Up Front by Emma Hart

Read Post

Up Front: Young and Sort of Free

82 Responses

First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 Newer→ Last

  • Hamboy,

    So will this mean we won't have the slowest internet in the OECD? lol

    How long before an MP here promotes it here?

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 162 posts Report Reply

  • Gareth Ward,

    I can only hope I never work out how to 'press P on the internet' so I can avoid getting punched in the face by bingo-porn.

    I've finally found my epitaph.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • Carolyn Skelton,

    I'm interested in how that "p" button works. I tried putting

    p

    into google.

    First up are various hits concerning methamphetamine, the wikipedia page for the letter "p", wkipedia on phosphorous, stuff on Pink (the singer). Does this mean that NZ already has some sort of filter? What does one have to do to "accidentally" get pron on one's PC in NZ?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 39 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard,

    What does one have to do to "accidentally" get pron on one's PC in NZ?

    I'm told that it's not a good idea to do a Google image search for "manhole".

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    How long before an MP here promotes it here?

    Well, Canada's working on it. Canada, where you can legally go to a lesbian wedding topless and stoned. What really worries me for here is that ISPs will just start 'voluntarily' doing it, as in Britain.

    We're a country of wee pervies, though, from an Aussie point of view. This amused the hell out of me.

    o Home
    o Categories
    + Advertising Censorship
    + Art Censorship
    + Book Censorship
    + Censorship News Bites
    + Censorship Policy
    + Clothing Censorship
    + Copyright
    + Events
    + Fighting Censorship
    + Film Censorship
    + Game Censorship
    + Health Censorship
    + International
    + Internet Censorship
    + Music Censorship
    + NetAlarmed.com
    + Panic
    + Parental outrage
    + Politicians and Prudes
    + Reports
    + Safety and Education
    + Theatre Censorship
    + TV Censorship
    o About Mike
    o Contact Mike
    o New: Banned Drug Leaflet

    Salo stays banned
    July 19, 2008 – 7:21 pm

    Salo DVD banned in AustraliaBetween 1993 and 1998, Salo was classified R18+ in Australia. You could see it in select cinemas. Before that it had been banned since 1976, and in 1998 the QLD Attorney General saw to it that be banned once again.

    Fast forward 10 years and nothing has changed. Shock’s submission to have the upcoming Criterion Special Edition of Salo released on DVD was turned down by the Classification Board last week.

    Refused-Classification.com writes:

    ‘It is not short of the mark to say that this has probably become the most controversial film ever for the Australian censors. Over the years, its release, and subsequent re-banning has been so politicised that it is difficult to see how the Classification Board could view it objectively. Make no mistake; in 2008 this should be an R18+ film. The British film censors are still more conservative than the OFLC, yet they passed SALO with an 18 certificate several years ago.’

    ‘Apart from I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, we can think of no other title that has had quite as many Australian censorship problems. Saying that, even ISOYG, has been passed uncut since 2004.’

    It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when even New Zealand allows Salo to be viewed by adults. That means something when you consider our neighbours once said Power Rangers was too violent. What makes Australian eyes so precious and in need of Government intervention?

    If Salo is such a problem and a risk to the population, shouldn’t we be a little more concerned that Kiwis are only a two hour flight away? Maybe it’s time we introduced a ‘Have you watched Salo’ question on the Visitor Entry Card?

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    What does one have to do to "accidentally" get pron on one's PC in NZ?

    Well, at a project launch some years ago for a big Govt department, it was achieved (on a big demo screen for the invited guests) by entering nasa.com, instead of nasa.govt (the intention was to watch the mars rover thing live.)

    The operator spent several minutes closing dozens of pop up windows of people "in congress".

    I don't know if that url still delivers the goods.

    Thos Australian pollies remind me somewhat of IT guru Maurice Williamson complaining to the press about an early Parliamentary email system to the effect that he entered "everyone" into the recipient field & was disappointed that every email user in the world didn't get his message.

    A commonplace smtp address would have worked fine.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Canada, where you can legally go to a lesbian wedding topless and stoned.

    Yeah but who hasn't done that.

    I was going to []ress the "u[]side down b" button, but I'm at work and I don't want to get in trouble :)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Hamboy,

    I'm interested in how that "p" button works. I tried putting

    When you start typing in google search field or the browsers address bar it starts matching what you have typed before. That's why they just have to type p to get porn. Because they have already been looking for it. lol

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 162 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Ooo maybe the "p button" is a new Firefox extension

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Meanwhile, I assume you will still be able to walk into a bookstore in suburban inner south Brisbane (your local MP: the Hon. Kevin Rudd) and walk out with a copy of Lolita -- a novel whose central character/narrator is not only a paedophile but a kidnapper and murderer?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Ah, Craig, we covered this, remember? Books are for literate upper-class educated-type people. You can get anyone using the internet. We can't be having that.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Meanwhile, I assume you will still be able to walk into a bookstore in suburban inner south Brisbane (your local MP: the Hon. Kevin Rudd) and walk out with a copy of Lolita -- a novel whose central character/narrator is not only a paedophile but a kidnapper and murderer?

    Well I wouldn't try reading it on the train.

    Actually, I think your point still stands. Nabokov or Anais Nin, you're okay. Print-outs from a web-site, not so much. (As an aside, just how much do you have to read over someone's shoulder to discover that it's child porn? That's not a quick sideways glance, is it?)

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Well I wouldn't try reading it on the train.

    Last time I was in Sydney, I felt kind of icky about being seen in public with a copy of the taboid Daily Telegraph and I sure wouldn't want my parents to know I was selling the damn thing. :)

    (As an aside, just how much do you have to read over someone's shoulder to discover that it's child porn? That's not a quick sideways glance, is it?)

    You'd have to read more than I'd want to admit in an open court. It's also damn rude to read over someone's shoulder, but that's a whole other can of worms.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I wrote about this in my Listener column during the campaign last year. About that study:

    The upshot was clear enough: even in tests under the most favourable conditions, ISP-level filtering looked like a bad idea. The real-world results of such a national system hardly bore thinking about, especially as the report concluded that the largest ISPs would have the most problems with filtering.

    Sadly, the Howard government had taken the conclusions seriously until Labor started the bidding war. Likely consequence ...

    It will not be compulsory for any household to adopt home PC filtering software or ISP filtering, but all users will feel the drag on performance if, as the government expects, millions of families do opt for ISP filtering. The government has hinted that it expects libraries to introduce filtering.

    Moreover, the mere existence of a government-controlled nationwide internet-filtering system – one that aims to cover not just web content, but email, chat and peer-to-peer file exchange – seems to offer an unwelcome temptation both to expand its scope and to make it compulsory. When the system launches, it will use a blacklist of websites that includes not only pornography, but also some deemed by a government agency to be “terror” sites.

    Election year is taking Australian politicians down a fairly strange road.

    Amusingly, I now see that the column wound up being discussed in the forums of a Euro-porn database site.

    (Warning: Really, **really** Not Safe For Work ads ...)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Isabel Hitchings,

    You know that "disgusting" picture of the little naked girl? I did find it a little unsettling and it took me a minute to figure out why. It was the way the girl was posed so no genitals or nipples were showing. Somehow that seems to imply that she is aware of the "forbidden" nature of those parts of her anatomy in a way that a little kid often isn't.

    Not disgusting at all though.

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2007 • 719 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    There's already drift on what the Aussie black-list should be covering. According to a Labor Party press release:

    What category of material will be banned under Labor’s plan? Labor will require ISPs to filter out R, RC and X rated material as part of a clean feed for home internet connections."

    ...the Current ACMA blacklist under the Howard Government is inadequate. It does not contain enough sites to protect our children from harmful and inappropriate content...

    But they don't say what they want to add to the blacklist. It'll be left, I assume, to some users to reverse-engineer the list of blocked URLs, but some of the things they've said would indicate that they're also looking at blocking sites that use particular terms which is where things start getting really stupid.

    Meanwhile, even the ACMA is worried about performance degradation and the costs involved in trying to compensate for it.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    You know that "disgusting" picture of the little naked girl? I did find it a little unsettling and it took me a minute to figure out why. It was the way the girl was posed so no genitals or nipples were showing. Somehow that seems to imply that she is aware of the "forbidden" nature of those parts of her anatomy in a way that a little kid often isn't.

    Well, if Mr. Rudd -- who was born and raised a Catholic, but is now an observant Anglican -- might on his next European holiday want to avoid the Vatican Museums. Camille Paglia was not extracting the urine (or not just) when she said in the current climate of moral panic, the Pope is the biggest pronographer on Earth. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Gareth Ward,

    Can I just confirm here -
    1. The Aussie system will be mandatory? Regardless of whether you have the filter software or not?
    2. And will not list what sites/rationale etc are used for blocking?


    I don't have that much problem with an opt-in system of filtering run by the Government where they make clear the things they are filtering.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    1. The Aussie system will be mandatory? Regardless of whether you have the filter software or not?

    It's mandatory for all ISPs to provide filtering. From a user point of view, it's opt-OUT, not opt-in.

    And will not list what sites/rationale etc are used for blocking?

    Britain doesn't, Finland doesn't, Malaysia doesn't. So far despite some pretty good lobbies getting established among Aussie net users (the 'no clean feed' button is starting to turn up all over the place), nobody seems to be able to get a clear answer on that. Definitely everything on the ACMA list, but other stuff as well. And given the way the internet expands, they'll have to keep adding stuff to the list...

    The thing is, as Russell's column states, they had a system where anyone who actually WANTED filtering could install the software at their own end, for free. Now that's going.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • dc_red,

    For those curious about topless stoned lesbian weddings in Canada, I can assure you that while lesbian weddings are legally recognized, and toplessness is legal (whilst still rare amongst women in public), cannabis remains prohibited.

    Oil Patch, Alberta • Since Nov 2006 • 706 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    cannabis remains prohibited

    Dude, it's medicinal!

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard,

    __Lolita__ -- a novel whose central character/narrator is not only a paedophile but a kidnapper and murderer?

    Try Ada: it makes Lolita look like Playschool. It also happens to be one of the most astonshingly brilliant novels I've ever read, but hey, the literature/porn distinction's just about class, right?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

  • dc_red,

    Dude, it's medicinal!

    That it may be ... but very few prescriptions for medical marijuana have been issued in Canada (about 3000 at last count).

    Now California on the other hand...

    Oil Patch, Alberta • Since Nov 2006 • 706 posts Report Reply

  • Gareth Ward,

    It's mandatory for all ISPs to provide filtering. From a user point of view, it's opt-OUT, not opt-in.

    Opt-out is absurd.
    And can't you just see the spin now "Oh yeah, well our records show <<insert-generic-enemy-here>> opted-out of internet filtering. Guy loves his child porn obviously"

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    I just realised what's next after the filtering. It will be a publicly available list of "perverts" who opted out. Perfect for employers, reporters, etc etc

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 Newer→ Last

Post your response…

Please sign in using your Public Address credentials…

Login

You may also create an account or retrieve your password.