A Mum’s Take On The Clean Feed
Everyone’s busy shopping, finishing up a hectic final week at work and visiting with friends and family to celebrate the season. Steven Conroy is sitting in his office gleefully rubbing his hands, what better time could there be to roll out a new government policy that will affect everyone in Australia with access to an internet connection?
This evening the Australian government greenlighted the plans to go ahead with an internet filtering scheme.
From the SMH (emphasis mine):
The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said today he would introduce legislation just before next year’s elections to force ISPs to block a blacklist of “refused classification” (RC) websites for all Australian internet users.
The blacklist, featuring material such as child sex abuse, sexual violence and instructions on crime, would be compiled using a public complaints mechanism, Government censors and URLs provided by international agencies.
[...]
“Most Australians acknowledge that there is some internet material which is not acceptable in any civilised society,” he said.
“It is important that all Australians, particularly young children, are protected from this material.“
There are so many flaws here that have been listed by plenty of other bloggers and websites, and I won’t even start on the issues that would arise from a public complaints mechanism, there’s no point in me repeating everything that’s already been said, and probably far more eloquently than I can put it.
What I can give you is a mother’s take on the whole thing.
My sons are growing up surrounded by computers. My almost two year old know that Mummy and Daddy use them for work, he has his own laptop to play DVDs on and he’ll even ask to watch a certain music video or film clip on YouTube – recently The Proclaimers have been on high rotation.
As odd as this may seem to his grandparents, it’s not odd for his generation. He is being raised in an age where the computer and the internet is king. The entire world is just the touch of a button away, and I’m quite happy to sit down with him and allow him to explore that world, under my supervision.
Not under the supervision of the government.
Because I am fully capable of looking after and monitoring my own children, I don’t need Kevin Rudd and Stephen Conroy to do it for me.
My issue lies with the fact that once censorship is brought in the lines become very grey. If my teenage son starts to think he may be gay and goes to seek an online support group to help him come to terms with who he is, will that be banned? If one of the boys decide that they’ve had enough of my heathen ways and wish to look into some religious groups, will those searches bring up red flags? If I ever have a daughter (or one of my sons doesn’t shrink wrap it) and she ends up in a situation where she needs to look into the options available for ending an unwanted pregnancy, will she still be able to see an unbiased argument from a range of different opinions?
In all of these situations I would hope that my kids would be comfortable in confiding in their parents, but I also know teenage-hood doesn’t work like that. If their first step is using the internet as a form of support through a difficult time in their life then I don’t have an issue with it, what I do have an issue with is the government cutting off that support, because some of those opinions may differ from what is considered “right” by the governing bodies.
I want my children (and of course myself) to have access to the WORLD WIDE web, not the PG rated version filled only with content that our government deems safe.
I like to think that I’m a capable mother.
Capable of teaching my sons what is and isn’t acceptable.
Capable of sitting down with the boys to teach them about internet safety.
Capable of looking after my family without Kevin Rudd and Stephen Conroy fighting a battle to “save the children”, a battle which does nothing more than infringe on my, and my family’s rights.
I strongly advise every Australian (or not) to contact their local representative and let them know that this is not a wise use of our tax dollars, to encourage them to move forward instead of back, and let them know that the rest of the world is laughing at us as a country.
16 Responses to “A Mum’s Take On The Clean Feed”
On December 16, 2009 at 9:00 am
Well said. I have said almost the same thing on my blog.
You can ring Senator Conroy’s office on (03) 9650 1188 or write to him at
Senator Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002
cheers Kim
On December 16, 2009 at 9:07 am
Exactly!!
On December 16, 2009 at 4:04 pm
As a mother I feel the same way. I’m capable of putting my own measures into place keep my kids safe.
On December 16, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Or if my children decide to take drugs (which I personally don’t want, but kids being kids) they will not be able to access safe educational drug websites. I’m sure this will lead to a wonderful outcome when children buy and use drugs they have no idea about.
On December 16, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Beautifully stated. Couldn’t agree more. Thanks for a wonderful post!
On December 16, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Thank you, if only more parents took a little more responsibility for their children.
On December 16, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I hope it’s OK for me to post here (I’m male and not a mummy!!)
I’d just like to say thankyou for publishing this!! You have given me hope that there are sensible people left in this country. Would you consider a position teaching other mother’s such as this one..
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/internet-filter-to-protect-her-children-from-porn-and-other-horrors-gives-mother-some-peace-of-mind/story-e6frg6nf-1225810746442
….that the proposed plan to censor the Internet in the aim of “protecting the children” will not actually perform any of the goals it has highlighted? I am extremely upset that alot of parents being less technical savvy than myself and others in the industry – are just taking the governments word that it will prevent accidental exposure to RC material. This will make them become complacent.
Please Mummy’s!! Educate those in need so Australia does not go down this dark path.
On December 16, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Thanks for that. It is great to hear the perspective of a mother. Gay blokes like myself tend to have less cred with the grey men and women in Canberra.
On December 16, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I’m a little overwhelmed with the response to this post, glad to see it reached so many people, and thank you so much for taking the time to comment!
On December 16, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Sorry – should also have said that one of the main proponents of this plan, the Australian Christian Lobby, has a far wider dream: filtering all content they deem objectionable. Your concerns about what your sons could access vis a vis support for enquiring about their sexuality, different religious traditions and so on are spot on.
Check out ACL’s website at: http://www.acl.org.au/
and their press release at: http://tinyurl.com/y8gr4su
Their leader, Jim Wallace says in it:
Mr Wallace said that in an era when children were growing up using the internet for both education and entertainment it is crucial that Internet safeguards are provided, and extended in scope to provide even better protection.
There’s the agenda for you. And evidently Jim doesn’t think you can protect your kids, I’m afraid. So he and Stephen Conroy will do it for you.
On December 16, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Fern, I have a feeling your going to get ALOT of responses to your post. Not sure if your aware but the Internet Filtering topic is currently up to 63 threads on the Whirlpool forums where technical savvy people have been discussing the topic since its conception. Your article was linked there and I feel you well have an influx of support over the next few days. Check it out if you feel like having a read. (I would suggest taking 6 weeks annual leave if you want to start from thread 1!!)
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1342820&p=-1#bottom
On December 16, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I fear we will have to take this to the town halls, the regular mums and dads, those that phone in talk back radio. Can’t rely on the opposition to oppose it. Have to make it a votes issue.
On December 16, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Thanks for the link Daniel! Will get stuck into it when the ferals are in bed
On December 16, 2009 at 5:05 pm
It is a religious plot to interfere with our freedoms, and the proof is the number of god botherering pollies doing their lobbyist’s bidding. They just don’t like the idea that they might become irrelevant. http://bit.ly/6KyYBy
On December 16, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Just another person posting in support of a well written, well thought out piece from another Australian who doesn’t want or need Conroy peaking over there shoulder.
/shudder
Now there’s a scary mental image we should all be protected from…
On December 24, 2009 at 9:04 am
Thanks for writing that. Really what the government is doing is quite offensive to all parents. He is basically saying that you are not capable of being a parent and hence that Chairman Krudd and his mates are going to do it for you whether you want it or not.
Our pollies claim to be doing this for parents so we need parents to be telling the government “no, thanks!”.
Like you, I will forego the opportunity to list the many, many flaws with what the government is proposing. Those flaws have already been covered a thousand times.
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