ladyfoxxx | Oh wonderful. They're going to "protect us" from Fandom.

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blather,
rant

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.

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OH COME ON! Jesus.... Fandom? Really? Take the boy kissing and leave the porn?

Oh hell, I may get annoyed at the 50% of my country who is all christian and uptight, but if this was going down over here, that's the people who would cock their shot guns and threaten to make the governent 'squeal like a pig' ...

THERE ARE BETTER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT , PEOPLE-IN-POWER!

God dammit!

They've already started doing that in the U.S. That's why there are no news groups on any ISPs any more. Because they were used by some people for child pornography, they decided they had to be banned for EVERYONE.

So, talking about airplanes? Gone. Books? Gone. Cooking? Gone. All newsgroups are gone unless they are actually hosted by a website.

'Such material includes child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act'.

Does that mean that they will be banning books and movies that tell/show too much violence or terrorist acts? There is a law of unintended consequences here if they do pass that law.

And they keep talking about other 'controls' for the internet here, too. My gosh. I'm an adult. Let me choose for myself what I don't want to see.

But because some people can't control their kids, they are looking at doing it for us. There is something wrong when the government does that. :/
I do understand your anger. Good luck. I hope you Aussies can succeed in keeping your internet open.

You'd think we were all living in China or something...

I am not impressed.

If LJ gets edgy before anything gets passed I guess there's AO3...

but still, wow.

I'm glad I'm in the UK, we're still pretty blase about stuff like that :/

Wait, I want to clarify, are they intending to ban all sites with slash or just the slash that includes character minors? This sounds similar to a ruling in the UK, I just want to get the details right.

I got directed here through a VERY circuitous route and wanted to throw my solidarity behind your righteous fury. I'm also going to link to your post - I hope you don't mind. You sum everything up very succinctly and I wouldn't want to replicate it.

I guess petitions with signatures from non-nationals won't really help much, but if there's anything that us folks over the water can do to help, gimme a heads-up and I'll do what I can to publicise.

Damn you, government! *shakes fist*

Such bullshit.
Freedom of speach, hello?
:/
xo

urgh so yesterday at college there was a whole lecture on how the pmrc back in the 80's tried to get certain music banned because 'the kids might be disturbed by the content', and we had this huge debate and i got seriously pissed off at the fact that it would have meant that adults wouldn't get a choice in what they could and couldn't listen to because parents didn't want to take it upon themselves to monitor what their kids were listening to and just passed it off onto the government as their problem. (in the end they lost and the government just stuck parental advisory stickers on everything.)

and then today i read this, and eventhough it won't affect me in any way (hopefully), it pissed me off all over again because it's like exactly the same thing! and yeah okay, there are a lot of dodgy things on the internet that kids shouldn’t see, but parents can block those sites from home. schools are supposed to block sites with content that is inappropriate for minors (when i was in school they had bans on myspace, facebook and youtube as well; i don't know how it is in australia but they are pretty strict about that in britain, there are blocks on like everything in schools) so i don't understand how kids could access such content if the parents were doing their job properly. i don't think an adult's choice over what they can and cannot view should be made for them just because some children might accidently find their way onto it.

also my argument is, if the kids wanna find it, they will. even if they have a filter on the internet they will always find a way around it. nevermind the fact that nowadays sex is literally everywhere.

as for taking away the slash, i think it's ridiculous. i mean you don't get images with it. it's not like porn in that sense. it's just words, and in my experience if a child doesn't understand a word they tend to skip it or ask an adult, not go online and google it or whatever; besides i'm pretty sure i knew what sex was when i was like 7 and i didn't need the internet to find that out.
anyway back to the whole slash thing, 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, from what i've read i gather that i would probably be prosecuted for possession of child pornography, when 2 weeks ago i was still 17 and would be deemed a minor. does that mean that 2 weeks ago it would have been okay for me to be reading that? or could i still have been prosecuted?

for me the whole thing has too many grey areas and would be a completely ridiculous thing to pass, and i swear if the british government ever tried to install anything like this on us i would be straight down to london hammering on gordon brown's front door and telling him where he could stick it.

/rant.

sorry about that, i just read that and like, my brain exploded. i think i'm too opinionated for my own good sometimes. :(

So when does the book burning start? If the Australian government needs any other ideas how to squash civil rights, I'm sure they can draw inspiration from all over the place...but they might need the internet for the research.

I'm not feeling so shabby about being a Yank today.

WHEN DID AUSTRALIA BECOME VENEZUELA/CUBA?????

I have kids (7 and 5) and I want to keep them innocent for as long as I can. I know that in order to do so, I have to monitor everything they watch/read/listen. It's a 24/7 job, but it was MY decision to have kids, so it's MY responsibility to raise them.

This reminds me of the whole Adam Lambert's AMA's ~scandal. People were clutching their pearls because it was national TV and kids were watching. I couldn't believe it, I was like "well if your kids are awake at 11 pm then you're not doing a good job as a parent to begin with, asshole".

I honestly hope this law doesn't get passed, it won't solve anything. I hope they're able to realize that.

MONTIOR YOUR DAMN CHILDREN ON THE INTERNET AND DON'T MAKE IT GOVERNMENT'S PROBLEM

Are they trying to be American? Because I always felt that the censorship of the American television (consider Janet Jackson's Nipple Gate) is solely due to the inability of American parents (in general or maybe the select few who should've had reproduced in the first place) to actually, you know, parent their children.

I remember, relatedly, a few years ago when we got a question on our ballot whether to allow supermarkets to have wine/beer licenses (you know, like in every other developed nation where you can buy wine to go with dinner at the supermarket instead of a liquor store) and someone I knew was opposed because underage teenagers work at supermarkets and the license would give them easier access to the alcohol. Which... what? Firstly, this is happening all over the world and in other states; clearly, it doesn't affect teenagers that much. Secondly, they are teenagers - if they want booze, they WILL access it. Thirdly, why should stores police teenagers' access to alcohol, instead of, oh, their parents?

This 'clean feed' pisses me off beyond belief. Personally, I find heterosexual displays of affection to be gross, disgusting, and nothing I should be seeing - but who'll be protecting my interests? I can see THAT on the internet but not slash? But I can see gay porn, apparently. That's a relief.

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