The article below was initially posted way back in April 2009 on our newsletter. Many of these points are still valid but don't just take my word for it, look it up for yourself.
The Australian Government has been running a trial with some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to censor inappropriate material on the web. In a nutshell, any user who tries to access certain "inappropriate" sites are denied access to that site. These inappropriate websites are stored on a blacklist maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. The sites on this list remain a secret.
I would not normally touch anything even remotely political with a 10-foot pole, however, censorship across Australian networks is not a good thing. I am not saying that the idea itself is bad, far from it. The problem is that there are so many intrinsic issues related to this. Firstly, there may well be legal ramifications to censoring content. Then you have to think about the fact that the filter will actually slow our networks down (in some cases quite significantly) even more than they currently are. The additional cost for filtering will be likely be passed down to users. There are numerous other issues, and you can click here to read just one of the many blogs that are popping up on the Internet and protesting about the censorship.
iiNet is Australia's third largest ISP, and has recently withdrawn from the trial. Click here to read more about it. As you can see from the article, the blacklist is far from perfect. Here is another article on the controversial blacklist.
For a more objective overview about Internet censorship in Australia, click here.
Being a parent myself, I understand that other parents would want the Internet to be a safe place for their children. However, I believe that censorship by the government is not the right direction. It should always start in the home, with the parents.