In Brief
The legislation, passed by the Senate and now tabled in the
House of Representatives (for an in depth look at key catalyst
Senator Harradine and Australia's Federal Parliament, click
here.) was summarised
by leading Perth Internet Service Provider,
iinet. They
wrote:
Very succinct and appropriately one sided. Also note that this
legislation's most comparable counter-parts exist in Iran, Burma and
China. Hooray for Australia -- now that's how you intergrate into
your geographic location. So in celebrating the Australian
governments bold embracement of the regimes of other countries,
and other times, let's have a look at the legislation.
Style and Substance
There are few things more fun than draconian legislation. Everybody,
deep down, wants to be told what to do by people in power. And who
better to do it than a conservative government voted in of electoral
boundaries. But I digress. Onto the task at hand -- what's all this
legislation about?
Firstly and fore-mostly, it's about protecting the children. As so eloquently put, little Tommy or Molly will be doing their homework, type in something into a search engine and the next thing you know -- serious porn. This legislation will protect the children from making horrendous career moves. After all, there are precious little advertisments in the paper for porn stars, so it would be really quite bad for little Tommy to decide to become "Big Tommy Two Guns" because, quite frankly, there isn't much money in it. So the legislation helps kids avoid making bad career decisions.
Of course, it would be frivolous and stupid to say that was it. This
legislation protects kids in far more meaningful ways. By issuing such
a blanket ban many taboo topics are hidden away from view. For example,
learning about some darker aspects of Australia's heritage. Now, websites
that discuss the graphic violence, racism and turmoil of Australia's past
can be shielded from view. A return to innocence, really. Sort of like
growing your hymen back. The last thing anyone wants is a bunch of
cynical children.
Assessing The Claims
The Government hopes the effectiveness of the legislation is inversely
proportionate to the amount of criticism it receives from experts. After
all, when you've got a cold, you don't go to a Doctor, you sit down and
figure out your own solution. You go to the cupboard, get some tea and honey
and sort your self out. This kind of forward, balanced thinking is the
hallmark of a democratic nation's ability to adapt to the times. So really,
is it necessary to look at iinet's claim's? After all, they are just a
collation of opinions of experts? Well, in the name of presenting a
balanced, objective article, we're going to anyway!
Number One "it will be unenforceable". Clearly a mis-statement, otherwise the other five claims would be completely irrelevant, wouldn't they? It's quite simple -- little Molly, or Big Molly for that matter, see's porn or something like it, tell's Government, Government fines ISP. Pretty easy and highly effective. It's not like their banning anything tangible like alcohol or anything -- research* clearly shows the Government's plan will work. I mean, just look at how WAREZ have been destroyed through Copyright legislation.
Number Two is it will "Slow down your Internet Access". If ISP's are going to stop people from breaking the law, obviously they'll need to keep copies of everything. I'm not entirely sure if this will slow down your internet access, but I'm guessing that's not a problem. In today's fast world of computers, it's good that the Government is thinking of us and telling us, we just have to slow down. I'm sure this slow down will be factored into our Gross Domestic Product, thus leading to a happier Australia with less Road Rage. In any case, now that pornography isn't allowed, why on earth would you be downloading anything other than text?
Number Three is it will "increase costs". Of course it will increase costs.
This is part of the legislative plan. Impecunious people are more likely to
buy paper-back pornography (or steal it from public libraries). This
legislation ensures Australia's very large paper-based pornographic industries
are protected from impecunious people affording internet connections and
moving towards downloadable porn. Increasing costs is also quite important
to make up for the investment shortfall (see below).
Number Four is it will "decrease investment in Australia". This is quite a
valid point. Rich, overseas investors wont want to invest in any country
that has morals. This is counter-productive to the aims of Capitalism. More
importantly, new websites would collapse with a decrease in 'click-throughs'.
Once again, Australia's Government is thinking about the little guy and
protecting small business from evil overseas investment.
Number Five is "fail completely to protect your children". Frankly, I agree with this -- the Government should have gone further and banned children from access to any kind of technology. Technology makes them far to competitive when they hit the job market. More importantly, it has lead to the rise of Murder Simulators. For more info, read about it here. But it will protect adults from becoming unnecessarily distracted from work or relationships -- keeping Australia's families together.
Number Six is "excessively infringe on your freedom". As a visiting American put it (and you can find more about America here.) "the great freedom you're talking about is the right to visit www.dirtysluts.com". Now is that the kind of Australia we want? Well, is it? I didn't think so.