[LINK] Qld employer net censorship - the weather

Jan Whitaker jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Mon Jan 5 13:34:15 AEDT 2009



Weather pages, internet banking banned by Queensland employers

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24873839-661,00.html

Robyn Ironside

January 05, 2009 11:05am

MAINSTREAM websites - including the weather bureau's - are being 
blacklisted by Queensland employers in a crackdown on internet use.

SEX education and cartoon websites have also been deemed too risque 
for Brisbane City Council workers, while Queensland Transport 
employees are not allowed to view weather pages, which are deemed as 
entertainment, the 
<http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24871777-952,00.html>Courier 
Mail reports.

Queensland police were denied access to the official Olympic Games 
site last year; food manufacturer Harvest Freshcuts restricts 
employees' internet access to online banking sites; and Queensland 
Health staff find it easier to fax urgent reports than wait for the 
approval to email material with medical terminology or images.

Websites commonly blocked include social networking, gambling, 
share-trading and pornography sites.

But some employees have complained the policies are hampering their work.

Electronic Frontiers Australia spokesman Nicolas Suzar said the "net 
nannies" used at work were a good indication of what home internet 
users could expect after mandatory filters were introduced.

Trials of the filters, expected to block up to 10,000 websites and 
slow internet access by up to 87 per cent, are due to begin in weeks.
[Oh?? says who?]

Mr Suzar said the criteria being used to blacklist websites were 
still not publicly known.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has said the trials would be a 
chance to test the technical concerns about internet filters raised 
in a report commissioned by the Howard government.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/

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~Madeline L'Engle, writer

Writing Lesson #54:
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guests. - JW, May, 2007
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