Unless you have been living under a rock, or have no internet connection, you will know that the Australian government is proposing to censor the internet in Austrlia.
The recent events in Iran, and people’s use of twitter, show how effective censoring the Internet in a country can be. Not very. Not without inadvertently affecting numerous other things that depend on the network infrastructure.
Maybe we need to have mandatory filters installed on all computers, just like like China? No, we already know there is an army of 16 year olds waiting to break them.
No other option then, just make accessing sites on the Office of Film and Literature Classification banned list a criminal offence.
Mr Smith goes to answer a knock at the door. Standing there are 3 burly AFP agents holding an arrest warrant.
“Good evening Mr Smith. You are under arrest for accessing sites on the OFLC banned list.”
“What?…I haven’t accessed anything illegal!… What is this about?”
“You have been accessing the web site of dentist in Queensland. Don’t attempt to deny it Mr Smith. We have logs from your ISP.
“And hand over that smart phone too. The community do not need to see any more tweets about your visits to the tuckshop.”
Putting asside the feasibility aspect for a moment. Do we really want Australia grouped with countries with such poor human rights records as Iran and China? Do we want a central regime that controlls all access to information?