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Cornered! Internet filter clogged with regurgitated policies
Cornered! Internet filter clogged with regurgitated policies | Internet filter clogged with regurgitated policies |
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| Written by Stuart Corner | |
| Monday, 13 August 2007 | |
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Page 2 of 4 In that denouncement, Coonan neglected to mention existing policy: namely mandatory codes developed by the Internet Industry Association and registered by the then Australian Broadcasting Authority in May 2005 following community consultation. They require ISPs to prominently display a link to Internet safety information on their home pages, to provide filters to customers at cost or below price and to provide updates on filtering options to their customers every four months. My spot check of the sites of a few prominent ISPs revealed just how 'prominent' information on filters wasn't. The simple step of beefing up and better enforcing this requirement would have achieved much. Despite comprehensively panning ISP-based filtering in March 2006, by June 2006, Coonan did a significant about face, releasing a request for tender for a trial of ISP based content filtering products in Tasmania as part of a wider trial of content filtering products at the ISP level. http://www.itwire.com/content/view/13171/127/ She noted that this was the fourth such trial of this technology! And as EFA points out, this week's announcement requiring ISPs to implement filtering has been made without input from the results of that trial. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Coonan also announced in June 2006 that the Government would provide every Australian family with a free Internet filter as part of a $116.6 million "comprehensive package of measures to crack down on the scourge of Internet pornography." Another recycled component of this week's announcement was filtering for libraries. "Whilst the National Library of Australia filters all public internet terminals, I am aware that many state, territory and local libraries do not filter their computers." Coonan said. |
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