"Jeff Shaw claims to have submitted draft legislation to a national meeting of Attorneys-General, but we have been unable to obtain a copy", said EFA's Sydney spokesperson, Danny Yee. "All we have is a brief press release, but that is enough to demonstrate that the state government doesn't actually understand anything about the Internet."
"The government proposal would ban material considered unsuitable for children (MA+ rated or above) completely -- even from private electronic mail. Material that is widely available in libraries and bookshops would become illegal when published electronically; conversations that are perfectly legal on the telephone or on the street would be illegal if electronic mail or a 'chat channel is involved."
"The proposed laws would target individuals who access material and service providers who transport it as well as to those who publish it. This would not only be a blatant infringement of personal privacy but could destroy the entire Internet service industry in NSW. Laws such as those proposed are, in any case, an intolerable infringement of civil liberties. Given the lack of reliable authentication on the Internet, they would also leave NSW Internet users open to threats and blackmail through impersonation."
"New legislation is totally unnecessary, since technological solutions for keeping unsuitable material away from children already exist. Ratings systems like 'PICS' combined with software such as 'Net Nanny' and 'SurfWatch' allow parents to control what their children can access. Existing laws against exploitative pornography, defamation, and harassment have proved sufficient in dealing with abuses of Internet services." (And the Office of Film and Literature Classification itself has searched the Internet and reported that "restricted and refused classification material was difficult to find".)
So far the uproar has been purely virtual, but a rally in Sydney Hyde Park on Monday 27th May at noon, followed by a march on Parliament House at 1pm, will give Internet users a chance to demonstrate their outrage in person.