The Catholic Women’s League of Australia is delighted with the Federal Government’s Plan to halt internet porn. The league is fully supportive of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s determination to introduce mandatory filtering at the level of Internet Service Provider “to shield children from violent and pornographic online material”. The plan to require all internet service providers to provide a “clean feed” to households and schools, free of pornography and other inappropriate material is laudatory, particularly since Prime Minister Rudd has promised computers to every school child.

“Labour is committed to introducing mandatory ISP filtering” and “everything possible must be done to shield children from violent and pornographic online material” said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. The Minister said the Australian Communications and Media Authority would prepare a blacklist of unsuitable sites and “clean feed” would prevent users accessing prohibited content. Minister Conroy said the Australian Communications and Media Authority would prepare a blacklist of unsuitable sites and prevent users accessing prohibited content. Any internet user who wants to opt out of “clean feed” will have to contact their Internet Service Provider.

We applaud the Minister’s courage and commitment in light of his realization that it will be difficult to achieve ISP filtering of the many sites since they change their names. It’s going to require vigilant monitoring and even then it’s not going to be 100 percent foolproof, but the Minister assures us that that he is undeterred. He said “if the people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd labour government is going to disagree”.

For those who admire his initiative - write their congratulations to:

Stephen Conroy, Communiations Minister
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place, Melbourne, Victoria, 3002

Betty Roberts OAM
National Social Issues Convenor