Update - Australia's Mandatory Internet Filter
By Karen Hayne, Partner
15 July 2010
- On 9 July 2010, the Government announced that its controversial mandatory Internet filter would be deferred for at least 12 months while a review of Australia's Refused Classification standard was conducted.
- Although many commentators have suggested that the deferral represents a retreat on the part of the Government, a paper released on the same day by the Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy (DBCDE) indicates that the Government may be positioning itself to neutralise criticisms of the accountability of the initial filtering proposal.
- Of particular concern to opponents of the proposal should be the fact that the paper suggests that:
- the Government will have the ability to put material on a list of banned material prior to review by the independent Classification Board; and
- there will be two processes used for classifying content, one for content on "high-usage sites" and one for all other web content.
- While the review process provides the Government with the ability to shelve the filter proposal should it wish, all indications are that the Government remains committed to some form of mandatory filtering of the Internet in due course.
- For a more detailed review of this issue, please refer to our full annotated FocusPaper in PDF above.