Asia Times: Australia set for Net censorship, Singapore style



	May 12, 1999	atimes.com

Oceania

Australia set for Net censorship, Singapore style
By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY - Australia is set to adopt Singapore's modelof using technology to censor the Internet in an attempt to denychildren access to the ever-increasing pornography in cyberspace.

A Senate information technology committee which has beenhearing public submissions on the Broadcasting Services Amendment(Online Services) Bill 1999, has taken to heart advice on how Singaporecracks down on undesirable Internet content.

The government's media watchdog, the Australian BroadcastingAuthority (ABA), rates as ''pretty good'' the Singapore system, whichhas been criticized elsewhere as having the potential to jeopardize freedom of information.

Under the bill introduced to parliament on April 21 by Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston, the ABA willbe responsible for monitoring and implementing the new lawsdesigned to censor Internet content in Australia.

The Senate IT committee is expected to report to parliamentthis week on the public submissions and its views on theeffectiveness of the bill, which the government hopes will becomelaw by June.

If it is passed by the Senate, a complaints mechanism will beset up under the auspices of the authority, to which the publiccan complain about ''offensive material."

The ABA will be given powers to issue notices to InternetService Providers (ISPs) to prevent access to theAustralian-hosted material and ''to take reasonable steps toprevent access if technically feasible'' to foreign-hosted sites.

Indemnity will be provided to ISPs to protect them fromlitigation from any affected party. There will be a graduatedseries of fines if the ISPs ignore ABA advice.

The government of Prime Minister John Howard has given highpriority to this bill. The Senate committee, which has beenconducting a fast-track hearing over the last two weeks, hasobtained a full written briefing on the Singapore model from the ABA.

In 1996, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) was givenpowers to decide which website contents could have an impact onsocial norms and morals or foster ''hatred orcontempt'' for the government.

Singapore has three licensed ISP companies. They were requiredto install powerful computers to filter requests for informationfrom subscribers. Heavy penalties are imposed on any Internet userwho downloads banned material.

The technology works by filtering access to websites which arelisted as ''access denied'' sites. This list can be updated andaltered periodically.

Australia's new approach has not earned applause from civilrights groups here, who have dubbed Singapore as ''Disneyland withthe death penalty.'' Internet industry representatives also claim that the legislationwill drive ISP companies off-shore.

The deputy chairman of the ABA, Gareth Grainger, admits theSingapore system is ''opaque,'' but says that since the 1996legislation, revenue from online business has quadrupled there.Internet sites in Singapore have increased from 500 in 1996 tomore than 5,500 today.

The Australian bill has opted against a licensing regime forISPs, but Australian ISPs will have to remove offending materialon a complaints basis.

When introducing the bill to parliament, Alston criticized itsopponents as ''making it easier for paedophiles, drug-pushers,racists and criminals to pollute the Internet.'' He said the bill has been watered down to make it technicallyfeasible and cost-effective for ISPs to take reasonable steps toblock offensive sites.

But critics are not convinced. ''No Western democracyimplements the kind of scheme that is being proposed forAustralia,'' argued Darce Cassidy, executive director of the civilrights group Electronic Frontiers Australia.

''The Internet industry, here and worldwide, has already made adecision about the technical and commercial feasibility of mid-stream access filtering [rather than filtering at the parent/userlevel],'' he added. ''It won't work and isn't practical."

''ISPs should not be made custodians of moral censorship,''protested Peter Upton, executive director of the AustralianInformation Industry Association.

A recent study of 150,000 Australian Internet users foundthat adult websites account for 20 percent of all websitesvisited, a figure far in excess of any other category. The local''adult'' or pornography market is estimated at more thanA$1.5 billion.

Many sceptics say the government is pushing ahead with theInternet bill not out of a strong desire to protect Australianchildren from ''cyber-smut,'' but out of a more political agenda: toget the support of the independent Senator Brian Harradine for itstax reform package.

The Tasmanian senator, a staunchly Catholic crusader, has madeit clear that his support for the goods and services tax thatCanberra is pushing will depend on the government's ability toclean up the Internet.

Sociology professor Andrew Jakubowicz of the University ofTechnology in Sydney argues that the Internet bill will have far-reaching social consequences.

''Were the Australian government to successfully close offInternet access, then it would have succeeded in significantlyreversing the general commitment that adults should have freedomof speech and action that doesn't harass other people,'' he toldIPS.

Professor MarkArmstrong, former chair of the Australian BroadcastingCorporation, said: ''There's a risk it may retard online commerce and tiltthe balance against freedom of speech."

He points out that the lack of a freedom of speech clause in the1992 Australian Broadcasting Act will make it impossible tochallenge the new Internet legislation in courts.

(Inter Press Service)