Senator the Hon Helen Coonan was Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts from 18 July 2004 to 3 December 2007. This site is available for archival purposes only.

Senator Stephen Conroy is the current Minister for the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

016/06
21 March 2006

Labor very late to the Internet filtering debate

Labor’s plans to force Internet Service Providers to filter the Internet will only result in slowing down the Internet for every Australian without effectively protecting children from inappropriate and offensive content, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, said today.

“It is astounding that Labor is only now considering cracking down on Internet porn when the ALP’s approach to date has been to do nothing,” Senator Coonan said.

“In contrast, the Government has been working since 1999 to legislate, regulate and also to educate parents, children and all Internet users about the issue of offensive and inappropriate content on the Internet.

“PC-based filtering remains the most effective way of protecting children from offensive Internet content, as well as other threats that are not addressed by Labor’s ISP-filtering proposals.

“PC-based filters are more effective at blocking all manner of offensive content, provide greater control to parents of the content their children are exposed to and do not affect the performance of the Internet for all users.

“Labor has continually tried to thwart the Government's attempts to appropriately regulate the Internet including amendments to close a loophole that potentially allowed people access to the most offensive content, including child pornography.

“This is content that has been deemed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to be too offensive to classify and too offensive to be available to anyone, let alone children.

“All of these moves have been met with cries of ‘heavy-handed censorship’ from Labor. Now Labor realises that they are out of step with the Government and with community thinking on this important issue.”

According to research conducted by the Government’s Internet safety organisation NetAlert, the kind of server-based filtering proposed by Labor has been found to have a major adverse impact on network performance.

The NetAlert trial was conducted by researchers from RMIT as part of the Government-funded Launceston Broadband Program, in partnership with ACMA and with the assistance of Telstra. The final report will be released shortly but the preliminary findings of the trial include that:

All server-level filters tested had a major impact on network performance ranging from an 18 per cent degradation for the best performing filter to 78 per cent on the worst performing; and
The server-level filters perform adequately at slower speeds, for the faster upstream connections that are common in larger ISPs, the performance degraded significantly.

“A previous Government review into the filtering technology that is the basis of Labor's plan also found that it would involve implementation costs of around $45 million and ongoing costs of more than $33 million per annum for ISPs for questionable benefit,” Senator Coonan said.

“Moreover, Kim Beazley’s flawed plans to protect families are not even supported by members of his own party.

“While Mr Beazley has suddenly put the Labor Party’s faith behind ISP-based filter technology, Labor has previously dismissed the plan as unworkable and one that would make the Internet slower and more expensive.

Then Shadow Spokesperson for IT, Senator Kate Lundy said it best when responding to the idea of ISP-level filtering in the Senate on March 19 2003:

“This ridiculous proposition is made even more absurd when the weaknesses of filtering technology at this level effectively ensure that it would not work anyway.”

The Government is serious about protecting families and ensuring that minimum community standards were upheld on the Internet and in new emerging media.

“The Government bans all X-rated and Restricted Classification (RC) material from being hosted in Australia and requires age verification controls on R-rated material,” Senator Coonan said.

“We have also established NetAlert - a $7 million initiative to help educate Australians about safe Internet surfing. During the last election the Government committed a further $2 million to NetAlert for an education and awareness raising campaign.

“Controlling and banning offensive content that originates from overseas is more difficult so the Government requires all ISP’s to supply filtering technology at or below cost to consumers.

“ACMA is currently undertaking a compliance audit of the top 20 ISPs covering 90 per cent of subscribers which is due to be completed shortly. If any ISP is found to have breached their obligations they can be issued with fines of up $27,500 per day.”

Recent research shows that the Government’s policies are having an impact.

NetAlert kidsonline@home study released in 2005 found that 35 per cent of families use software to filter inappropriate websites, an increase from 17 percent in 2001.

“The Government will continue to monitor the effectiveness of filters and I am actively considering options for how the Government might increase the uptake of PC-based filters,” Senator Coonan said.

“It is important that all Internet users can operate in an online world in a safe and secure way. I encourage all parents and other concerned users to visit the NetAlert website at www.netalert.com.au or to call the hotline on 1800 880 176 to find out more about safety and the Internet.”