Thursday, June 22, 2006
Free software to block inapropriate materials
ABOUT 2.5 million families are expected to take up the Government's offer of free software to stop children from accessing internet pornography.
The offer is part of a $117 million plan aimed at beefing up the Government's family values credentials, including an $18 million television advertising and mail-out blitz.
The software will allow parents to customise internet access for each of their children. This could include blocking specific websites or chat rooms, banning credit-card transactions, nominating words that cannot be typed into search engines or restricting the amount of time children spend online.
The scheme is expected to be operating by the end of the year.
Parents can already buy the software for about $50, and internet service providers must make it available under laws first introduced in 2000. But yesterday's announcement means the software will be free. The filters will also be made available to public libraries.
As part of the plan, the Government will give its internet security advisory body, NetAlert, an extra $5 million.
The opposition have claimed that this plan does not go far enough and blocking should be done at the ISP end. Many internet censorship critics have likened the labor party alternative policy to the internet censorship regime in china.
Whilst some ISP providers provide a KIDS friendly only networks using separate infrastructure, that people can opt into for a couple of dollars extra per month, it doesn’t guarantee to block everything, and in fact, the filtering software on the user end computers won’t guarantee of 100% blocking. Nothing will do the better job that supervision by a parent and keeping an eye on what your kids are doing.
The Internet Industry Association welcomed the move and I feel that it can only be a positive move.
The offer is part of a $117 million plan aimed at beefing up the Government's family values credentials, including an $18 million television advertising and mail-out blitz.
The software will allow parents to customise internet access for each of their children. This could include blocking specific websites or chat rooms, banning credit-card transactions, nominating words that cannot be typed into search engines or restricting the amount of time children spend online.
The scheme is expected to be operating by the end of the year.
Parents can already buy the software for about $50, and internet service providers must make it available under laws first introduced in 2000. But yesterday's announcement means the software will be free. The filters will also be made available to public libraries.
As part of the plan, the Government will give its internet security advisory body, NetAlert, an extra $5 million.
The opposition have claimed that this plan does not go far enough and blocking should be done at the ISP end. Many internet censorship critics have likened the labor party alternative policy to the internet censorship regime in china.
Whilst some ISP providers provide a KIDS friendly only networks using separate infrastructure, that people can opt into for a couple of dollars extra per month, it doesn’t guarantee to block everything, and in fact, the filtering software on the user end computers won’t guarantee of 100% blocking. Nothing will do the better job that supervision by a parent and keeping an eye on what your kids are doing.
The Internet Industry Association welcomed the move and I feel that it can only be a positive move.
# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 5:46 PM 
