In independent tests it was found to block most, but not all, porn sites. But it also inexplicably blocked access to other sites, including the National Party's federal home page, the Christian Bookselling Association, the Optometrists Association, the Tasmanian Rural Trade Fair, and Mick's Whips. Mick makes handcrafted leather and crocodile skin goods in the Northern Territory, and sells most of them on the Net. National Party Leader Tim Fischer has nominated Mick's Whips as his favourite site, and even gave a whip to Bill Clinton last year as an example of good ol' Aussie outback enterprise. For all this apparent absurdity, these filtering programs are the answer to parents legitimate worries about their children accessing porn.
Parents can individually tailor the programs according to their needs.
But when these filters are placed at the ISP level, they can block all sorts of legitimate sites, causing chaos and congestion and disruption for everyone. As President Clinton said, after the failure of US legislation aimed at limiting web porn, the responsibility for policing the internet lies with parents. It does not lie with governments. The lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia is sponsoring a protest in Sydney on May 28 the day the Senate is expected to vote on the legislation. In the meantime, the government would do well to heed the cries of outrage from Internet users, service providers, e-commerce business developers, and civil libertarians.