Rant: Doc: Internet Filtering

Here is another rant from Doc. It's well worth the read. As the title suggests, its regarding the mandatory Internet Filtering plans for Australia. So I suggest you do, read it that is.




I detest child pornography with a vengeance. I acknowledge that it exists but want nothing
to do with it as I want nothing to do with speed, cholera or malaria in my body.

Internet filtering will not stop child pornography, because Pedophiles are, like drug users
and professional criminals, extraordinarily intelligent and devious people, unlike the
popular image of the poor unfortunate who is chased by the media from place to place.

They will find a way around the filters or take their activity elsewhere.

But Internet filtering is not about pedophilia. It is about restricting information.

The greatest danger to any politician is that the electorate might learn the truth. Secrecy is
the weapon of choice of dictatorial regimes.

Once a law is passed, it is difficult to remove it and easy to add to it. You may trust this
government, but you cannot know how any future government might act. Once internet
filtering is in place, a subsequent government could use it to suppress information that
would not favor their policies, for example, the fact that Amnesty International says that
Australia has a poor human rights record.

There will always be rat bags giving false or frivolous information in any media. There will
always be criminals using misinformation to gain their ends. It is part of the Human
Condition. We inherit that when we inherit our genes. Deceit knows no evolutionary
barriers. Even insects use mimicry.

But a paternalistic government is not the answer. The answer is to learn how to detect
falsehood and to teach the detection methods to our children.


Being old has advantages. I have seen the restriction of information, and its misuse
before.

In world war 2, we like to recall that the Nazis restricted information, but forget that both
sides heavily filtered information. China does it today, so do other countries that want their
citizens to toe the line. Press releases tell us only what politicians want us to know.

Freedom of information is not about accessing old cabinet records when it is too late to
vote them out, it is about not allowing governments to suppress current information.



Ralph Skinner
B :-) doc