Opposed: Cyber Safety Petition

[Justin Raethel <jraethel@xxxxxxxxx>]

Recent history has shown that any attempt to establish a body whose purpose
is censorship of internet websites soon leads inexorable to scope creep. The
Australian ACMA list (recently exposed on Wikileaks) had any number of
legitimate websites on it, even though it was supposed to block child porn
or other websites of an exteme nature. Secret block lists very quickly
become public, due to the face that the nature of the lists means they must
be distributed to a wide number of people. The impermanent, shifting and
flexible nature of the internet means that any website that is placed on
such a list can quickly determine this fact and change their address,
provider and external appearance. Any technology can become a boon or a
burden, depending on how it is used, the same is true of nuclear technology,
hand-guns and the internet.

The immaterial nature of the internet means that webpages and content are
not Things that we can control the flow of, but Thoughts, ideas, and such
things we can only hope to classify, note their apparent nature, and
archive. Can a Thought, an idea, really be destroyed, without the wholesale
destruction of even those opposed to it? We should not seek to control those
who might be vulnerable and protect them from the wider world, but educate
them and empower them to become less vulnerable so that they can take their
place alongside all strong members of society.
.

Justin

It's 6 o'clock, do you know where your politicians are?