Re: [SLUG] Australian government to censor your internets

Hi David,

As someone with a postgraduate research degree in
this very area - what defines child abuse - and
with 20+ years in the field:

> 
> Actually, you are wrong. It's not at all clear what constitutes sexual
> violence or child abuse, 

is not entirely accurate. From an academic
perspective, sure, there's lots of debate, but
from the perspective of the application of current
research, there is more agreement than
disagreement. There are general areas in which
there is international consensus, such as sexual
exploitation of children. Children's courts and
State and Federal courts criminal courts are
generally fairly consistent - though not perfect
(I know this from many years in the courts) - in
what they uphold to be abuse.

That said:

>and censoring it is NOT going to solve anything.

It's already censored. It is illegal in many
countries to make much of what is considered
abusive and exploitative available for public
viewing - and in child sexual abuse, for someone's
personal viewing or possession.

The point though that I understand you to be
making is something about which I completely agree
with you: that this form of filtering is pointless
and unnecessary and is something that I stated in
my recent letter to the Federal Minister for
Communication, Mr Conroy.

> 
> Knee jerks are almost invariably dangerous. 

Absolutely. I think this is, as someone else has
mentioned recently about another matter, just like
"Yes Minister". It was determined that 'Something'
needed to be done. So they thing they're doing is
the 'something', whether there's any point or not.
So now they're seen to be doing 'something.'

> 
> Up until recently, there was a lot of child abuse going on in orphanages
> and convents which the blaze of sunlight has done more to eradicate than
> decades of censorship ever did.

Yup. Absolutely. In fact, the censoring was done
by the agencies and church hierarchy to prevent
people taking any purposeful action to stop the abuse.

> 
> This type of censorship is driven by the religious right or the suburban
> fearful, the same people who gave you pedophile priests. 

Yup. Absolutely.

It also leaves the door wide open for political
censorship.

Yup. Absolutely.


You can't beat a good book burning.

They smell better than people, but with the
current position the Feds are taking, who knows
what the next smell will be???

:)

Regards,

Patrick
> 



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