And so it becomes ironic that such conservative politicians are making such wild suggestions regarding the mandatory ISP filters. Australia is becoming so conservative that it is apparently now necessary to regulate not just what children are accessing on the internet, but also adults too. Are we, as a whole nation, too immature to look at nasty websites? It starts out with illegal sites, such as child pornography, and ends in what? Facebook because it houses profiles of criminals and makes cyber bullying really easy? Wikipedia because it is an unregulated source of information? I mean come on, what happened to the free speech and personal choice that this country so readily boasts about to other nations? This is Australia!
I recently wrote a letter to my federal member telling her exactly what I thought about this outrageous breach of my freedom.
I am writing to express my opposition and concern regarding the introduction of mandatory ISP filtering in response to a survey I was sent recently. I am currently studying a double degree in Law/Communications and Media (Journalism) and as a student with a very liberal approach to life, I am offended at the idea of someone else deciding what is and isn't appropriate for me to access on the internet. I have grown up in a household where I have had unfiltered internet access from a very young age. I have no doubt, at some point in my childhood, come across content deemed inappropriate for a child's viewing, in the process of exploring the vast array of content available online, however, my parents have been careful to teach me right from wrong, and I assure you I have not been "corrupted" in any way.
There are a number of concerns I have over the introduction of this mandatory filtering program. Firstly, while I agree that there is a lot of content available online that is not appropriate for children, I am of the opinion that money would be better spent on educating parents, and more importantly children, what is and isn't appropriate to access. The other option, is to use the money to put towards filters to give parents, who can then decide what they will/won't allow their child to access. A parent blocking certain sites from their children is one thing, the government blocking certain sites from fully functional, self sufficient adults, is another. There hardly seems to be a calling to deny adults access to this "inappropriate" content. There can only ever be a subjective outlook on what is inappropriate to access in any case, since everyone has different ideas on what this might mean. What one person finds highly offensive, might be completely normal or even interesting/amusing to someone else.
Secondly, we don't and can't filter everything considered inappropriate out of normal every day life, just as we cannot feasibly filter out every site that is deemed inappropriate. We can't hide children from terrorist attacks, wars, topless sunbathers on local beaches, offensive language that is rife among school aged children ( as well as in the general public), dead animals on the side of the road or sex in movies- and this is only touching on what is really out there. Honestly, I think often the news is worse than any website, and in this day and age, the news often exposes what is on certain websites anyway, which only boosts the viewing of those sites!
Finally, I would like to touch on the concern of freedom of personal choice. I understand that society deems certain things inappropriate collectively, however, in Australia, we boast essentially complete freedom. We advertise ourselves as an understanding, multicultural, diverse nation. People come to live here, to be free, and yet here we are wanting to control what people access in the privacy of their homes? This is not tolerant, this is not freedom. This is control. Control that is unnecessary and insulting to the average Australian.
