Goodbye, with love, from Australia. (internet censorship and filtering)

Of course at first glance this may appear to be one of those threads where I am suppose to say how much fun i have had but how i am moving on from this forum etc.

I have often made the choice to leave and i may have made the choice one day to leave and not come back, but it seems that "choice" is most likely going to be made for me, as well as other Australian users.

The (Australian Federal) government in their loving wisdom have decided that in order to protect the children, they must secretly ban any website on the internet that they deem inappropriate in order to prevent child abuse.

That's great, except that it will do nothing to prevent child pornography or sexual predators, according to the experts. Having said that, despite that the filter will do nothing to prevent the crimes it is claimed to, cost tax payers and internet users millions and slow down internet speeds within Australia, there is still an upside.

I and my fellow Australians are now free from the pains of making decisions for ourselves on what content we should view. I now no longer have to make the mistake of reading debates about abortion or euthenasia. And I am now safe from the dangers that websites with, lets say, drug information may bestow on me.

But it could make one ask, who exactly are the children we are protecting? I am assuming I am one of these children along with all the other adult Australian citizens. Because this filter will be applied to all homes in Australia, including those that do not have any children living in them.

Apparantly we as Australians are children, we are not able to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate material. We, like children, are so easily influenced that mere access to debates about controversial political issues is dangerous to us personally.

Not only are we so feeble and immature that we are not allowed to see animated violence in video games (l4d2, but apparantly GTA4 is a.o.k.) but we should not even know what types of information is being denied to us, as the black list of sites will be secret. Apparantly even Iranians are mature enough to know whats being blocked.

This attitude has left me with a few theoretical questions, which may actually be dangerous, however i will leave the government to decide if my thoughts should be censored from other Australians, it's their job... apparantly.

The first question i ask myself, should Australia be allowed to have an armed force? shouldn't we allow Britain or another allied western country to provide a force for us? Is it not unethical to ask children to serve in the army? We in the western world codemn forces that use children soldiers, yet we have Australians (who, remember, have the minds of children) who serve in an armed force?

The second question that comes to my mind, is should Australians be allowed to raise our own children? Is it not unreasonable to ask children to raise other children (remember Australian adults have the minds of children)? One can only infer this to be true from the governments proposition, as clearly we cannot teach our children net safety or choose a filter ourselves, we are so feeble, the government must force it upon us rather than just offer it.

Finally, i'm not sure why we are allowed to even vote for leaders, clearly we can't handle the mature information required of anyone making an informed decision. This is obvious by the fact that sites dealing with controversial topics will be banned for our safety.

Fortunatley the voting thing is ok because we don't have many options and the options we do have are pretty damn similar, otherwise we would probably, in our immaturity, vote for the wrong party.

Anyway, unfortunatley, Hipforums contains many topics, that we as feeble and immature Australians cannot handle or make the choice to avoid for our own safety. So we leave it to you mature Americans and other mature citizens of the free world, to expand your understanding, exchange ideas and discuss topics far too mature in content for feeble, immature Australians.

And so as the kindling is prepared for the phantom book burning, i say, "Goodbye with love" - From Australia.

 

What the hell is wrong with the content?? .,,

 

Ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

 

I'll believe it when you don't see it.

 

Hello,

it's so sad to say, but asking for asylum in Germany will not be an inprovement in this case .

Regards
Gyro

 

isn't this old news...theres an old thread about it in the Australia section.

 

It may be old news to you, but to me as an Australian, we haven't seen nothing yet. They have only tested the filter lightly, it has in no way been implemented yet.

I'm hoping it doesn't at all but if the Rudd government is keen and the opposition agree, it looks like it will and it wont feel like old news to me.

P.S.
The following article was written yesterday.

http://thefrontline.v3.co.uk/2010/01/australia-turns.html

 

well that sucks then...I remember when a whole bunch of Australians (mostly easterners if I remember right) were blocked from here...if they had that much trouble and it was just a test then hopefully some computer litterate people can find a way around it before it gets fully implemented.

 

Dude, I was also blocked from this site for like a month "connection reset" in firefox everytime i tried. And that's just testing the filter (somewhat illegaly i would have thought), let alone it being implemented.

If it is implemented, Hipforums will be one of the first sites to be banned, i'm sure of it, despite the fact that i'm pretty damn sure this site doesn't host child pornography.

As for the computer literate people finding a way around, i'm sure they will, but it isn't exactly the point. The government has no right to tell me i'm not allowed to read about abortion, or marijuana or tell me that i'm not allowed to play a video game because it's too violent.

Next thing you know, i won't be allowed to read about how MY government is abusing human rights or fucking up in any other manner. I won't be able to protest or speak about the things i believe, i wont know it's going on.

And next thing you know, so much speech is banned, the truth so distorted and controlled by a few people, Australia will makes absurd claims like "we have no homosexuals in Australia"

Fortunatley, as you said people will get around, but the principle alone is enough reason to worry, if not the massive waste of tax payer money and slower internet speeds.

Here is an idea, why doesn't the Rudd government use all the money it was going to spend upgrading internet speed (which is then downgraded by the filter) and creating a filter, do neither and put the money towards the cyber crimes unit we have and actually catch predators?

 

because freedom makes people think they deserve freedom.

it takes too long to get fascist power if you give people actual freedom.

 

Kevin Rudd might as well carry the faces (quiver and arrows), to let us all know he has the greatest imperium to speak.

 

Well Written Post Xac,, Unfortunatly What You Wrote Is True, I Spent

Days Last Time This Site Dissappeared Emailing Everybody Connected With

My Internet Connection From The Telecommunications Ombudsman, My

Provider (bigpond), V-Bulletin, And Skip, Trying To Find Out What In The Hell Was

Going On...

Seems Our Esteemed Carers Were Testing The Filter , And I Lost Hip

Forums For About Three Months...

It Was Skip Who Found Out That The Reason H.Fs Was Banned Was The

Open Drug Content.

I Have No Doubt Whatsoever The Government Will Fall From Power

At The Next Election Over This Proposal, A Recent Poll In The Sydney

Morning Herald Showed 97 Percent Of Voters Were Against It.

Once Again, Thank You For Your Great Post.



Cheers Glen.

 

wrong Glenny...Hipforums lost you for 3 months

 

Awwwwww......*tears up and gets lump in throat*.......



Cheers Glen.

 

nooo!! not my aussies! :grouphug:

 

Well it seems to me that even if Labour loses the next election, the liberals will be in power, as is usually the case in a two party system. And I very much doubt that Tony Abbott is likely to care much about our intellectual freedoms, in fact as far as i have read, the opposition has shown no opposition to the idea of an Australian internet filter.

Oh i forgot to mention, you're welcome.

 

WTF, mate??

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end

 

the mel gibson complaint center is now open..

 

Happy Strayaday

Peace

 

...........



Cheers Glen.