#ausvotes

Coalition Internet Filter Policy

• Summary

  The Coalition are opposed to an ISP based filter due to its ineffectiveness with high volumes of content, its ineffectiveness within online networks, its impact on internet speeds, its ability to be circumvented, and its potential to encourage a false sense of security among parents. They advocate a PC based internet filter scheme. The Coalitions scheme delegates’ responsibility for distributing PC based filter software to the ISP.

  
  

  More

  The Coalition acknowledge the rapid growth in access to the internet that young people have at their disposal, and want to ensure that families do not develop a false sense of security about internet safety. In their view, parents are the best monitors of their children’s online activity, and are those that are in the best position to provide education and guidance to them. Under the Howard government, parents were provided with free PC based filters in order to appropriately block content they deemed unsuitable for their children.

  
  

  As PC level filtering technology is at an advanced stage, the Coalition will consult with industry and the ACMA and provide families with free state of the art PC based filtering technology to administer in their own homes, at their own discretion. Further, they will use the ACMA to extend cyber safety education across the nation, also implementing a Cyber safety hotline. By empowering principals, they will introduce an educational campaign into schools in order to address bullying and cyber bullying on social media sites in particular. The Coalition will also create a Ministerial Advisory Committee on Social Networking in order to engender cooperation with industry to limit the potential for harm to users of social networking sites.

  
  

  In order to improve awareness of the scheme and its administration, the Coalition will leverage the existing market relationships that ISPs possess, and provide ISP’s with grants in order to fund the entire cost and provision of PC based filter software to customers. ISP’s will also be required to inform customers of the availability of free filtering software at the commencement of a service agreement.