LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Mark Newton <newton@atdot.dotat.org>
  To  : Jamie Lovick <jalovick@inettech.net.au>
  Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 07:26:08 +0930 (CST)

Re: Opinions on New Internet Bill (While I am still allowed to

Jamie Lovick wrote:

   [ user education ]
 > To choose an example, AOL is the US actively communicate with their users,
 > teaching users how to manage access, through a net nanny style system. Its
 > a way for AOL to be more user friendly, and it seems to be keeping people
 > happy.
 > AOL have done it more as a marketing move, which seems to be working for
 > them. If Australian ISP's actively pursued such things, we may not be
 > seeing such efforts as this new bill.

I disagree.  The Senate Select Committee on IT made it obvious that
they didn't think AOL went far enough.

This is despite AOL's deplorable attitude on privacy, the fact that
they have a history of assisting police in "sting" operations by 
removing people's ability to delete incriminating evidence that has
been emailed to them, and the fact that they're one of the most expensive 
ways of using the net due to all the overheads they have to support 
their parental controls.

Many ISPs already offer parental controls anyway; Kidz.Net has a point
of presence in each city, OZ-Email has an optional filtered service, as
does iiNet and many of the other large ISPs. You don't need *every*
ISP to give censored net access to say the market capability is there,
you only need a couple of them to offer it and let the market decide
whether they want to use it.

If every ISP in the country turned themselves into AOL we'd still be in
this situation.  As I said yesterday, this isn't about kids, it's about
adults being able to look at pictures of naked women.

    - mark

--------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried an internal modem,                    newton@atdot.dotat.org
     but it hurt when I walked.                          Mark Newton
----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 -----

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