The New Frontier of Censorship

The Australian is going forward with a program pioneered in China to censor the entire Internet in Australia without any opt-out available. The program was originally designed to be targeted only at child pornography, but has already been extended to other topics, such as anorexia and euthanasia. Of course, the websites that are targeted are repugnant, but that is not the issue. It is a clear pattern that once the tools are made available to governments, under the guise of sacred cows such as child porn or terrorism, they are almost always then used against a much broader range of targets. For an example, the expanded wiretap authority granted to the US government was used in the exact way it was promised not to be.

I would have no issue with an opt-in program to protect children, but that's a world of difference from a universal censorship program at the hands of a government bureaucrat. There is little doubt in my mind that this program will be used for political purposes, and quite likely without that facet being announced.

A much more efficient way of combating child porn would be giving up the pointless, resource intensive "War On Drugs". These resources, rather than being used to persecute harmless personal drug use, and it's supply, should instead be directed to a productive goal. The fight against child porn is a much better use of these resources.