MYTH 1: The Internet is full of pornography
In fact, pornography on the Internet is just a tiny fraction of what goes on there - it's like the number of sex-shops in Sydney as opposed to all the other shops. Just like in Sydney, if you look up "sex-shops" in the online Yellow Pages, you'll find a few. But if you don't actually go inside them, you'll never see any pornography at all - just like real sex-shops.
The Carr government doesn't understand this. Carr has never used the net, but he imagines it's like some kind of TV show. He thinks all the porn on the net will be right there in everyone's faces. This is the same as thinking that the whole city of Sydney is nothing but an X-rated cinema.
Because of this furphy the Carr government is introducing some really stupid new laws. What Carr says is that if someone sends you a porno picture, which any of 100 million people on the global Internet can do, for free, in complete anonymity, you'll be up for a $25,000 fine and/or 6 months in jail.
This won't prevent access to Internet porn or shut down any real pornographers. What it will do is turn each NSW Internet user and their kids into targets for every con-man and blackmailer in the world.
MYTH 2: Internet users are constantly at risk of being exposed to objectionable material
Imagine you're down at the pub, and someone starts telling a dirty joke. Happens all the time, doesn't it? No one minds much, because if you don't want to hear the joke, you don't need to hear it - you can walk off and go talk with some other people. No one forces you to listen.
It's exactly the same on the Internet. On the net you will only see what you go looking for. You can filter out what you don't like. You can always let both a dirty-joker and any interested Internet users know how you feel about what is said. The net is conversational, like a world-wide pub.
The Carr government doesn't understand this. It wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to install policemen with sensitive eavesdropping equipment all over NSW. The moment one of Carr's police hears someone start to tell a dirty joke, they'll fine them $25,000 and throw them in jail.
Even worse, if you happen to be within earshot of a dirty-joker, even if you're asleep or not listening, Carr will drag you into a courtroom to have you prove that you weren't involved. And if you can't prove it, then Carr will fine you $25,000 and shove you in the clink too.
MYTH 3: Pornography can be stopped by imposing a statewide or national ban.
Teenagers scrawl rude words and pictures of genitals on the walls of public lavatories. While these things are distasteful, no one gets particularly upset about them, because, unless you spend all your time reading lavatory walls, these things are only a momentary nuisance.
It's the same on the Internet; pornography is scanned in by teenagers and "scrawled" onto public forums that are automatically copied to every computer in the world. But most users don't see any of this, because there are millions of different "walls" on the net, and only a handful are devoted to the equivalent of lavatory graffiti.
The Carr government doesn't understand this. Rather than ignore net grafitti as the momentary nuisance that it actually is, Carr wants to set up the Internet equivalent of video-cameras monitoring all public toilets. Never mind the fact that this would cost hundreds of millions, Carr says that if you have the online equivalent of a call of nature, and you see an obscenity on an online "lavatory wall", that's worth $25,000 and 6 months in a real prison surrounded by rapists and murderers.
If this were done, it would catch no one but the innocent. Real pornographers have free worldwide access to "encryption" and "steganography" software - the equivalent of a graffiti-kid wearing a mask and writing in invisible ink. Carr could never catch the graffiti-kids because this "encryption" is so mathematically tough to figure out that it would take a thousand years before even one secret code could be cracked. And even then Carr has no way of proving whose finger was on the mouse.
So the only people Carr will catch are the poor unsuspecting folks who wander into the wrong "toilet stall" at the wrong time. And, to justify the massive expense of this absolutely futile campaign, you can bet he'll crucify them.
MYTH 4: There's no existing solution to this problem.
The Internet offers your children all the advantages of the finest university education, unlimited access to the most beautiful artworks, and expert advice on absolutely anything that interests them. The net holds out unlimited financial, social and educational advantages to your children - any Australian child who can't use these advantages is already well on their way to the 21st century scrap-heap. If you love your kids, you can't afford to deny them these opportunities.
Now keeping your kids away from the real King's Cross is *YOUR* job, not Bob Carr's. Carr can't watch your kids for you. No one can keep them out of trouble but you. It's just the same on the net.
Filter programs like "Net Nanny" and "SurfWatch" will help you keep an eye on your kids online, but at the end of the day it's *YOUR* job to supervise your children on the net. Don't let them use the net without you! If your kids are going to be able to cope with the revolutionary changes of the next century, they need you to give them the advice that only you, as a parent, know how to give.
The Carr government doesn't understand this. If your kids stumble onto an online "Playboy" then Carr isn't satisfied with you giving them your parental advice. Instead, he wants to fine you $25,000 and throw you in jail for six months. And if he can't get you, then he wants to get the engineers and owners of businesses that sell you access to the Internet - or anyone else he can get, so long as he can look like a "tough guy on porn".
MYTH 5: Censoring the Internet is just responsible government.
What's the big deal with the Internet? If the net is just people talking to one another, why crack down on it? If two consenting adults want to share naughty bits online, is that worse than what they do in their bedrooms? If you discuss sex, drugs or anything else online, is that worse than what you talk about down at the pub?
In fact, it's just the same thing. People are just the same online as they are offline. If Bob Carr has no business telling you what you can do in your bedroom, then neither does he have any business telling you what you can email to your partner over the Internet. If Bob Carr doesn't have any business monitoring your conversations in the pub, then neither does he have any business eavesdropping on your transactions on the net. Carr's legislation is a vastly expensive PR exercise that belongs in Beijing, not in Sydney.
Let's stop this Big-Brother rubbish right now. If we don't want Carr monitoring every phone call in NSW, making us vulnerable to online extortion, destroying our kids' opportunities for a first-world future and squandering hundreds of millions of dollars of our taxes on his paranoia, then we need to make ourselves visible.
On May 27, at 12.00, lunchtime, protestors will gather in the Sydney Domain. At 1pm we're going to march on the NSW parliament. This will be a peaceful protest, and if the police tell us to disperse then we will. Smiles, food and music are very welcome. Please encourage your friends and colleagues to come along. Many people are also going to wear blue ribbons, the international symbol of free speech. But the main thing is to turn up - show Carr that you care. And that you vote.
Pete Merel ([email protected])