Australian's, eatin' clean

For those unaware, Australia has introduced what they are calling the ‘clean feed’. This clean feed is essentially a censorship of the web. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) can restrict what we, the Australian public, can actually view. The entire goal of the clean feed was to filter out all the no no’s of the web (i.e child pornography, sexual violence, and all the other REALLY naughty things).

However this is quite the political issue. And you can’t have a political issue without someone hating the idea. Many feel that this is a breach in civil rights. Whilst the government aim is to prevent children seeing all of the bad stuff out there on the web, this initiative will be mandatory in all homes regardless of children. Many also feel that this initiative is a breach of privacy due to the constant monitoring and tracking of internet users. These people whom are against the clean feed feel that adults have the right to choose what they read and what they don’t read, that as citizens of Australia, they are entitled to the right of information.

A question put forward to me today was what place does censorship have in democracy? The answer to this question may vary depending on who you ask, however in my opinion censorship contradicts the idea of democracy. Democracy is a concept that the public are in charge, that we choose our government. The idea of censorship is one that infringes on many of the civil rights that democracy is big on such as freedom of speech, freedom of information and freedom of choice.

There are many concerns for both sides of the argument. I for one am not overly concerned. I mean yes, we are the only democratic country to have such restrictions in place, but as I am not scouring the web for government secrets, sexual violence, and all the other bad things I feel that this is a fair deal. That being said I do believe the public have a right to information. So once again my apathy leaves me on the fence on the issue. But before I sign off I will say this: having the public being able to access any information on anything they want is not necessarily a good thing… as it could lead to total anarchy…

References
Efa.org.au. 2003. EFA Comments on the Australia Institute's Mandatory Filtering Proposal. [online] Available at: https://www.efa.org.au/Publish/ispblocking.html [Accessed: 30 Aug 2013]

Nocleanfeed.com. 2009. Learn - No Clean Feed - Stop Internet Censorship in Australia. [online] Available at: http://nocleanfeed.com/learn.html [Accessed: 30 Aug 2013].