Alston and ABA

[Tony Barry]

At 9:39 PM 7/9/97, Graham Greenleaf wrote:
>It has now, and is at http://www.dca.gov.au/mediarel/c10697.html

Comments on what it says -

>ABA to assist development of online content codes

>       'As I announced in July with my colleague, the Attorney-General Mr Daryl
>       Williams, the Government has decided that as a general rule material
>       that is
>       considered illegal offline should be considered illegal online.

Nobody can argue with this (within the limitations of national legislative
power)


>
>              procedures to enable parental supervision of minors;
>              means of facilitating the development and use of labelling
>              and filtering
>              technologies; and

Presumably this would be satisfied by a link from their site to filtering
options available and sites which enabled them to acquire software to do
filtering.

>              a practical and effective complaints mechanism.

If the provision of a webmaster email address sufficient?


>
>       Senator Alston said the ABA had also been asked to investigate:
>
>              national educational strategies to ensure Australians
>              accessing services
>              available online utilise these services in the most
               effective and productive
>              manner;

Means what??? This can range from the costs of access, that is a consumers
type survey, to an exercise of training the public on how to use the net.
I don't think the ABA would thing that was appropriate.

>       'While the Government is committed to a workable regulatory
        regime for online
>       content, parents and other guardians will ultimately have very
        important roles
>       to play,' Senator Alston said.

An excellent statement.

>
>       'The Government intends to release draft exposure legislation in
>the next few
>       months prior to then introducing the necessary legislative amendments to
>       implement the national framework.'


Lets us hope that the legislation is something that can be enforced in a
practical way and not bypassed by anybody under 16 or with a bit of
technical nous.

Tony

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