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among the world's democracies. Authoritarian regimes commonly impose controls. China drew international criticism earlier this year with plans to install filtering software on all PCs sold in the country.

The government said Tuesday it will introduce legislation next year for the filter system to help protect Australians, especially children, from harmful material on the Internet. Critics say it will not prevent determined users from sharing such content, and could lead to unwarranted censorship by overzealous officials.

Communication Minister Stephen Conroy said the government would be transparent in compiling its blacklist of Web sites, but did not give details.

Conroy said the Australian filter was among a number of new measures aimed at strengthening online protection for families. It aims to block material such as child pornography, bestiality, rape and other sexual violence, along with detailed instructions about committing crimes or using illicit drugs.

I don't like censorship. It usually results in over-censorship. It should be up to the parents to limit their children internet usage, not the government, IMHO.
What do you guys think ? (Especially the Australian people)

 

[hishadow]

For a land filled with convicts, they sure like their legislation strict.

 

[Corwin]

First I've heard about it, but then I try to filter out anything said by politicians; that's my way of protecting my family from undesirable influences!!

 

[Tragos]

I think it is wrong and ridiculous and why the hell should families security comes before shingle's joy ? if they had concerns about the internet they shouldn't make kids in the first place.

 

[txa1265]

First I've heard about it, but then I try to filter out anything said by politicians; that's my way of protecting my family from undesirable influences!!

Of course, something you champion - a single view of religion - is right up there with things that are likely to be censored. It is thought policing, plain and simple.

 

[DArtagnan]

This kinda works against the whole idea of the Internet.

 

[GothicGothicness]

Almost every country in the world is already blocking certain illegal websites. The problem with filterning systems is that they don't work well from a technical point of view. On top of that if you want to look at these kind of things there are a lot of free proxies around + you can signup to megaproxy or simular services... so you are not acctually preventing anything. Much better to give global authority the possibly to shutdown illegal sities completely. By for example removing them from the DNS servers..... even if they cannot get to the physical servers......

 

[Tragos]

What exactly is an illegal site? 4chan?
Too much noise over a single photo .

The more they censor the more likely they step on marblecakes

 

[GothicGothicness]

What exactly is an illegal site? 4chan?
Too much noise over a single photo .

I think it is not so hard to determine we have laws after all. Child porn, bestiality as above poster mentioned, warez and pirate websites….. websites to sell illegal drugs and organs… etc etc. Basically any website which would break the law, of course if owner of said website would protest and have a valid point it would go to a trial…. to prevent abuse.

We would arrest a person who sold drugs, consumed child porn, or illegall goods in the real world so why should it be allowed on the internet?

As I said filtering is kind of pointless though and work very bad, you'd need global authority to take these things down.....

 

[RivianWitch]

The Australian government should censor child porn and bestiality.

The original post mentioned child porn, bestiality and rape - so by omission you are saying rape is ok? Interesting that nobody mentioned necrophilia and snuff movies, actually.

In my personal humble opinion censorship for adults should never exist - - but it's a different matter when it comes to kids under a certain age, who have not yet gained the maturity to filter certain material in the proper context.

The big dilemma is just how to achieve the result that those who cannot yet handle it, don't get to see it. Perhaps making it harder to access even for adults might just be collateral damage one should accept?

…and saying that people should not have children is really a silly comment, and whoever said it probably knows it.

Like GG said, sites that break the law should of course not be allowed, and one would expect Interpol to investigate such things as organ/sex slave trafficking and the like, in any case.

 

[JemyM]

The first question when it comes to legislation should never ever be "should it be allowed?" but rather "how much does it take to prohibit it?" and maybe even "can we effectively prohibit it".

Prohibition always have a pricetag and one must first consider if that pricetag can be afforded and if not what else must be saved on to be able to afford that pricetag and is the end result worth it?

For instance, how much money/resources/manpower need to be spent to censor beastiality and what gain comes from this investment? Are the money spent on the massive project of stopping people watching other people having sex with dogs or horses well spent government resources? If the same sum would go to, let's say, helping homeless, fighting drugs or youth crime... would the gain from fighting bestiality really outweight the gain from spending the money elsewhere?

People who are concerned with what other people is allowed to do are always hungry. Their ultimate goal is for everyone to be the same, a goal which is impossible to reach. A faster and in the long run more realistic goal is to teach everyone to accept reality and adapt to it.
People concerned with making sure everyone are like themselves is a monster that is always hungry.

Better learn to adapt and live with reality than try to avoid it. If you do not learn how to live in relationship with reality it will just hurt you more if you are ever exposed to it.

 

[GothicGothicness]

You fail to see the point, that there is something behind most of the websites. If someone can earn a lot of money by offering child porn / bestiality or organs etc online, they will do it, and when people see people do it, it will affect them also.

So by stopping these kind of websites and of course trying to catch the criminals behind them, you are also stopping the people who earn money and/or enjoyment out of doing it. Of course there should also be investigations and attempts to arrest.

Nothing of this is achieved by filtering, as the people who want access can still get it, through for example proxies... however it is achieved by my suggestion.

 

[JemyM]

You fail to see the point, that there is something behind most of the websites. If someone can earn a lot of money by offering child porn / bestiality or organs etc online, they will do it, and when people see people do it, it will affect them also.
So by stopping these kind of websites and of course trying to catch the criminals behind them, you are also stopping the people who earn money and/or enjoyment out of doing it. Of course there should also be investigations and attempts to arrest.
Nothing of this is achieved by filtering, as the people who want access can still get it, through for example proxies… however it is achieved by my suggestion.

Beastiality from moral philosophy is a non-issue. The fact that some are offended by people doing it is not enough reason to burn resources on fighting it (which is a key reason beastiality is legal in Sweden).

When it comes to childporn or illegal organ trading, would you consider that the first act to be closing down their phoneline and invalidate their drivers license so that they may not do their criminal activity by phone or by car?

Childporn or illegal organ trading are done by people that should be in jail, if someone is dumb enough to have a website about it it's like allowing them to give themselves in. Prohibiting "websites with illegal content" is as illogical as prohibiting "phonecalls with illegal content". It misses the point.

 

[peko]

Beastiality from moral philosophy is a non-issue.

No it isn't. It might be a non-issue for a great number of moral philosophies but for at least one it is not a non-issue. The mere fact that many people are offended by beastiality makes it an issue in moral philosophy.

The fact that some are offended by people doing it is not enough reason to burn resources on fighting it (which is a key reason beastiality is legal in Sweden).

Can you back that up or is it just your interpretation?

 

[JemyM]

The mere fact that many people are offended by beastiality makes it an issue in moral philosophy.

Homosexuality?
Jews?
Interracial marriage?
Foreigners?
Loitering free black men?

Being "offended" is not a justifiable cause to prohibit freedom.

It's an issue in psychology, that's all.

Can you back that up or is it just your interpretation?

Just google "bestiality sweden" to read up on it.

 

[peko]

Homosexuality?
Jews?
Interracial marriage?
Foreigners?
Loitering free black men?

Being "offended" is not a justifiable cause to prohibit freedom.

It's an issue in psychology, that's all.

What's that got to do with anything? I'd say that all of the above are issues in moral philosophy no matter how self-evident we might regard the answers to be.
I'll agree that being offended isn't a justifiable cause to prohibit freedom, but that's because I adhere to John Stuart Mills principle of freedom, only one part out of many moral philosophies.
To clarify further, it's not that I disagree with your conclusion, I disagree with your assertion that beastiality is a non-issue from the perspective of moral philosophy.

Just google "bestiality sweden" to read up on it.

So I should disprove your assertion?
In the sake of honesty I did google it and read the first ten hits, big surprise, not one of them supported your assertion. Do you have any evidence that there was some cost/benefit analysis when they removed the law against beastiality in 1944? If so please present it or just concede that you were presenting your personal interpretation as fact.

 

[Ubereil]

Beastiality from moral philosophy is a non-issue.

Why?

Übereil

 

[GothicGothicness]

When it comes to childporn or illegal organ trading, would you consider that the first act to be closing down their phoneline and invalidate their drivers license so that they may not do their criminal activity by phone or by car?

Yes, if it is the best and easiest way to make their trading harder. You might not be able to get to the people behind it all, but by shutting down their websites and limiting their customer base you are already hurting them financially!

 

[Tragos]

I don't know any site that closed down for selling human organs .
I will not talk about bestiality and although it is not of my general taste what one does with his/her dog stays between him/her and the dog.
On pedo vids i tell you that , all the mess started over a single photo and not because it was terrible (of course it was) but because a big number of those who saw it felt that it looked sexy , i know it is sick but this is how the whole thing started. Someone posted this pic in my IRC chan ( link without description) and several users (my chan got like 50 people average in back then ) clicked on it , me included …now what, we all get arrested?

I greatly enjoy porn , i love torture bdsm vids , humiliation and the likes , so what? they are all made by professional actors who singed a contract and got paid for it , how the hell is this illegal ? I also like execution vids (real ones) you know stuff like beheadings, hangings etc ; the western media find them atrocious but if the authorities of Yemen or Sudan decided to shoot someone in the head it is perfectly legal for me to watch it , no ?

The thing with warez is totally different and i don't wanna talk about.

I feel that the state is heavily discriminating against me , if they prefer the morals of a family guy over mine this is discrimination and as far as i know this IS illegal.
I am an adult and i do what i like , i chose what i like and i feel sorry for all those who want to make the choices for me but the Nazi Germany is long gone.

 

[RivianWitch]

I also like execution vids (real ones) you know stuff like beheadings, hangings etc ; the western media find them atrocious but if the authorities of Yemen or Sudan decided to shoot someone in the head it is perfectly legal for me to watch it , no ?

Geez, buddy…


Posted by GothicGothicness:

You fail to see the point, that there is something behind most of the websites. If someone can earn a lot of money by offering child porn / bestiality or organs etc online, they will do it, and when people see people do it, it will affect them also.

Yeah, like the Australian father who molested and raped his 3-month old and 6-year old daughters on tape so that he could make money out of distributing the material online…

Btw, personally I only see bestiality as an issue if the animal is hurt/harmed. Then it becomes an issue for the anticruelty organisations. ..but if you prefer to have sex with a pig or donkey, that is your own business - I don't have to watch it anyway.