[LINK] THE Federal Government had rejected mandatory filtering of the internet to stop child pornography

[Howard Lowndes]

<hfl>
At last, the gummint gets it
</hfl>

http://www.news.com.au/common/printpage/0,6093,11555864,00.html

Communications Minister Helen Coonan said the government had recently
reviewed ways of preventing child pornography, including a British-style
national internet filtering system but rejected it.

Senator Coonan said the study had found such a filter would cost around
$45 million a year initially and $33 million a year in later years.

She said it also had the potential to choke the internet and drive up
costs for consumers and small business.

"The biggest issue is not so much the money but such an expensive scheme
would not necessarily solve the problem and small to medium ISPs
(internet service providers) would be driven out of business for little
or no benefit," Senator Coonan said. "What does work is greater
information and parental supervision and that is the kind of program
that the government is promoting."

The government has provided $30 million to educate parents about the
perils of the internet and ISPs are required to provide cost-price
filtering software to subscribers.

Senator Coonan's comments were triggered by a question from Independent
senator Brian Harradine. 

"Why won't the government at least for the start prevent child porn
being transmitted into Australia either through the internet and ISPs or
via satellite?" Senator Harradine said. "Why won't the government take
that action since we've got laws against child porn?"

-- 
Howard.
LANNet Computing Associates;
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