Australian Labor Party plans Internet censorship on pornography

The discussion reaches Australia, after an intensive discussion in the US, the UK, China and probably in other countries as well. The Labor Party in Australia proposes that all Internet service providers are forced to block hardcore pornography to protect children. "A confidential paper from the left-wing think tank the Australia Institute, which is now being considered by the Opposition Leader's office, proposes that ISPs install compulsory filtering programs so only adults who can verify their age could view X-rated material."

The article ends by saying that a vast majority supports the policy proposal - a stunning 93 per cent of parents of 12 to 17 year-olds according to a Newspoll survey - but that the proposal is expected to face some opposition from libertarians and frontbenchers including Kate Lundy, the Opposition spokeswoman on information technology.

The big question, so is how they want to do it. In China, search engines have a list of 40,000 keywords that are banned, which might also cause innocent pages to be banned - but this probably is collateral. But may be it is just a matter of checking and learning, just like we learn to fight spam, and spyware. And staying ahead of the game!

But it could also be a political game in Australia - elections are coming up and everything might be up for grasps.