Curse

Lord of kryta · Nov 01, 2008, 02:07 PM // 14:07

Time to revolt guys.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...7-2862,00.html

A Leprechaun · Nov 01, 2008, 05:22 PM // 17:22

Oh noes! Now you will have to pay for porn!!
:P

But seriously, bad times.

~A Leprechaun~

Winterclaw · Nov 01, 2008, 05:45 PM // 17:45

If you want to filter the internet, get net-nanny or something like that. You paid for the computer, you pay for the internet bill, you should decide what sites you see.

I hope this thing doesn't come to the US. If you want to stop child-porn, what you need to do is to learn how to trace things on the internet and have spies who can kill the operators of those sites if they are out of country.

**Marty Silverblade** · Nov 02, 2008, 12:03 AM // 00:03

I remember some time back some government spent millions of dollars making some 'invincible' net filter. Less than 24 hours after it being implemented, some guy managed to bust it. Despite all the problems filters like this bring, the filter idea itself is fail to start with.

fenix · Nov 02, 2008, 12:40 AM // 00:40

ugh, this is going to be lame.

I just read the thing, it'll censor so much crap that google searches will be like we're in China.

God damn.

Faer · Nov 02, 2008, 12:50 AM // 00:50

Isn't the Internet in Australia already bad enough, though? Surely there is no need for censorship when it takes an hour to load a 120x120 image!

DreamRunner · Nov 02, 2008, 12:51 AM // 00:51

This has been going around for a long time. When Kevin Rudd was going to be put in office, he said he had a policy to censor the internet and now people actually know about it, they're against it. It is simply amazing that all of the Kevin Rudd supporters and people who voted for him in the last election don't know about this until it hit the media.

Issac · Nov 02, 2008, 01:47 AM // 01:47

That sucks for them.

pamelf · Nov 02, 2008, 07:00 AM // 07:00

This isn't official yet. It's still in early development. Labour have not got quite the support for it that they'd hoped for. I'm regretting voting Kevin 'McConservative' Rudd in now. Why can't we just have a normal person running for Prime Minister? The last one was a Megalomaniac, and this one's as close to a jesus freak as a prime minister can get without making bible study mandatory. It makes me so sad.

obsidian ectoplasm · Nov 02, 2008, 08:26 AM // 08:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by pamelf

This isn't official yet. It's still in early development. Labour have not got quite the support for it that they'd hoped for. I'm regretting voting Kevin 'McConservative' Rudd in now. Why can't we just have a normal person running for Prime Minister? The last one was a Megalomaniac, and this one's as close to a jesus freak as a prime minister can get without making bible study mandatory. It makes me so sad.

i know aye! lucky i dotn vote yet

gaile grey for PM!

DreamRunner · Nov 02, 2008, 01:53 PM // 13:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by pamelf

This isn't official yet. It's still in early development. Labour have not got quite the support for it that they'd hoped for. I'm regretting voting Kevin 'McConservative' Rudd in now. Why can't we just have a normal person running for Prime Minister? The last one was a Megalomaniac, and this one's as close to a jesus freak as a prime minister can get without making bible study mandatory. It makes me so sad.

It is in the early stages and 'Big Brother' Kevin Rudd loves the idea to think that he is making Australia safer by restricting content. Lucky for us, the public has some clue on what's going on. What is unlucky for Australia is only a small part of that public that would actually care. Australia, land of people that don't give a shit until it happens and effects them and I am sure it is that people that would actually give a damn if this happened in any other western country.

Let's not forget that Australia is having a aged population, which is going to be a huge problem later when the baby boomers hit retirement. But Australia is currently so far behind in technology that it makes you truly wonder if our bureaucratic system which is made up of people who are so out of touched with reality, it might be better to shoot them instead.
These are people who are shaping Australia and its policies, who currently they think its good to censor games like GTO4 with having the current average gaming consumer being ages 25+ and who are putting more and more restrictions on alcohol and driving.
Gotta love that censorship from Kevin Rudd who is going to ban Porn and black list sites to protecting us from 'evil' because it seems our parents have failed to do so.

**Marty Silverblade** · Nov 02, 2008, 08:55 PM // 20:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamRunner

These are people who are shaping Australia and its policies, who currently they think its good to censor games like GTO4

This isn't actually related. GTO4 contains things that are only suitable for an 18+ audience, but the highest game rating given in Australia is MA15+ or something like that, so all the 18+ stuff isn't allowed in any games here. America did the smart thing (never thought I'd say that) and made an 18+ rating, so games are allowed to essentially do whatever they like.

Evil Neato · Nov 02, 2008, 11:51 PM // 23:51

Impeach!

You know, I've never protested... But if censorship like that came up in my country, I think I'd have a reason to start. That's just ridiculous.

pamelf · Nov 03, 2008, 02:58 AM // 02:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamRunner

It is in the early stages and 'Big Brother' Kevin Rudd loves the idea to think that he is making Australia safer by restricting content. Lucky for us, the public has some clue on what's going on. What is unlucky for Australia is only a small part of that public that would actually care. Australia, land of people that don't give a shit until it happens and effects them and I am sure it is that people that would actually give a damn if this happened in any other western country.

Let's not forget that Australia is having a aged population, which is going to be a huge problem later when the baby boomers hit retirement. But Australia is currently so far behind in technology that it makes you truly wonder if our bureaucratic system which is made up of people who are so out of touched with reality, it might be better to shoot them instead.
These are people who are shaping Australia and its policies, who currently they think its good to censor games like GTO4 with having the current average gaming consumer being ages 25+ and who are putting more and more restrictions on alcohol and driving.
Gotta love that censorship from Kevin Rudd who is going to ban Porn and black list sites to protecting us from 'evil' because it seems our parents have failed to do so.

What I find most ironic about this entire situation is that one of the things they want blacklisted is INTERNATIONAL gambling websites. Not local ones; they don't want to make gambling illegal but they want to keep the funds from gambling in the country. Talk about double standards right there.

Don't underestimate the voice of the young though (and by young I mean anyone under 30). There is no way Australia's youth are going to stand for that sort of thing; and we do actually hold a fair amount of political power because we are the voters of the future and the most important thing is we're willing to fight for our freedoms whereas the older generation are far more unwilling to do so.

zwei2stein · Nov 03, 2008, 06:56 AM // 06:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by pamelf

What I find most ironic about this entire situation is that one of the things they want blacklisted is INTERNATIONAL gambling websites. Not local ones; they don't want to make gambling illegal but they want to keep the funds from gambling in the country. Talk about double standards right there.

Don't underestimate the voice of the young though (and by young I mean anyone under 30). There is no way Australia's youth are going to stand for that sort of thing; and we do actually hold a fair amount of political power because we are the voters of the future and the most important thing is we're willing to fight for our freedoms whereas the older generation are far more unwilling to do so.

Don't underestimate willingness of people to put up with crap. Mostly because they would still get entertainment from tubes and food from stores. Bread&Games. Plus, its supposed to protect them from BIG BAD. Otherwise totalitarian states would never exist.

Generation right after you would grow up with censorship and be just fine with it. Its not like your votes are gonna matter in any way is i am right about where Australia (And rest of "civilized" world) is heading.

---

In related news: In France you can actually get banned from internet http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/11/02/1634217.shtml

Britain is not any better:

DreamRunner · Nov 03, 2008, 03:36 PM // 15:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade

This isn't actually related. GTO4 contains things that are only suitable for an 18+ audience, but the highest game rating given in Australia is MA15+ or something like that, so all the 18+ stuff isn't allowed in any games here. America did the smart thing (never thought I'd say that) and made an 18+ rating, so games are allowed to essentially do whatever they like.

The point overall is that Australia censors games. I was on point since Australia is restricting content being allowed onto its shores and even still, not allowing 18+ games is meaningless. The demographic of the average gamer is clearly over that age.

Lady Lozza · Nov 04, 2008, 10:34 PM // 22:34

The problem with this policy is that the government is getting advice from a grand total of 2 sources, themselves and the contractors implimenting this filter. The contractors naturally won't tell them that this is a bad thing, and they themselves do not understand it.

The filter is to be introduced at ISP level - meaning our internet fees may go through the roof, and will act as a catchall for international traffic, while only actually filtering HTML requests. This means that, even though game requests will not be filtered, they still have to pass through the "gate" that determines whether or not they need filtering. Depending on whether or not this "gate" also acts as the filter will depend on whether our games are also slowed because of it.

Trials in Tasmania have already shown this filter has the potential to reduce speeds by as much as a half. Given that speeds in Australia are already half, or less, of speeds from overseas by curtesy of old technology and the single pipeline at either end of the country heading to the EU and US respectively - it doesn't take a genious to figure out that this is bad.

What is most pertinent perhaps, is that it does not work. You will read things about only 3% of inappropriate content getting through the filter, but what this means is that 100% of children can access 3% of material. If you following the reasoning that any inapproriate content is harmful then this is not acceptable.

Of course this is completely forgetting the fact that people involved in illegal activities know how to get around these things. For that matter many kids nowdays know how to get around them. I'm sure you could even google it, possibly has a wikipaedia entry.

It is time parents in Australia started taking some responsibility. A nanny-net like program has been available for free for at least 5 years - yes the government is giving out free software. Computer based filters work better than ISP level filters, don't affect other users with false positives, and slows no ones connection down.

Save the children is all well and good, but it isn't the government's responsibility. Any parent should be supervising their kid, disabling internet access on mobiles, until they are at least 12 years old. If they can't look after their own kids, they shouldn't expect others to.

Avarre · Nov 05, 2008, 02:37 AM // 02:37

Above pretty much sums up my impression of this.

Mesmer in Need · Nov 05, 2008, 02:48 AM // 02:48

God bless America, where you can have your porn and fap it too.

I pwnd U · Nov 05, 2008, 06:23 AM // 06:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesmer in Need

God bless America, where you can have your porn and fap it too

Not for long now...