Can we get a new Communications Minister, please?
Oh, Stephen Conroy, you really are a fucking idiot. After many months of bleating about how mandatory ISP filtering was necessary to stop kiddie porn, you can't now turn around and tell us you never said that. Okay, you never said it would stop P2P file sharing, but you ignored everyone who warned you that that was the primary method of distribution. It amounts to the same thing. Also, blocking web sites is censorship; it doesn't matter how you try to dress it up.
I'm not saying that kiddie porn shouldn't be blocked. It is highly illegal for a very good reason. I am saying that having a secret blacklist that covers not just kiddie porn, but regular porn and political content (anti-abortion sites and sites about suicide) is absolutely not on. I mean, make it optional, sure. Parents should be allowed to control what their children see, and more, er, sensitive people would probably appreciate such an option as well. However, some of us are grown up and know what is out there, and choose to brave the big wide web anyway. The government should not be able to make our viewing decisions for us.
I'm not saying that kiddie porn shouldn't be blocked. It is highly illegal for a very good reason. I am saying that having a secret blacklist that covers not just kiddie porn, but regular porn and political content (anti-abortion sites and sites about suicide) is absolutely not on. I mean, make it optional, sure. Parents should be allowed to control what their children see, and more, er, sensitive people would probably appreciate such an option as well. However, some of us are grown up and know what is out there, and choose to brave the big wide web anyway. The government should not be able to make our viewing decisions for us.