Access to popular sites such as Facebook and MySpace could be blocked if the federal Government introduce legislation which they say is ‘not really’ about censorship, moreover criminals that defraud people. Industry experts warn that policing the Internet could prove to be a very difficult task considering the complications involved when trying to close down a specific site that is linked to non-prohibited sites by the same IP address. This type of total control approach is used by the Chinese which basically block everything in that IP range. Other areas of concern revolve around the ramifications that such a law might have that could be deemed unconstitutional.
A spokesman for Communications Minister Helen Coonan said the amendment would address “a gap” in the present legislation. “This is not really about censorship,” he said. “We’re talking about sites that are established by criminals to defraud people.
Electronic Frontiers Australia chair Dale Clapperton said the proposal had nothing to do with terrorism.
“These laws will be open to massive abuses by the police,” he said. “They could, for example, be used to prevent access to websites organising protest marches or rallies against the government, or advocating the legalisation of euthanasia.
“But, as a technologist, I have to point out that blocking content from overseas is horrifically hard, if not impossible.”
“Unfortunately, filtering will not make the internet safe for children. If parents are deceived into thinking a filtered service is safe they will be less likely to supervise their children while they use the internet.”
Read the entire article at AustralianIT.com.au
