Even child welfare groups don’t want web censorship

THE AUSSIE government's plans to build a Great Internet Rabbit Proof Fence are floundering with even kiddie welfare groups saying it is a jolly bad idea.

The Aussie government thought that it would protect children by mimicking the censorship antics of Communist China but, much to its surprise, has found that the idea is a wee bit unpopular.

But up until now it could claim it was only protecting children from porn and paedophiles and that the legions of hyper-protective mums, who want to wrap their precious snowflakes in bubble wrap, would still vote for them.

However according to the Sydney Morning Herald some children's welfare groups are now saying that that the mandatory filters are ineffective and a waste of money.

Holly Doel-Mackaway, adviser with Save the Children said it was better to educate kids and parents.

The Great Rabbit Proof Fence was "fundamentally flawed" because it failed to tackle the problem at the source and would block legitimate sites.

She said there was no evidence to suggest that children were stumbling across child pornography when browsing the web.

Millions earmarked to implement the filters would be far better spent on teaching children how to use the internet safely and on law enforcement.

Doel-Mackaway said that kids are often exposed to the abusive behaviours of adults often and we need to be preventing the causes of violence against children in the community, rather than blocking it from people's view.

She pointed out that many websites, including her organisation's own, would be blacklisted because it references a lot of its work that it does with children in fighting commercial sexual exploitation.

James McDougall, director of the National Children's and Youth Law Centre, said the mandatory filters simply would not work and children should be able to make decisions for themselves.

If parents were that worried they could easily install PC-based filters on their computers if they desired, or ask their internet providers to switch on voluntary filtering. µ

L'Inq
Sydney Morning Herald