Latest shift in govt policy

[Jan Whitaker]

I saw a report on ACA last night about the disbanding of the Advertising
Council.  The report said that 

1)  the Ad Cncl is being eliminated [I'm fairly certain on that point]
2)  the Advertising Code of Practice has been abolished
3)  the only recourse a citizen will have to complain is through the civil
courts
4)  to issue a complaint will incur a cost to the complainant [I thought
it was $3000 but that maybe the charge for the copyright contention case
of the lady who had her book stolen by a Horse Equipment company in
Sydney]

My point is that there seems to be an inconsistency in policy depending on
format of the information.  If it's TV, radio or print, the advertising
industry doesn't have to comply with any decency laws any more and hence
we see the nude body bill-boards, the very HEAVY sexual messages for sun
glasses of all things!, and a total lack of accountability for truth in
advertising except for what appears to be good for selling product and not
for the consumer. 

At the same time the same government officials are pushing for a complex
and terribly difficult to enforce webpage rating scheme, what started out
to be a culpability concept for ISPs about content on their servers that
has been acquired by their subscribers VOLUNTARILY [not publicly as is the
case with the mass media], and other equally silly  things.

What is going on here?

Theory 1:  regulate things you don't understand until you -think- you
understand them and then deregulate them.

Theory 2:  there is no thought from the head, just reaction from the gut.

Theory 3:  throw the baby out with the bath water, make the non-regulation
policy consistent across all media, whether mass or gated/private;
deregulation gone mad.

I would truly like to get an understanding of this apparent inconsistency
in policy setting.  Otherwise it's difficult to make decent judgments
about the the situation.  Does anyone have insight on the justification
for this decision re advertising deregulation? 

JW

Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates     \--------/ - jwhit@primenet.com
Educational Technology Consultant / - Video and Computer Specialties
Melbourne, VIC, Australia   \----/ - http://www.primenet.com/~jwhit/
Voice: (+613)9592-5752       \--/