As well as the piece Child Wise CEO calls for government re-think on ISP filtering which Neil H mentioned in a comment, Computerworld is also running an item headed Great wall of Australia: Industry rejects sanitized Internet. It’s subtitled “Part one: why content filtering will fail” so presumably there’s more to come.
The Perils of Smoking
The Snarky Platypus has already messaged me tonight: “You are full of too many thoughts. You need a course of what Stephen Conroy is taking.” So I’ll change the pace with a photo.
Here’s a picture of ’Pong I took in 2002, back when he was still smoking that evil tobacco stuff. His sister Toi and her friend seem… concerned. Perhaps we need to come up with a caption for this image.
Word of the Year 2007: category “online”
Time to look at the Macquarie Dictionary‘s nominations for Word of the Year and decide how to vote. Since we’re online, we’ll start with the category online…
I’m disappointed with the choices. The criterion is “the most valuable contribution to the English language in 2007.” All of these words pre-date 2007, and in this category the Macquarie faces its strongest criticism for being slow to add new data.
John Birmingham on Internet filters
Author John Birmingham posted a great piece last week attacking Internet filtering. Apart from describing Senator Conroy’s “puckered cat’s bum thing with your mouth” when equating freedom of speech with kiddie-porn-watching, he puts what I think is the best argument: “If parents are going to plug their kids into the net it is the parents’ responsibility to look after the little darlings while they’re online. You wouldn’t set a small child loose in the city and expect the government to step in and do your child-minding for you.”
Child Wise’s Bernadette McMenamin on Internet filtering
I’ve just received a response to my post about Internet filtering and child pornography from Child Wise CEO Bernadette McMenamin. She raises some good questions — particularly why people in the Internet industry seem to react so angrily when there doesn’t seem to be any argument about child pornography and other exploitation being A Bad Thing.
Ms McMenamin has given permission for her response to be published. I’ve highlighted what I think are her most interesting questions. Answers appreciated. I’ll be drafting my own reply overnight.
Continue reading “Child Wise’s Bernadette McMenamin on Internet filtering”
Petitions might finally make a difference
Maybe those annoying socialists on King Street will finally achieve something with their endless petition-signing. Chairman Rudd will require parliament to formally consider and report on all petitions.
More than a million Australians signed 900+ petitions during Howard’s final three-year term. A grand total of 2 were responded to in some way. The other 99.8% were tabled and ignored.
My local MP Anthony Albanese, the “manager of government business” in parliament, says petitions won’t need to be sponsored by an MP any more. He reckons citizens have a basic right to petition parliament. And they’ll look into electronic petitions too.
That, and Julia Gillard’s announcement that NGOs receiving government funds would no longer be prevented from making political statements, are clear sings that maybe Kevin Rudd actually means what he says about strengthening the parliamentary system.