Internet Censorship In Australia

* The internet is the fastest growing and largest tool for mass communication and information distribution in the world. It can be used to distribute large amounts of information anywhere in the world at any time. The Australian government revealed a plan to put in place a compulsory filter on the internet to prevent access to inappropriate material. In 2011, the people of Australia and its politicians alike have expressed major concerns over this introduction of a censorship, as the vast amount of ethical and practical problems associated with this scheme are triggering the debate. Good morning, my name is Amanda and I strongly oppose the introduction of internet censorship in Australia for multiple reasons.

* Firstly and most importantly,
Moreover, protecting children from adult content is a terrible excuse for a filter. Whatever happened to just decent parenting? It is the parents’ responsibility to monitor their children’s internet usage. It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure their children learn how to use the wealth of information on the internet responsibly. Introducing the filter teaches parents that they are not accountable for their children’s’ welfare, but the government is. A filter is not a replacement for parental supervision of young children on the internet, nor is it necessary for children mature enough to understand what they encounter. It is a false sense of security for parents who will happily criticise the government at every opportunity but are simply too lazy to supervise their own kids. Furthermore, it hardly seems logical that a filter would be enforced to protect children when the majority of Australian households don’t even have
Both the Liberal party and the Greens do not support this scheme and the idea infuriates numerous Australians. This is evident through the petitions and discussions made by outraged Australians attacking the idea of a compulsory filter on the internet. The Labor party are the only people who truly support the plan and some family-orientated groups are also encouraging it as they have children, but they are forgetting the reality that there are many citizens without kids. The main reason this proposal hasn’t been completely discarded yet is because the Labor party is determined that we as Australians require this for our own benefit, regardless of the number of countless people that disagree with it. The fact that our own government will not take into account the opinions of the people that are actually affected by their ideas is extremely alarming. Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home. What we want to avoid is to degraded into an almost autocratic-like system of government similar to countries like China, Iran and North Korea where internet censorship is