Oz internet filter to block sites selling mature games?

PALGN News | Could the days of buying from Play-Asia, eBay and Amazon soon be over?

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald , the Australian Government says it will use its internet filter to block websites hosting and selling video games that don't comply with Australia's ratings system. The internet filter is currently being trialled by nine internet service providers and could soon be introduced across all Australian internet services.

A spokesman for Australian Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has confirmed the intention to block downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard, Australia's highest rating.

Colin Jacobs, a spokesman for the online users' lobby group, Electronic Frontiers Australia, said the Government's internet filtering plans had now gone beyond the original intention to help protect against the abuse of children.

"This is confirmation that the scope of the mandatory censorship scheme will keep on creeping," he said. "Far from being the ultimate weapon against child abuse, it now will officially censor content deemed too controversial for a 15-year-old. In a free country like ours, do we really need the government to step in and save us from racy web games?"

Ron Curry, the chief executive of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia - which is the group that represents the Australian entertainment industry - said the situation further highlighted the need to have an R18+ rating for games.

"It's through the introduction of an R18+ classification that adults will have access to age appropriate material and parents will have the full tool kit to understand the suitability of content for their children," he said.

The internet filtering issue is also receiving international condemnation with Senator Conroy being nominated by Britain's Internet Services Providers' Association for its annual "internet villain" award. Senator Conroy was nominated "for continuing to promote network-level blocking despite significant national and international opposition".

If you are interested in the ongoing debate for the introduction of an R18+ rating, check out http://everyoneplays.org.au/. Also be sure to make your voice heard by writing a (sensible) letter to Senator Conroy and to your local member.

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75 Comments

genxevo

7 months ago

why spend the money and manpower to go through all the trouble of finding, reviewing and then blocking websites that sell overage games to overage gamers when it (basically) costs nothing to add an r18+ rating, if anything it'll help our economy

it. make. no. sense.

EXH1LARATE

7 months ago

at the very least this will just encourage piracy

Cyph

7 months ago

The title should read 'Labour government to lose next election due to draconian censorship policies'.

EXH1LARATE

7 months ago

while they are at it why not block all legit porn sites, just in case under 18's purchase a porn dvd

somedude34

7 months ago

Watch the torrents climb, sigh

Puddingfork

7 months ago

genxevo wrote

Wouldn't change a thing, this is to block places that sell games that are MA15+
For discussion on this though I recommend the general pal talk forum topic as it was made before this article was up, and so more discussion has been had there.

ArcherGrave

7 months ago

Sigh,

Gov spying on us, harder for "possible" pirates to do their "work"

Very very dumb this is a very high level of spying and censorship

grim-one

7 months ago

Can we also censor megalomaniac communications ministers in case stupidity is contagious? Won't someone please think of the children!? =P

NegativeZero

7 months ago

Quote

why spend the money and manpower to go through all the trouble of finding, reviewing and then blocking websites that sell overage games to overage gamers

The ACMA blacklist requires someone to register a complaint, so basically they expect people to do their work for them.

I bet certain attorney generals from certain states (we all know who) would spend his idle weekends trawling for just this sort of thing, just to tweak our noses. :\

wecanhandlethetruth

7 months ago

This is just the start, it doesn't matter which political party they are all the same & working for the bankers, 'illuminati' & want to control us from cradle to grave, trade us at stockmarkets & bleed us dry financially. Soon there will be no parental control over your own children, RFID chip with your whole history, financial, medical & legal implanted as the cash economy is being destroyed.
We're in the hands of a few superrich families who think they own this planet & treat us just as assets & cattle.
Mod edit: please don't advertise on PALGN without permission

mikezilla2

7 months ago

who the hell comes up with this crap ?

Marka

7 months ago

NegativeZero wrote

Quote

why spend the money and manpower to go through all the trouble of finding, reviewing and then blocking websites that sell overage games to overage gamers

The ACMA blacklist requires someone to register a complaint, so basically they expect people to do their work for them.
I bet certain attorney generals from certain states (we all know who) would spend his idle weekends trawling for just this sort of thing, just to tweak our noses. :\

Combine this with the fact that they said it is the " ultimate weapon against child abuse", means that someone has to be exposed to it first in order for actaion to be taken.Not only is that stupid, but I doubt it will be more than 3-5% effective. I doubt these people are going to be hosting there sites in plain view.

Australian internet users against the world, this stuff will be poping up far faster than we can block with a system like that. People will continue to be exposed under this false sense of security that the internet is now a safe palce. I also fail to see how it protects any children from abuse when this program does nothing to stop them from actually abusing children and making the content to begin with.

barrett

7 months ago

Quite a stupid move from the government as any kind of filtering will SLOW our access to the internet.

If the blacklist scenario becomes reality maybe we should register a complaint and provide the addresses of all MP's etc to ACMA and have them banned.

This debacle will not stop child abuse.

renegadesx

7 months ago

mikezilla2 wrote

who the hell comes up with this crap ?

Thats what you get with a 2 party system where both sides are populated by wowsers in a country where people treat political parties like football teams.

bleach1st

7 months ago

I often buy oversees music CD's from those places..? What's gonna happen to that? -sigh- Australia sucks

MrAndyPuppy

7 months ago

Puddingfork wrote

genxevo wrote

Actually, it's to block stuff that's not classified - that means it can be stretched to stuff as simple as online Flash games, Xbox Live/PSN DLC and Arcade games, etc.

Anything that stops the government getting the revenue from classification of the game or game addon could be a target in this.

Nic_231

7 months ago

wecanhandlethetruth wrote

'illuminati' & want to control us from cradle to grave, trade us at stockmarkets & bleed us dry financially

You have to be kidding me...

OzzyWeb

7 months ago

As I have been saying all along, this internet filter is NOT about child pornography. It's about controlling what we see and how we think.

If this a**hole gets his way, he is going to 0wN us all!

Quote:
"Britain's Internet Services Providers' Association for its annual "internet villain" award."

How true!

We need to get rid of this two faced, NAZI posing as a caring aussie politician.

Conroy_Sux

7 months ago

someone needs to shoot this guy. a public hanging will be even better.

OzzyWeb

7 months ago

Family First are a vocal minority pushing hard on this filter. Family First are actually Mormons, clergy and pastors who insist their views are not being imposed through their politics. I call BS!! I say, they can keep their self righteous moral crap in the closet where it belongs.

Here's a few quotes that ring frighteningly true with this Stephen Conroy? ALP Government.

As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.
-Adolf Hitler

"Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn people."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Conroy_Sux

7 months ago

btw, that's figuratively speaking

don't you n00bs take it literally *rollseyes*

Quote:
"someone needs to shoot this guy. a public hanging will be even better."

James Varoutsos

7 months ago

Quote

As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.
-Adolf Hitler

Am I the only one who sees the irony?

Itachi

7 months ago

NeoSanity wrote

Quote

As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.
-Adolf Hitler

Am I the only one who sees the irony?

JESUS H CHRIST my mind is blown with that quote right there

Its so funny because its so true!

Lord Haart

7 months ago

Cyph wrote

The title should read 'Labour government to lose next election due to draconian censorship policies'.

QFT.

OzzyWeb wrote

We need to get rid of this two faced, NAZI posing as a caring aussie politician.

Everything in perspective. There's no death camps here, and you only insult everyone here by making such a comparison.

Conroy is a moron, yes, and I too am concerned by the British and Aussie govt's monitoring policies, but you don't win arguments by jumping to extremes. What we need is for a political party (an existing one or new one) to actively promote freedom of speech and oppose these ideas. When they start winning in the polls, then Labor will get the idea.

This isn't 1984. Governments aren't propelled by megalomania so much as a desire to stay in power and continue getting a paycheck, and that means winning votes. I refer to the brilliant sitcom The Hollowmen as what's probably a very good representation of how government policy units think.

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