The Internet Should not be Censored

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The government is proposing a new internet filter that claims to protect children from inappropriate content, and other content that is found on the internet. Today with all the advances with technology there is still no effective way to censor the internet. Internet censorship can also restrict other people's freedom. What would happen if the government said that they were going to block an opposition party website, or a website to a topic that they are opposed too. With this proposal to filter the internet politicians choose what they want to censor, not a judge! The resources that are being used for the internet filter are better spent elsewhere to protect children, as this proposal is a waste of money. This proposal will just liken the Australian Government to the governments of China, North Korea and Burma. Countries that are very restrictive with their information and their internet as well.

It is ineffective

The internet changes every day. New websites are created. Because of the changes in the internet this makes a filter ineffective. The internet filter proposed by the government only has 3205 websites blocked, in its blacklist. This will not protect children because new websites go up all the time. Also a huge amount of human labour is needed to maintain an internet filter. Human labour costs money and the money are coming from you, the taxpayer. A study has revealed that approximately 30 million web pages are unsuitable for children. That amount of web pages would be slow under a very large group. If automated blocking systems were put in place, this would increase the amount of false positives. This is just a waste of taxpayers’ money. Your money! The internet filter also has false positives, and this would cause ...

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...low compared to other international standards. Finally politicians make the decision on what websites are to be blocked, not a judge. Politicians often make wrong and unconstitutional decisions, while judges can still make wrong decisions, are independent from the government. This confines our right to free speech. An internet filter was attempted to be enforced in Australia but that failed. Any more internet filters will just be another non accomplishment.

If you think internet filtering is used to prevent illegal content, people get this by Usenet and peer-to-peer computer networks, not the world-wide web. Usenet and peer-to-peer networks are harder to police than the world wide web, and harder to filter as well. Usenet and peer-to-peer have some genuine reasons as well, but these illegitimate reasons are how unsuitable content is distributed around the internet.

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