This is a basic run down of what the filter will involve.
quote:
* The Government plans to impose mandatory Internet filtering at the Internet Service Provider (ISP) level. There are two lists, a 'child' safe list which filters both illegal content and hardcore pornography; a second which users can 'opt-out' to which only filters unwanted content.
* Senator Stephen Conroy, the Government Senator responsible for this project has stated that they will also be looking into the possibility of filtering other content that may be illegal in Australia. Which would for example include: euthanasia, abortion, drug-use, etc.
* Other political parties and members have made their intentions clear to include further content to be banned, such as overseas online gambling, and as suggested by Family First Senator Steve Fielding - hardcore pornography.
o 'Conservative' Senator, Cory Bernadi has since rescinded his support for the Government's plan, voiced his concerns with mandatory Internet filtering, and has also elaborated no his frustations with the current filtering systems in use in Parliamentary offices. 1
* Email, Peer to Peer, Instant messaging, newsgroups and any other custom application protocols are on the ACMA report as things that the Government is also planning to apply the ISP-Level filtering to.
* Conroy has answered in the Senate at Question Time that the filtering system will block access to "unwanted content". He has avoided answering any questions that Senator Ludlam has directed at him.
* The filtering trial has been scheduled to begin in April/May 2009, however there have been delays due to ACMA having to tighten security around the blacklist. iiNet had applied to be part of the trial but they later withdrew. iiNet's CEO Michael Malone said in a statement that "It became increasingly clear that the trial was not simply about restricting child pornography or other such illegal material, but a much wider range of issues including what the government simply describes as 'unwanted material' without an explanation of what that includes". The initial ISPs that will take part in the trial were announced on the 11th of February 2009 and they are Primus Telecommunications, Tech 2U, Webshield, OMNIconnect, Netforce and Highway 1. Optus was announced as a trial participant by the DBCDE on the 22nd April 2009 and will begin their trials on May 22nd 2009 on an opt-out basis for a selection of their DSL direct customers. Telstra and Exetel are conducting their own private trials of filtering technology.
* Up to 10,000 websites will be on the blacklist of the ISP Level filtering trial scheduled for April/May 2009. It is unknown what is on this list of banned websites, and it is likely that they will not be released at any time in the future.
o A list has been released on Wikileaks claiming to be the ACMA blacklist, however Conroy, ACMA and Tech2U have claimed this is not the actual ACMA list. Although Senator Conroy did confirm that a number of URLs on the list were present on the ACMA list and suggested that legal action would be taken against people passing on the list and AFP may become involved. The validity of the list cannot be confirmed as unbiased sources are not able to gain access to the real ACMA blacklist. 4
* Senator Conroy has been repeatedly questioned on the proposed filtering system by several other Senators from various parties, however has each time failed to answer the actual question directed at him.
* The extent of 'unwanted' websites is still unknown, however Senator Conroy now claims that the Government has always only wanted to block material that has been refused classification (RC) by the classification board. This is in stark contrast to the many statements he has made saying the Government intends to use the ACMA blacklist for the mandatory filtering tier which contains material that comes under a variety of classifications 5. The filtering trial will use the standard ACMA blacklist. It became known that the ACMA blacklist contains political content when a member of Whirlpool recently submitted a complaint relating to an anti-abortion website which contained pictures of unborn fetuses (however legal) to ACMA. ACMA confirmed that they were satisified that the images were something that would be classified as RC by the classification board and that the website had been added to the blacklist.
o A link to the now banned website was posted on the Whirlpool forums, and subsequently the ACMA ordered a takedown notice to Bulletproof Networks (Whirlpool's webhost) threatening fines of $11,000 a day. This is also unusual in the circumstance that it is never happened before as well as the takedown notice being issued to the webhost instead of the party responsible for hosted website.
* The ACMA list has already been leaked on the Wikileaks website.
o This list contained a number of legal websites which also include a dentist, dog kennel, and a Queensland tour operator. Among other URLs on the list are numerous Youtube, wikipedia, fringe religous, legal straight and gay porn, and euthanasia websites.
I would Support a mandatory filter for families with kids. But not for the entire population. The only way i would support it is if it didn't slow down the internet and if the government actually told us the process of how the choose which sites to block and which sites to not block. Is there guidelines, etc
P.S Remember, there is two filters, one for everyone (blocks out illegal sites such as child porn) and then theres a filter for families with kids, which is optional.
quote:
Originally posted by too long
maybe if you gave some details on what the filter will filter out, etc. then you may get some responses
Or you can go read up about the filter or just stay out of the thread and let australians that know about the filter reply. lol.
/ 
