Are we getting the internet filter we deserve?

It was interesting to note at the recent IQ2 debate about government censorship of the internet that everyone on the panel, even those arguing in favour of some form of government censorship or regulation, stated that the proposed Conroy/Rudd internet filter is a complete dud. There are umpteen reasons for this, ranging from the technical to the philosophical, the most compelling being simply that everyone seems to agree that it just won’t work. It is difficult to believe that the Rudd Government is so stupid that they dismiss the opinion of the overwhelming majority of experts; so we are left wondering, what was really the point of proposing the filter in the first place or of persisting with it now?

Western democracies have been attempting to balance the see-saw of  personal liberty versus the mitigation of risk since the industrial revolution, swinging wildly between over-regulation and demanding that we self regulate and look after ourselves; somewhere in between lies the body of laws and statutes that are necessary for a civilised and functioning society. Increasingly though, particularly in the West, governments are faced with an impossible task as we clamour peevishly, loudly and incessantly  for someone (else) to ‘do something’ about everything (real or imaginary) that upsets us or makes our lives or those of our children less than perfect. Faced with escalating and relentless demands to create and maintain a risk-free society and the certainty of being voted out should they come clean, its small wonder our leaders often resort to constructing something flashy that is complicated enough to shut people up until the next panic comes around,

There are several different issues that are raised when the filter is discussed. The fear of opening a floodgate of government intrusiveness and censorship is often cited by those who are anti-filter. These fears, while founded in historical truth, seem to be to be fairly rhetorical and frankly a bit like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. Howard’s anti terrorist legislation has already paved the way for future intrusions and restrictions and stripped away many of our previously cherished rights (innocent until proven guilty, right to silence, right to legal representation) under certain circumstances. Recent changes to bail laws in NSW have removed yet another layer of assumed legal ‘rights’ and there are countless other examples across Australia and in other countries – all in the name of safety and protection.

The pro-filter people on the other hand seem to be focussed almost solely on the sexual exploitation of children, to the extent of implying that if you’re anti ‘clean feed’ then you must also spend your evenings in front of your screen consuming ‘child pornography’ if not actually molesting children. In this respect, the proposed internet filter is nothing but an expensive illusion, a sleight of hand that will fool the simple folk in the ‘think of the children’ brigade into feeling safe, until the next moral panic comes along. Meanwhile, the rights of the rest of us to live our online lives in relative freedom will be unnecessarily constrained, until of course we quickly develop ways of circumventing the filter.

While all this is going on however, the real work is being carried out in unglamorous offices around the world where police officers and investigators spend their working lives immersed in horrific images and videos that most people – including most of those who clamour for a filter –  couldn’t bring themselves to glance at and which they will never see, no matter how long they spend on the internet. In almost unprecedented cross-border and cross cultural cooperative operations and by dint of incredibly thorough and painstaking collection of evidence and investigations, these men and women actually and actively save lives, rescue children, and arrest perpetrators. Others trawl through the filth of racist and extremist hate sites and chatrooms while yet others attempt to educate assembly halls full of teenagers and parents about the dangers of cyberbullying, sexting and posting photos of your boobs on facebook and the need for parents and schools to supervise children’s online activities in the home and elsewhere.

The fact is that all the bad things on the internet – indeed in our everyday lives – are already illegal and most always have been. While the internet has enabled the easier distribution of exploitative material, hate and violence, it has also facilitated the detection, apprehension and conviction of those who create and consume such things. Child pornography wasn’t invented with the internet, or even last century and it hasn’t suddenly become  morally wrong or illegal. The brown paper envelope, VHS tape, clandestine meeting and anonymous post office box of the past is now an innocuous PC in the corner of a sitting room, but the content is, sadly, much the same. Imagine what more could be done if the money set aside for the internet filter was instead directed to increase the numbers of these specialist investigators, better facilitate international operations and to deliver training, highly skilled support staff and state of the art equipment? Imagine if the Federal Police could afford to employ the best and most expensive computer hackers and experts?

We, the voters, the people, the ones with the ‘I vote and I.. ‘ stickers on our cars, need to stop whining, blaming and waiting for ’someone to do something’. Instead of listening to fear mongers and panic merchants with a vested interest in keeping their readers/listeners perpetually fearful and outraged, we might get a grip on reality and learn to accept that 100% safety and 0% risk are unachievable. Once we do that, we might support our governments to make well informed decisions which might actually help to prevent and detect crimes such as the exploitation of children. Until we grow up however, we will continue to get what we demand and deserve – cynical and empty ‘initiatives’ such as the internet filter which are nothing more than a shiny and diverting toy designed to make us shut up.

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