The Australian Library and Information Association alongside the Inspire Foundation, Yahoo! and Google have urged the Australian Government to look for and consider alternatives to filtering the entire web for RC content, saying it will only result in a backwards step for Australia. Instead the group say, if the Government is so keen to filter out [...]

The Australian Library and Information Association alongside the Inspire Foundation, Yahoo! and Google have urged the Australian Government to look for and consider alternatives to filtering the entire web for RC content, saying it will only result in a backwards step for Australia.

Instead the group say, if the Government is so keen to filter out bad content, they should take an approach like those seen in parts of Europe, where the ISPs, police and government authorities work together in partnership to target a clearly defined and narrow band of child sexual abuse material.

“We are concerned that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide,” the statement to the Government reads.

“Filtering all RC material could block content with a strong social or educational value.”

The group also point to a recent Telstra study which found that filtering high traffic and profile sites such as YouTube could lead to bottlenecks and cause additional load on servers.

Instead of filtering the entire web, the three parties suggest a three-pronged plan for which the Government could follow as an alternative. It would consist of education, which would involve a national comprehensive cyber-safety education program, policing involving increasing and funding the level of oversight by the government and federal police and finally technical measures, whereby the Government follows the European lead and only filters out specific items such as child sexual abuse material.

“YouTube is a platform for free expression. We have clear policies about what is allowed and not allowed on the site,” Google Australia’s Head of Policy, Iarla Flynn, said in relation to recent suggestions Conroy has approached the internet giant to filter RC content on YouTube.

“Our view is that online safety should focus on user education, individual user empowerment through technology tools (such as SafeSearch Lock, Safety Mode on YouTube), and cooperation between law enforcement and industry partners.”

Meanwhile the Electronic Frontiers Association Australia (EFA), the organisation responsible for the “Nocleanfeed” program, will soon embark on a new ad campaign targeting the general Australian and what the filter means for them and why it shouldn’t be allowed to progress.

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