MEDIA RELEASE

Don’t Censor the Internet, Says ACS

Keep Internet Unrestricted But Help Parents Control Access for Kids

Monday 5 May 1997, Canberra - The Australian Computer Society today said the Federal Government should resist pressure to censor material available through on-line services.

In a submission to the Senate Select Committee on Community Standards’ Inquiry into Computer On-line Services, the Society called for Australians to have unrestricted access to all material available on the Internet, saying that any regulation by authorities must be consistent with that applied to off-line services.

"The ACS believes that most adult Australians should be able to read, hear and see whatever they wish, totally unimpeded," said Philip Argy, head of the Economic, Legal, and Social Implications of Computing Committee of the Society’s Community Affairs Board.

"Within that broad philosophy, we accept that the interests of minors justify controls or regulatory activity in relation to content that is likely to harm them. However, the ACS is concerned to ensure that any controls be carefully designed so that accommodation of the exception does not warp the primary principle."

While recognising the need of children to be protected from some material available on-line, the ACS believes the responsibility fall to parents to supervise their children’s use of the Internet.

"For the most part, the ACS believes the degree of community concern about the availability of objectionable material to minors through on-line services is exaggerated. However, those people who find some of the material available through on-line services distasteful can make the choice not to view such material. And if they wish their children to find it equally distasteful, they should bring them up with a set of standards that will achieve that result," said Mr Argy.

"We believe it is for parents and schools to implement any technical solutions they require to limit access to objectionable material. Of course there is also an educational role that can be played by the media and others in the industry regarding the existence of these kinds of solutions."

While avoiding censorship, the ACS favours the use of ratings mechanisms such as PICS and codes of conduct developed by industry.

"Our orientation is to support an "informed consent" regime, by which we mean a regime in which potential viewers of material on the Internet have the ability to appreciate the nature of the content before viewing it, and have the option of electing not to view the material, and to prevent minors for whom they are responsible from seeing the material," he said.

The ACS believes laws governing material published on-line should be consistent with those relating to other documents or medium.

"If Parliament wishes to suppress the dissemination of particular types of material, then that should be done by a law of general application that is independent of the way in which the material is disseminated," said Mr Argy.

The ACS is also critical of recent moves to hold service providers liable for objectionable material, saying they should not be held responsible in that capacity for the content of what they carry.

"This is a burden analogous to making Telstra responsible for preventing swearing in telephone conversations. It is both unreasonable and unrealistic," he said.

The Submission pointed out that people using the Internet have to make a conscious decision to view illicit or objectionable material and it is at that point that regulation is possible.

If viewing and downloading objectionable material is to be prohibited the prohibition should be directed at the viewer/downloader.

The ACS Submission proposed the establishment of an On-line Standards Forum to develop and monitor a Code of Practice for the on-line services industry, suggesting such a Code might include the following:

* procedures whereby material that is deemed by law to be inappropriate for particular age-groups is clearly identified as such;

* dealings with customers including billing, support services, privacy and credit management;

* provision of information to content providers on legislation which may be relevant in an on-line environment;

* provision of information to users on filter software products or on-line services;

* provision of information to users on the principles of netiquette;

* complaints handling procedures for breaches of the code;

* display of appropriate warnings on material which may offend some people and may be unsuitable for children; and

* a complaints handling mechanism.

Mr Argy said the ACS opposed any requirement that Australian access providers filter out data packets from addresses on some refused access list, pointing to the recent problems experienced in Germany where authorities attempted to censor material available through CompuServe.

"We are greatly concerned at recent moves to indict an executive of CompuServe’s agent in Germany for failure to censor material. This is highly likely to lead not only to Germans being deprived of access to large amounts of material, but potentially all CompuServe users along with them," he said.

ACS President Tom Worthington, who appeared before two previous hearings of the Senate Committee, will be discussing on-line issues on Thursday afternoon at 1:45pm (AEST) in a global audio hook-up on the Internet at http://msn.com.au/news/

This media release is available on-line at http://www.acs.org.au/news/senate.htm

ENDS

Media Enquiries:

Phil Argy, Head of the Economic, Legal and Social Implications of Computing Committee of the ACS Community Affairs Board, Tel: (02) 9296 2054 or (018) 224 123, Email: pargy@acslink.net.au

Tom Worthington, ACS President, Tel: (0419) 496 150, Email: tomw@acslink.net.au

Caroline New, Caroline New PR, Tel: (02) 9630 2108 or (0411) 889 456, Email: cnew@acslink.net.au

Photo of Philip Argy & Tom Worthington at hearing: JPEG or KDC format (120 Kbytes).