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New Zealand minister fails to attarct support for her porn censorship measure
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 | 24th June 2020
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| See article from avn.com
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Momentum had been building in New Zealand over recent months for a nationwide law blocking internet porn, but the effort spearheaded by Interior Affairs Minister Tracey Martin appears to have hit a roadblock. Martin said late last year that she planned
to bring her porn ban bill before New Zealand's parliament prior to the 2020 elections, which are scheduled for September. Martin created a draft proposal to require blocking of porn sites by internet service providers for anyone under 18 years of
age. But when she circulated the paper among members of the governing coalition including her own centrist New Zealand First Party, as well as the liberal-progressive Labor and Green Parties, she found a lack of interest. She now says she will not
attempt to push the porn-blocking plan any further. Despite her inability to win support for her porn-blocking proposal, Martin still says that she favors an age-verification system for online porn, according to the Herald report.
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New Zealand ISP Spark says it will unilaterally censor 8chan (should it return to life)
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| 11th August 2019
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| 10th August 2019. See article from
rnz.co.nz
See article from rnz.co.nz |
New Zealand ISP Spark says it will block the controversial website 8chan if it resumes service, because it continues to host disturbing material. 8chan is currently down after its web host pulled out in response to 8chan being used by US mass
shooters. However, Spark said if 8chan finds another host provider, it would block access. Spark said: We feel it is the right thing to do given the website's repeated transgressions and continual willingness to
distribute disturbing material. The 8chan internet forum was used by the accused Christchurch mosque gunman to distribute his manifesto and live stream the attack.
However Spark seemed to realise that it would
now become a magnet for every easily offended social justice warrior with a pet grievance and said that the the government should step in: Appropriate agencies of government should put in place a robust policy
framework to address the important issues surrounding such material being distributed online and freely available.
Technology commentator Paul Brislen responded: It's very, very nearly the edge of
what's acceptable for what your internet provider to be doing in this kind of situation. I'm as uncomfortable as they [Spark] are about it. They do really need to find a new way to manage hate-speech and extremist content on the
internet. It's much like the Telecom of old to decide which phone calls you can and can't make. The risk was someone would now turn around and say okay you blocked 8Chan because of hate speech, now I want
you to block this other website because it allows people to access something else. It might be hate speech, it might be pornography, it might be something that speaks out against a religious group or ethnicity. You start down a
certain track of Spark or any of the other ISPs being forced to decide what is and isn't acceptable for the NZ public and that's not their job at all. They really shouldn't be doing that.
Update: New Zealand's
chief censor David Shanks chips in 11th August 2019. See article from classificationoffice.govt.nz
I applaud the announcement by Spark that they are prepared to block access to 8chan if and when it re-emerges on the internet. This move is both brave and meaningful. Brave, because a decision not to provide users with access to a
site is quite a different thing from a decision not to provide a site with the server capacity and services it needs (which is the choice that Cloudflare recently made). Meaningful, because everything I have seen tells me that 8chan is the white
supremacist killer's platform of choice, with at least three major attacks announced on it within a few months. There is nothing indicating that upon re-emergence 8chan will be a changed, safer platform. Indeed, it may be even more toxic.
We appreciate that our domestic ISP's have obligations to provide their customers with access to the internet according to their individual terms and conditions. Within those constraints, as the experience post the March 15 attacks
show, our ISP's can act and do the right thing to block platforms that are linked to terrorist atrocities and pose a direct risk of harm to New Zealanders. I know that ISPs don't take these decisions lightly, and that they do not
want to be in the business of making judgments around the content of sites. But these are extraordinary circumstances, and platforms that promote terrorist atrocities should not be tolerated on the internet, or anywhere else. Spark is making the right
call here. This is a unique set of circumstances, and relying on ISPs to make these calls is not a solution for the mid or long term. I agree with calls for a transparent, robust and sensible regulatory response. Discussions have
already started on what this might look like here in NZ. Ultimately this is a global, internet problem. That makes it complex of course, but I believe that online extremism can be beaten if governments, industry and the public work together
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The New Zealand government is eyeing the UK internet porn censorship regime
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11th August 2018
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| See article from nzherald.co.nz |
New Zealand could follow the United Kingdom in bringing in age restrictions for online pornography and blocking websites which refuse to comply. Department of Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin, who also holds the children's portfolio, says young
people are being bombarded by internet pornography and she wants censorship laws to be strengthened. This is a really, really big issue to New Zealand and we are going to have a serious conversation about it, she told the Herald. Martin supports
the approach of the United Kingdom, which has ambitious and controversial plans to introduce mandatory age verification for pornographic websites later this year. She made the comments after the Chief Censor began a major piece of research on New
Zealand teenagers' online pornography habits. We're pretty excited about it, Chief Censor David Shanks said. We think it's going to give us some potentially world-leading data on the New Zealand situation and teens and
pornography. With this research our aim is to get solid evidence about the experiences and perspectives of young people on the table so there can be an informed debate. In our view policy in this area does need some consideration,
in terms of how do you regulate use and access to porn in the digital environment. The question there is . . . when the average age to get a smartphone is 10 and a half to 11 years old, what sort of tools and restrictions can we really place on access to
material that's widely available on the internet?
The Office of Film and Literature Classification began the survey last week of 2300 people aged between 14 and 17. It asks if teenagers look at online pornography, how often, what sort
of content, why they are looking at it, and how they are viewing it. The survey is expected to be completed in December. Martin said the Chief Censor's research was vital work, though she is already intent on changes:
I have already had conversations with the Chief Censor with regard to a particular drive of mine to make sure we as a nation do something about what is the bombardment of pornography and the easy access to pornography that our young
people are experiencing. Considering our censorship laws were pre-internet, this is an area that we have left for a long time without addressing and I think we need to address it. Martin said she was not
interested in wholesale bans on online content because they did not work. But she supported the UK Government's approach, saying she was interested in any policy which helped to protect young people. She added: I would
really like to watch how they implement it and see what are the challenges for them.
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Moralist campaign group in New Zealand seems to be persuading the government to consider UK style age verification for porn viewing
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| 13th April 2018
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| See article
from stuff.co.nz |
The New Zealand moralist campaign group Family First have been campaigning for new laws to censor pornography. Family First national director Bob McCoskrie is calling for an expert panel to consider health and social issues supposedly created by
pornography, and somehwhat presumptively, how to solve the problems identified. More than 22,000 people signed McCoskrie's petition, and this week he spoke to the Governance and Administration Select Committee at Parliament, where he said porn was
feeding the health crisis of the digital age. Parliament's Governance and Administration Select Committee is currently considering the petition and whether to set up an 'expert' panel. Chief censor David Shanks seems to have been caught up
in the pre-censorship momentum. He said more needs to be done to understand porn use, and the effects. Then NZ can get to work tackling the issue. He added that New Zealand needs to take a societal approach to tackling the pervasive effects of porn,
including further regulation. As far as regulation goes, Shanks said New Zealand could consider making similar moves to the United Kingdom, where anyone wanting to watching online porn had to go through an official age verification process. An
ISP-level ban, where pornography viewers had to opt in to viewing pornographic content, could also be part of the solution. The Office of Film and Literature Classification, headed by the chief censor, was dedicating its major research project for
the year to the prevalence, and effects of porn. Justice Minister Andrew Little said he was aware of the issues surrounding pornography use, and he was open to suggestions on what regulatory approach New Zealand could take to tackle problems.
However, there was no specific legislation in the pipeline at the moment. |
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Outgoing New Zealand censor whinges at the government for slow progress in granting censorship powers over Netflix
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| 23rd April 2017
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| See article from nzherald.co.nz |
New Zealand's outgoing chief censor has urged the Government to hurry up and deliver the law change it proposed on streaming services like Netflix. Eight months since the Government announced a plan to update broadcasting rules, including making
online streaming services subject to classification and content standards, chief censor Andrew Jack has revealed his frustration at what he says has been a total lack of progress. Jack spoke to the Herald on Sunday in the final week of his
six-year tenure at the top of the classification office and cited concerns around pornography as well as how issues like suicide, rape and sexual violence are being used by entertainment companies for commercial gain - beyond the reach of regulation. He
whinged: Nothing has actually happened, just nothing. And I have to say that is a source of significant frustration. We know some of this material is causing harm, we know the measures which can improve the situation,
but nothing has actually happened. The only entities winning out of the current situation are the entities selling depictions of sexual violence as entertainment. In my view, you can't just announce you're
going to do something, and not do it.
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry said the Government intends to refer the bill to a select committee this year. She said: Work on the bill has
been fairly complex. It needs to be future-proofed in an era of rapid technological change, as well as being practical for existing providers and not putting barriers to the entry of new services.
In his final days as chief censor, a
role he wanted to continue but was unsuccessful in seeking a third term, Jack said there were other aspects to consider, specifically around pornography and depictions of suicide and sexual violence. Jack said there was absolutely a concern over
pornography becoming an unwelcome form of sex education in young generations, though more research needed to be done to understand what exactly young Kiwis are consuming online. Jack spoke of complains about the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why:
I can't talk specifically about the series you talked about because the classification office has called that in and is in the process of deciding whether that needs to be subject to a restriction or a warning on
it. Historically as a country we've tried the 'let's not talk about it' approach [to suicide] which has not been successful. We've an appalling rate of youth suicide. Where those issues are dealt with in a
positive way, it's a really good thing. But it's where you get depictions of suicide which are instructional, or two-dimensional or suggest it's a viable option for dealing with some of the tribulations life sometimes deals at you.
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And promises future upgrades to allow different censorship levels for different devices...
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| 19th August 2016
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| See article from stuff.co.nz
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Several thousand New Zealand families have signed up to use an internet blocking service that is designed to prevent access to a wide range of websites with adult content. Vocus, which owns the Slingshot, Orcon and Flip internet brands, began offering
its network level family filter a few weeks ago. Stuff Fibre has announced it will also offer a blocking service, called Safe Zone, which its managing director Sam Morse said would be more flexible. Vocus consumer manager Taryn Hamilton
said parents often eschewed parental control software that they could install on individual computers and other devices, as it was complex, possible to circumvent and often did not cater well for smartphones. Hamilton said that the Vocus Family Filter
instead blocks content at the network level so that the same level of censorship applies to all devices in a household. He added that parents could easily switch the filter on and off, if they chose, using their account password. Vocus plans to
provide the filter free for a year, after which it will charge $5 a month. Hamilton said Vocus' filter was being provided by United States company Fortinet and was designed to screen out:
- R16+ nudity and pornography
- sites featuring dating, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, gambling
- websites about hacking, the dark web and other illegal activities
- sites that promote self harm or suicide and known infected or hacked
sites
Stuff Fibre managing director Sam Morse said its Safe Zone service would be more flexible. Rather than only having a single on/off switch , Safe Zone would come with a range of pre-configured profiles . Not long after launch, it would
let customers configure settings differently for devices on a network so you will be able to decide what set-up you want for Johnny's iPhone .. |
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Do we really still need to be concerned about pornography in New Zealand?
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22nd January 2016
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| See article from classificationoffice.govt.nz
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An extreme new political correctness law bans messages offending the easily offended or insulting religion
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| 10th August 2015
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| See article from
m.nzherald.co.nz |
New Zealand has imposed some of the world's strictest blasphemy laws by stealth, a humanist group says. The new Harmful Digital Communications Act could have the effect of landing a person in jail for two years for committing blasphemy, the New
Zealand Humanist Society president Mark Honeychurch: This legislation not only flies in the face of human rights, but the introduction of yet another law that gives special privileges to religions is unfair, unpopular
and unrepresentative of our society, where over 40 per cent of New Zealanders identify as not religious, making this our country's largest single belief group.
The society said the act stated digital communications should not
denigrate an individual by reason of his or her colour, race, ethnic or national origins, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability . Honeychurch said the law would effectively impose some of the world's strictest penalties -
including fines of up to $50,000 - on people found guilty of blaspheming, or insulting religion. He added: We want to increase social cohesion and understanding, and by awarding privileges and protecting groups from
critique we are closing the door on free speech, free inquiry and public debate. New Zealand has to abolish its blasphemy laws before they are used to censor, suppress, and silence public debate
Last month, lawyers cited in The Law
Report said another possible unintended consequence of the law would be the establishment of a new legal avenue for recipients of defamatory digital content. Justice Minister Amy Adams defended the censorship law claiming it would take a
lot for someone to be charged under the act: Not only must the perpetrator be responsible for posting the communication, they must intend to harm another person and that harm must actually occur. The offence is
targeted at the very worst online behaviours, and will not censor, suppress or silence public debate.
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| 9th July 2015
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Harmful to Everyone Except Online Harassers and the PC lynch mob See article from eff.org |
16th April
2012 | | |
| Reporting on the first 2 years of blocking child abuse websites in New Zealand
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See article from
gizmodo.com.au
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New Zealand has had an internet blocking system running since March of 2010. New Zealand laudably limits the scope of the blocking to child abuse websites, so is proving uncontroversial and enjoys public support. Mauricio Freitas of NZ's Geekzone
recently trawled through various reports and briefings from the Department of Internal Affairs, the government body responsible for administering the filter. In December 2011, the system had clocked the following stats:
- Seven ISPs 16.1 million requests blocked (there are multiple requests per page)
- 415 records in the block list covering 368 unique web sites
- 25 appeals presumably claiming unfair blocks
A survey by InternetNZ of 877 Kiwis recently released suggests 66% were in favour of extending the current blocking to include other material . However, the report does not indicate what other material might be. Almost half were
unaware NZ even had internet blocking, while just 19% knew for certain their ISP was applying the blocks. 56% felt the decision to be individually blocked should be voluntary. Andrew Bowater, Head of Government Relations at Telecom NZ, asked
whether the Censorship Compliance Unit can identify whether a person who is being prosecuted has been blocked by the filtering system. Using the hash value of the filtering system's blocking page, Inspectors of Publications now check seized computers to
see if it has been blocked by the filtering system. The Department has yet to come across an offender that has been blocked by the filter.
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5th November
2010 | | |
| New Zealand's internet filter widens reach to more ISPs
| Based on
article from nbr.co.nz
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Vodafone says it is working closely with New Zealand's Internal Affairs on implementing the internet filter and is behind the concept. A spokesman said the company was testing the filter to ensure it actually worked correctly and it doesn't
negatively impact other services. Once those boxes are ticked, Vodafone expects to turn it on. Tech Liberty spokesman Thomas Beagle said Telecom's involvement in the kiddy porn filter is a slippery slope: This is just a government censorship
scheme for the internet. Once a system is in place, what can be added to it? He pointed out that already there were calls for sites that infringed copyright to be censored and just today Commerce Minister Simon Power welcomed the next step in
developing new illegal file sharing rules that requires internet service provider co-operation. Department of Internal Affairs spokesman Trevor Henry advised that other ISPs are being brought on progressively and discussions with Vodafone/iHug,
Woosh, Orcon and 2degrees are underway. In addition, design changes are being investigated to adapt the system for performance on mobile devices. So far about 500 websites are on the filter list and several thousands more are to be examined.
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13th March
2010 | | |
New Zealand has stealthily started internet filtering
| Based on
article from stuff.co.nz
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New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has started an internet filter which is being used by ISPs Maxnet and Watchdog. Thomas Beagle, spokesperson for online freedom lobby Tech Liberty says he's very disappointed that the filter is
now running, it's a sad day for the New Zealand internet . He told Computerworld the filter went live on February 1 but DIA has delayed announcing that until it held a meeting with its Independent Reference Group. He says he's disappointed the launch
was conducted in such a stealthy mode . The manager of the Department of Internal Affairs' Censorship Compliance Unit, Steve O'Brien, denies any subterfuge in the launch, saying the trial has been going on for two years and that has been
communicated to media for quite some time : The Independent Reference Group has met and the filter system processes were demonstrated as set out in the code of practice, that is that the website filtering system prevents access to known
websites containing images of child sexual abuse . Tech Liberty understands that Telstra Clear, Telecom and Vodafone have said they will implement the filter, with Orcon, Slingshot and Natcom saying that they won't.
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19th February
2010 | |
| New Zealand quietly moves close to implementing state internet filtering
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Based on article from
zdnet.com.au
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New Zealand has quietly been working on its internet filter, due for launch by the end of next month. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) began work on the filter in response to community expectations that the government and the internet
service providers (ISPs) should do more to provide a safe internet environment, New Zealand's DIA said in a statement. Branded the Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System, the filter uses White Box software from Netclean of Sweden.
According to New Zealand's National Business Review, it cost DIA NZ$150,000, which then further customised it. It has been trialled for two years and features a blacklist of more than 7000 child pornography websites, which, like Australia's list,
will remain private, because the department believed displaying a list would make a directory for offenders to use, the DIA said in its statement. The system operates by populating the routing tables of a participating ISP so that a
request for the [internet protocol] IP address of a website containing child sexual abuse images results in a first 'hop' to the Department's server, it said. If there is a match to the particular web page that is being blocked then the
requester is presented with a blocking page stating that access to the requested page is illegal. If there is no match, then the requester is permitted through to the internet. The Department's system preserves the anonymity of any person
that is blocked by not keeping a record of their IP address. Users who believe they have been prevented from accessing legitimate content may fill in an anonymous request that a site on the filtering list be checked. Furthermore, the system
will be overseen by an Independent Reference Group, nominated by the DIA, made up of representatives from enforcement agencies, the Office of Film and Literature Classification, child welfare groups, ISPs and internet users. The New Zealand system
will be voluntary for ISPs and aims to be milder than the Australian one, by just focussing on child porn instead of refused classification sites which also include subjects such as fetishes and terrorism. This could be why the NZ filter
has not been greeted with the same level of outrage that Australia's has been, though opposition to it has surfaced, from groups who fear it could extend to other objectionable areas and become compulsory like Australia's planned filter. They also
have voiced concerns about the fact that unlike the Australian filter plan, which has come under much public scrutiny, the New Zealand equivalent has bypassed parliamentary procedures such as Bills, white papers and select committee processes.
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17th December
2009 | |
| Family First inspired by Australian internet censorship
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Based on article from
scoop.co.nz
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The nutters of Family First NZ are calling on their government to join the Australian government's just-announced plan to introduce legislation to block websites that feature child pornography, bestiality, sexual violence against women, and detailed
instruction of crime and drug use. Government-commissioned trials in Australia have found that blocking banned material can be accurate and have no effect on internet speed, says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ: Laws
around the filtering of the internet are a great investment to protect families as internet usage becomes more and more common in NZ homes. The internet should not be left unregulated when it comes to the protection of children. Because of
the availability, affordability, and anonymity of the internet, we must put as many safeguards in place as possible – and sooner rather than later. While parents can take as many precautions as possible, including purchasing computer
security products and supervising their children's internet use, the Australian government is not leaving anything to chance and is being proactive in the protection of children and families, says McCoskrie.
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26th August
2009 | |
| New Zealand internet filtering commendably limited to child abuse images
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Sounds as if New Zealand have been learning from the appalling censorial prevarication and nonsense from neighbouring Australia. New Zealand may have found a solution that more
or less everyone will support. Based on article from
dia.govt.nz
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The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs is inviting public input on its draft code of practice for blocking objectionable websites that host child sexual abuse images. The code is now available on the Department's website and will be open to
public comment until 28 September 2009.
The Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System will be available voluntarily to Internet service providers (ISPs) in the next two months. It will focus solely on websites offering clearly objectionable
images of child sexual abuse, which is a serious offence for anyone in New Zealand to access.
Internal Affairs, Deputy Secretary, Keith Manch, said the filter will be operated by the Department in partnership with ISPs: The code of practice
provides assurance that only website pages containing images of child sexual abuse will be filtered and the privacy of ISP customers is maintained. The filter will not cover e-mail, file sharing or borderline material.
The filtering list
of over 7000 objectionable websites will be retained at the Department of Internal Affairs. The list will be reviewed manually monthly to ensure that it is up to date and that the possibility of false positives is removed.
The Department is
committed to transparency and considers that continued public support for the filtering system requires the operation to be as open to scrutiny as possible. An independent reference group will also be established to ensure the system is operated with
integrity and adheres to the principles set down in the code of practice.
Joining the filtering programme is voluntary and if any ISP subsequently is unhappy it will be able to withdraw. Update:
DIA Report on Internet Filter Test 6th October 2009. See article from
thomasbeagle.net The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) have released to me
their report [PDF] on the testing of the Internet Filtering system. In summary, it's already nearing capacity in testing, and it's
filtering 39.9 million requests per month that don't need blocking. This, on top of the fact that it doesn't stop any of the real traffic anyway. Smells like success to me :(
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16th July
2009 | | | New Zealand state internet filtering
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12th July 2009. Based on article from
geekzone.co.nz
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I am a member of the InternetNZ and I have just been reading its internal mailing list about the frightening possibility of Internet filtering coming to New Zealand, courtesy of our Department of Internal Affairs.
New Zealand's censorship laws
forbid viewing or owning certain types of material (e.g. depictions of bestiality or sex with children) and this applies to material accessed over the internet too.
At this moment New Zealand does not have Internet filtering. However, the
Department of Internal Affairs ran a trial internet filtering scheme in conjunction with Ihug, Watchdog, Maxnet and TelstraClear in 2007/2008 and is planning to fully implement it in 2009/2010.
There is now a "Internet Filtering Law".
It is being done under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993. This gives the responsibility for enforcement to the Department of Internal Affairs.
The scheme is currently voluntary for the ISPs (Internet Service Providers)
as there is no law to force them to use it.
The filter is applied at the level of the IP address but it is common for a web server to host multiple websites on a single IP address. All requests to a website on one of the filtered IP addresses
will be diverted to the DIA's server.
ISPs can choose whether to subscribe to it or not. The only way for a person to opt-out of the filtering is by switching to an ISP that doesn't implement it. ISPs that have implemented it so far have not
provided a way to opt out of it.
The list of sites is manually compiled by DIA officers. They will update the list monthly and only after the review and agreement of a few officers. Initially they plan to filter any website carrying child abuse
related material. Update: censorship enforcement activity 16th July 2009. Based on
article from nzherald.co.nz
See also
New Zealand set to join internet blocking club from theregister.co.uk by
John Ozimek The New Zealand government is spending $150,000 on website filtering software, outraging some bloggers who say the move amounts to censorship of the internet.
Since 2007 the Department of Internal Affairs' Censorship Compliance
Unit has worked with a small group of internet service providers on a trial project to block access to websites distributing child pornography.
The project, using hardware and software supplied by a Swedish technology company, thwarts access to
more than 7000 websites known to offer child sexual abuse material.
If computer users subscribed to the ISPs involved in the trial - which now include TelstraClear, ihug, Watchdog and Maxnet - attempt to access sites on the DIA's blacklist they
are re-directed to a message explaining the site has been blocked.
Until now the DIA's filtering project has been run on a shoestring Budget of $2000 or $3000 a year, but the department won $150,000 in this year's Budget to buy software to expand
the system beyond a trial. The money was part of a $661,000 Budget increase for censorship enforcement activity.
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7th February
2009 | |
| Government plan to block 7000 sites
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Based on article from
qlinks.net
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The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs is setting up a filter system that will allow internet service providers to stop people accessing child pornography. But there are concerns that the power to censor browsing could be abused. The
filter system has already been trialled in hundreds of thousands of New Zealand households. Internal Affairs deputy secretary Keith Manch says the voluntary system blocks access to 7000 websites carrying images of child sexual abuse. Internet
Safety group NetSafe welcomes the move, but says there could be concerns if the department later uses the filter to block a wider variety of websites. Manch says there are no such plans and the filter is only for targeting the sexual abuse of children.
He says the department is finalising its analysis from the trial and will be discussing with internet providers how to implement the system. Update: Rapid Start Up 7th February 2009. See
article from arstechnica.com At
the end of this month, New Zealand's ISPs are required to start disconnecting users accused of infringing copyright multiple times. ISPs are also being asked to start censoring 7,000 Web sites under a government plan to make it harder for Kiwis to access
child pornography over the Internet.
Child pornography restrictions will be extended to the Internet under a program initiated by the Department of Internal Affairs, though it will remain voluntary, according to Radio New Zealand News. The system
relies on a blacklist of specific Web sites, and it has about 7,000 entries at the moment.
The program has already been tested in trials across the country, and ISPs are now looking into implementation details.
New Zealand says it has no
current plans to extend the system behind child porn, which sets it apart from neighbouring Australia, where an ambitious (and required) censorship program has the right to block any sort of illegal content. Update:
No Plans 20th March 2009. See article from
nbr.co.nz Those nervously watching the chaos across the Tasman can breathe a sigh of relief.
We have been following the internet filtering debate in Australia but have
no plans to introduce something similar here, says Communications and IT minister Steven Joyce.
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6th November
2008 | |
| No plans to follow Australia's internet censorship lead
|
Based on article from
computerworld.co.nz
|
The New Zealand government has no current plan to follow Australia into compulsory filtering of internet connections by ISPs, says ICT minister David Cunliffe.
New Zealand's response to undesirable online material emphasises education, says
Cunliffe, referring to NetSafe's educational programme aimed at parents and children.
There is currently no legislative authority in the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act for website filtering, Cunliffe notes.
The
Australian proposal, first mooted by the Howard government, has attracted criticism. The extent of the planned filtering is still unclear. Australian civil liberties campaigners have called it the Great Firewall of Australia, in allusion to China's
strict state online censorship.
In New Zealand a trial web filtering programme is being conducted by the DIA in association with a number of ISPs, who have volunteered. The trial currently blocks access to about 7,000 websites that are known to
deal exclusively with child sexual abuse imagery, Cunliffe says: There are no plans for the programme to be expanded to other types of illegal material.
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