Society

Porn filter rolled out for all Australians

The Australian Federal Government has announced all Internet Service Providers would be required to install a mandatory filter to protect children from pornography and violent websites.

The Australian Federal Government has announced all Internet Service Providers would be required to install a mandatory filter to protect children from pornography and violent websites.

The Federal Telecommunications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, made the statement on Monday, despite civil libertarians’ outcry over the filter measure. Critics labelled this rule as a form of censorship. Senator Conroy responded to the outrage, defiantly, by saying the new Rudd government had no qualms about the need to regulate the Internet.

"Labor makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road," he said.

"If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree."

Senator Conroy said the mandatory filters would not slow down the Internet connection and anyone who wanted to have uncensored Internet access could opt-out of the system.

Dr. Richard Land, the president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission which is part of the U.S. Southern Baptist Convention, wrote in the Christian Post that pornography was the most ‘pernicious’ moral and ethical issues facing families in the 21st century and warned of its effect on viewers.

“The satanic siren call of pornography does not let people—once caught—off the hook so easily (Romans 7:21-25); for once they have purposely viewed pornography, they are changed individuals, with disturbing, often violent, images burned onto their psychological ‘hard drives’,” he said.

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