As the professional body representing people working across a broad spectrum of the web industry, the Australian Web Industry Association (AWIA) objects to the Government’s plans to trial ISP filtering, with a view to introducing it nationally.

Despite the Government originally proposing an opt-in policy to filtering, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has confirmed a two-tier system: a mandatory one that would block all “illegal material” and an optional tier that would block material deemed unsuitable for children. Essentially this amounts to across-the-board censorship with no ability opt-out.

While we agree as a body, that is it important to protect children from offensive material, a filter is not the way to do this.

“Filtering the internet is like having a breath testing unit on everyone’s street and everyone needs to be tested before they drive up their own driveway,” AWIA spokesman Richard Giles said.

There is no efficient way to block information the Government deems inappropriate without blocking innocent material, which was proven in tests the Government did in 2008.

The tests showed:

  • An average success of 92% on content deemed “inappropriate.”
  • An average failure of 4%, where content was “innocuous” was blocked.

There are also legitimate concerns that ISP filtering will slow down the internet, by as much as 42 per cent. In Australia the web industry already faces slow access speeds and adding ISP filtering on top of this will only compound this problem and have flow-on effects for all working in the industry as well as for end-users.

This is a legitimate concern that should well be considered and has the potential to cripple Australian innovation in the web space - effectively it will cost everyone more in money and time -  from ISPs to businesses and individuals.

We feel the lack of understanding by the Government on the technical issues at hand is resulting in them taking an unnecessary action by effectively denying the Australian population the basic right to access the internet freely.

We urge the Government to talk to industry bodies to develop a better solution than current ISP filtering that will not have long-term effects on Australian innovation in the web industry.