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Oh wonderful. They're going to "protect us" from Fandom.
Not sure if you're aware but the darling Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been bandying about the idea of filtering the internet in Australia for a while now. And it actually looks like it might even happen.
I, like every other free-thinking individual out there, am completely against is - I don't want my internet filtered, I know how to keep away from material I don't want to see and I never have children in my home who could use my internet and see something untoward.
I must admit it never occurred to me that the filter would affect slash. Until I read this article: Australia Set to Introduce Internet Filter that Could Block Access to Thousands of Anime, Comics, Gaming (ACG) and Slash Fan Sites by Mark McLelland of the University of Wollongong
If you can't be bothered reading the whole article, here are the headlines.
What is this filter thing?
In December 2009 the Australian government announced that it would be proceeding with legislation to introduce an ISP-level internet filter aimed at blocking access to material that would be 'refused classification' (RC) under the National Classification Scheme.
What are they going to filter?
In Australia child pornography legislation applies equally to 'fictional or imaginary characters', even in instances when such characters 'depart[..] from a realistic representation'. Given the ubiquity of such representations on both ACG and slash fan sites, it is easy for fans to stumble across material that would put them at the risk of prosecution.
The bottom line?
If the filter proposal becomes law, it could shut down Australian fans' engagement with broad and well-established international fandoms.
THIS MAKES ME VERY, VERY ANGRY.
You DO NOT come between me and my goddamn slash. YOU DO NOT.
Oh and you know what else is fun about the filter?
- They're putting the onus on the ISP's to administer it, so the internet, which is already pretty pricy in our sprawling nation, is gonna get more expensive, and SLOWER.
- It's not even going to protect children from everything harmful, because they're not going to filter X rated pornography, it's just gonna give parents a false sense of security
- The Banned Sites list will NOT be public. WTF?
WHAT THE FUCK PARENTS? MONTIOR YOUR DAMN CHILDREN ON THE INTERNET AND DON'T MAKE IT GOVERNMENT'S PROBLEM. THE GOVERNMENT IS BAD AT THIS KIND OF SHIT. THEY WILL GO BIG BROTHER ON YOU.
I'm not going to preach any more about this but if you are interested to learn more and/or do something click below.
I, like every other free-thinking individual out there, am completely against is - I don't want my internet filtered, I know how to keep away from material I don't want to see and I never have children in my home who could use my internet and see something untoward.
I must admit it never occurred to me that the filter would affect slash. Until I read this article: Australia Set to Introduce Internet Filter that Could Block Access to Thousands of Anime, Comics, Gaming (ACG) and Slash Fan Sites by Mark McLelland of the University of Wollongong
If you can't be bothered reading the whole article, here are the headlines.
What is this filter thing?
In December 2009 the Australian government announced that it would be proceeding with legislation to introduce an ISP-level internet filter aimed at blocking access to material that would be 'refused classification' (RC) under the National Classification Scheme.
What are they going to filter?
In Australia child pornography legislation applies equally to 'fictional or imaginary characters', even in instances when such characters 'depart[..] from a realistic representation'. Given the ubiquity of such representations on both ACG and slash fan sites, it is easy for fans to stumble across material that would put them at the risk of prosecution.
The bottom line?
If the filter proposal becomes law, it could shut down Australian fans' engagement with broad and well-established international fandoms.
THIS MAKES ME VERY, VERY ANGRY.
You DO NOT come between me and my goddamn slash. YOU DO NOT.
Oh and you know what else is fun about the filter?
- They're putting the onus on the ISP's to administer it, so the internet, which is already pretty pricy in our sprawling nation, is gonna get more expensive, and SLOWER.
- It's not even going to protect children from everything harmful, because they're not going to filter X rated pornography, it's just gonna give parents a false sense of security
- The Banned Sites list will NOT be public. WTF?
WHAT THE FUCK PARENTS? MONTIOR YOUR DAMN CHILDREN ON THE INTERNET AND DON'T MAKE IT GOVERNMENT'S PROBLEM. THE GOVERNMENT IS BAD AT THIS KIND OF SHIT. THEY WILL GO BIG BROTHER ON YOU.
I'm not going to preach any more about this but if you are interested to learn more and/or do something click below.
no subject
It's a good comparison you draw with the Parental Advisory thing. I mean, the filter isn't designed to protect children (because if it was it would filter out all inappropriate content, which would include legal sites like porn etc. which they can't filter) so if it isn't for children then what is it for? To stop adults accessing kiddie porn materials? Well they're smart enough to find other ways to get what they're looking for.
So at the end of the day parents need to monitor their children anyway, because the filter is only going to stop them seeing illegal and Refused Classification items and not legally available inappropriate stuff.
And you're right, if kids wanna find stuff they'll find it. A gaping hole in the filter is that you'll still be able to get whatever you want via programs like bitorrent. Kids know how to use bitorrent, or whatever the next equivalent peer to peer sharing software will be. So they've already lost that fight.
lets just say hypothetically, i was an australian and this filter was in place right now okay, and i decided to read a fic about two 17 years olds 'getting it on' and i got caught
The age of consent in Australia is 16, so I would imagine that you'd have to younger than that, but yes - the article says Australian fans of ACG and slash who routinely access sites that may contain or link to representations of under-age characters in sexual or violent scenarios run the risk of arrest, prosecution and entry into the sex-offenders' list.
That is really, really frightening.