back to article Oz net filter jams up with smut, may be pulled out altogether

A former Australian regulator recently speculated that there may be changes in the works for Australia's smut regulation, suggesting that self-regulation may eventually follow. This is ahead of a review of the classification system that is being conducted by the Australian Law Review Commission (ALRC). Does the future for the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Nitwits

    "Having a system where the industry has more regulatory control, with the government overseeing it, is a far more efficient model."

    Not having any regulatory control at all is even more efficient. What's wrong with people being responsible for themselves, and parents being responsible for their children?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Because that is anarchy

      Which, if we are to believe Mssrs Vicious and Rotten, only works in the UK.

      Some level of government oversight is always necessary - ideally the absolute minimum to protect those who cannot protect themselves but nevertheless we know full well that relying on self regulation never works.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ratings

      Ratings help parents to be responsible, they enable informed choices, rather than choices based on the picture on the game, or what some review on the internet says. A ratings agency will rate based on specific factors, reviews are subjective.

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    Australian Liberal Pary

    Oxymoron?

    1. garbo
      Happy

      Oxymoron?

      No, just Moron.

  3. kain preacher

    So then

    They are choking on their own red tape. The system is collapsing under it's own weight . For folks like this this , it is and extreme embarrassment . The only thing worse is for them to admit that can't work.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    Copypasta

    I think you'll find it's "Standing Committee of Attorneys-General"

  5. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    It's not just a nanny state

    You have the "wingers" who are not content until they can regulate your CONTENT. They don't want you to see what they don't like or play games they don't like (or think thoughts they don't like).

  6. Bilby

    The plural of "Attorney General"

    Is Attournies General. Note also that it contains the letter "U" in Australia, as we are still a British imperial possession, and not yet an official US territory.

    /pedantry

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: The plural of "Attorney General"

      Is Attorneys General.

  7. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Classify -this-, Bruce

    The nation that would only show 1970s Doctor Who with the scary ugly parts taken out.

  8. andro

    good article

    Congrats on the well written article. Its a very accurate description of how I see it, living here in the middle of it. To our politicians: Please do fix up our censorhip system by introducing an R18+ games rating and loosening regulation on as much as possible, and bring on the NBN! My ancient copper line is rusting!

    1. John Angelico
      Headmaster

      ...egad, another one!

      Copper can't rust!

      1. Marcus Aurelius
        Grenade

        Copper does rust

        Copper does rust, at any rate it oxidizes which is how you get rust from iron (rust is iron oxide). The main difference is that copper oxides protect the underlying real copper whereas surface rust does not significantly protect any underlying iron.

        Copper is also vulnerable to being 'eroded' by thievery...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LOL...

    This country is full of twits, Luddites & clueless morons. In the red corner we have Labor with their filter and nice NBN and in the blue corner we have the coalition who are anti-nbn but no filter (or so they say) The only ones making any sense are the ones in the Green corner but we cant have that lot they are far too radical apparently, just ask the ones in the yellow corner: the voters.

    1. John Angelico
      FAIL

      And as evidenced by the above AC...

      ...they post drivel on these pages.

      The voters in the yellow corner have seen through those in the Green corner as a bunch of raving anti-development nutters, to lift a quote from Ford Prefect. Hmm, in fact, Goldafrincham would be just the place for those Greens.

      In the Red corner we see the reason for the red - spilled ink from the Treasury Budget papers, as our ranga of a PM spends money we don't have, on a new service we don't need (since it's already available cheaper) AND wants to pay Telstra to remove all the existing copper so we can't use our democratic freedom (what's that, grandad? Something we lost a long time ago, sonshine!) to not buy into the new service if we don't see a need for it. Some of us simply like the idea of a POTS (plain old telephone service), in much the same way that we like the old-fashioned idea of walking to the corner shop instead of driving as the 'merkans do.

      In the Blue corner the Opposition suffers the slings and arrows of outrageously lazy journalists who accuse them of opposing (hey, you mad lot, it's in their job title). Meanwhile they ask the government politely for a business plan demonstrating the putative viability of said NBN. Since the government has steadfastly declined to open the kimono, one is left with the distinct impression that the Opposition has a point, and that at $AUD43 Billion gross (plus interest, to be paid for by 24 million population) NBN may stand for NOT BLOODY NEEDED.

  10. Mark 65

    Luddite?

    "Although the Liberal Party have declared themselves opposed to Labor’s plans for an internet filter, they have also displayed more Luddite tendencies, including fierce opposition to the National Broadband Network (NBN), as well as a general inclination towards moral conservatism."

    Most politicians are luddites but in this instance they have fierce opposition to the NBN because it is due to cost around $43bn which is quite a lot of money. Especially so when one of your States is under water, another is bankrupt and there's probably a lot of other issues to fix first before guaranteeing a lightning fast connection to skippy in the bush.

    The reality is that for the most part the big brave NBN promised by Labour was a last ditch bit of vote grabbing as it need not be as expensive or extravagant given the limiting factor will be the bandwidth off of the island and the fact that no bastard will use it given you can already get a 30Mbit connection in most cities (where a very large chunk of the populous live). The signs from the techno backwater of Tasmania weren't exactly glowing with plenty being unable to connect reliably, speeds at ADSL levels and them having to mandate the connection to the NBN as opt-out because nobody was bothering.

  11. david 12 Silver badge

    Luddite?

    I'm a Design Engineer: I work at a computer, and I'm permanently connected to the internet.

    I'm also against the Aus. Labour version of the NBN.

    But I'm against it because it's technically backward and a waste of money.

    The Luddites are on the NBN side.

  12. This post has been deleted by its author

  13. asdf
    Flame

    haha never realized

    Anybody else catch the irony of what was originally a colony of convicts being so prudish on pr0n? How sad is they are even more controlling than here in the states where the Brits dumped off their Puritans?

  14. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    R18+

    Is that above or below "NSFW" in the greater scheme of things?

    Can't help but think they've missed an opportunity here. If they'd gone for "R18++" they wouldn't need to go through the reclassification rigmarole every now and again, as it would just increment itself whenever the issue was revisited.....

  15. P. Lee

    R18+

    I suspect that the lack of R18+ mostly helps retailers in Australia.

    COD:BlOps - 89 AUD (57 GBP), as opposed to the 30-40 GBP it was going for in UK supermarkets when it first came out. MW2 is still at 79 AUD (50 GBP) in the shops.

    The online download market (Steam/Gamersgate) use ip geolocation, so you can't buy 18+ games from these sources in Australia, you have to find someone to purchase and gift it to you.

    And play.com doesn't ship to Oz :(

    Australia is victim to lots of local-monopoly activity. Perhaps, however, with growing internet usage, it is possible that they are now finding sales dropping as people buy the "full" game from abroad.

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