The Australian Labor Party which is the current governing part of Australia, recently elected into power in elections in 2007 is pressing on with its policy on internet censorship despite widespread opposition against it. Kevin Rudd's government has decided to put into place a system in which offensive and illegal content will be blocked from users of Australian Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This move which is viewed as widely similar to China's censoring of the internet, which gained international media prominence during the Beijing Olympics as reported on CNN has been questioned by various parties, especially on its effectiveness.
Although put into place to prevent access to illegal content such as child pornography and extremely violent content, various parties have voiced concern over what will be deemed as offensive content. The context that these content has been has not been clearly defined and many are fearing that sites that do not contain hardcore pornography will be blocked by ISPs.
Schirato and Yell (1996) state that literate members of a culture employ knowledge of other texts to make sense of what they see, read & hear. Material needs to be properly labeled and categorized to be classified under context of offensive content. For example, some images online containing nude photography or art might be deemed as pornographic in nature and be banned, but since these objects are artistic, it clearly goes against the intention of blocking offensive content. Will erotic art and illustrations be illegal as well? Schirato and Yell (1996) also mention that the ways in which we make sense of types of texts are culturally defined and expected combinations of field, tenor and mode. Unless the context of types of content online be clearly defined it will be extremely difficult to filter online content without a backlash from internet users.
In my opinion, any form of internet censorship is useless as people will be able to find a way round filters and blockades online. Case in point is when a teenage boy in Melbourne managed to circumvent an AU$84 million pornography filter in 30 minutes according to ZDnet. The internet should remain a free space to properly realize the vision of a fully globalized network.
References
China censoring Internet Access at Olympics, CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/07/30/olympics.internet.ap/
Australia Joins China In Censoring The Internet, TechCrunch
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/30/australia-joins-china-in-censoring-the-internet/
Teen cracks AU$ 84 million porn filter in 30 minutes, ZDnet
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Teen-cracks-AU-84-million-porn-filter-in-30-minutes/0,130061744,339281500,00.htm
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, ‘Chapter 5: Framing contexts’, Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards, N.S.W, pp. 90-117.
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