According to Time Magazine, the Australian government’s attempt to have Internet Service Providers block offensive websites from all users has backfired, leading to results that are the opposite of what the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), a government agency, expected to achieve – making the Internet safer for families and children. The trouble started when the ACMA compiled a list of sites they wanted to block, including child pornography, extreme violence, weapon-making, etc, and provided the list to ISPs to block them.
Sounds simple, so far. The trouble started when an outside source obtained the list and posted it anonymously on a site – giving those who were interested, a convenient compendium of depravity courtesy of the Australian government. There was such a huge response that the site where this list was posted, crashed temporarily from the surge of visitors. This exercise, beyond what it says about human nature – the allure of this modern freak show has precedent throughout human history, is a rather convincing argument for keeping Web filtering at a more local level — schools, companies, government agencies, et. al. and letting Internet remain unfiltered while the rest of us own the filtering role.
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