Big Brother Downunder

And I don't mean the seriously crass TV show on Channel 10.

The Australian Government is developing a national firewall under the pretence of preventing "inappropriate" content getting to children. The content filter is enabled by default and users must request sites to be unblocked.

Reminds me of the days when the school librarian would rule the library computers with an iron fist and straight face (that's you Mr. Humphries!). I felt that our greatest liberties were under attack, the knife truly sank home after they blocked access to Hotmail! But that was then and this is now...

News has surfaced that this system will be mandatory across all internet services in Australia. What concerns me is that the Government will decide who goes onto the blacklist, effectively controlling what you can or can't view online. It also raises grave privacy concerns now that they can snoop everybody's traffic. Ok wait... perhaps the only difference now is that we know about it and are AUD $189 m poorer for it.