An Open Letter to Kevin Rudd: Internet and Video Game Censorship
Dear Mr Rudd,
Two related issues have been concerning me lately, the issues of Internet censorship and Video Game classification. Currently your government is proposing a mandatory ISP level Internet filter, and Video Games may only legally be sold in Australia up to a rating of MA 15+.
Censorship of the Internet: This is unfortunate and poorly planned. Let the people of Australia view what they want to view. If you must censor to "protect the children" and appease the conservative Christians make it an "opt in" filter that people who want it can sign up to. Nobody wants it Prime Minister. Nobody wants it. Please don't waste money on this.
Video Game Censorship: The average age of game players in Australia is 30. We need an R18+ classification for video games to prevent the current ridiculous situation were sites such as amazon.com and online games like Second Life may be blocked in Australia because their content cannot legally be classified for sale in Australia.
I'm 38. I play games. Mr Rudd, I don't need your government to protect me from seeing sexy content or playing sexy games on the Internet. Obviously I care about the children, but the children are not protected by you censoring my internet access. I have no children in my house, but if there were I would manage their Internet access.
While I understand that this is primarily a state issue, please show some leadership here!
Internet censorship might look like a good cheap populist policy and play well to the fundamentalist christian lobby but it is a completely ineffective waste of money that does nothing to deal with the problems of child protection and child pornography.
I think the real political danger is that up until now the majority of people have gone along using their Internet and playing their games how they pleased. It has not been a political issue at all except for a tiny number of conservative Christians. The danger is, however, that these new "social networking" sites are just the "killer ap" for organizing and activism. With blogs and twits and face book one person can reach thousands.
With this ill conceived censorship notion your government is in danger of waking up the sleeping masses of Internet users and getting them personally involved in politics. Wake the sleeping tiger at your peril, Mr Rudd. These people have all the tools at their fingertips for mass communication, organization and politics. Game players and Internet users are not in any sense of the world isolated. Don't isolate yourself, Mr Rudd, please show some leadership and do something sensible to solve this problem.
Thank you,
Frances
Two related issues have been concerning me lately, the issues of Internet censorship and Video Game classification. Currently your government is proposing a mandatory ISP level Internet filter, and Video Games may only legally be sold in Australia up to a rating of MA 15+.
Censorship of the Internet: This is unfortunate and poorly planned. Let the people of Australia view what they want to view. If you must censor to "protect the children" and appease the conservative Christians make it an "opt in" filter that people who want it can sign up to. Nobody wants it Prime Minister. Nobody wants it. Please don't waste money on this.
Video Game Censorship: The average age of game players in Australia is 30. We need an R18+ classification for video games to prevent the current ridiculous situation were sites such as amazon.com and online games like Second Life may be blocked in Australia because their content cannot legally be classified for sale in Australia.
I'm 38. I play games. Mr Rudd, I don't need your government to protect me from seeing sexy content or playing sexy games on the Internet. Obviously I care about the children, but the children are not protected by you censoring my internet access. I have no children in my house, but if there were I would manage their Internet access.
While I understand that this is primarily a state issue, please show some leadership here!
Internet censorship might look like a good cheap populist policy and play well to the fundamentalist christian lobby but it is a completely ineffective waste of money that does nothing to deal with the problems of child protection and child pornography.
I think the real political danger is that up until now the majority of people have gone along using their Internet and playing their games how they pleased. It has not been a political issue at all except for a tiny number of conservative Christians. The danger is, however, that these new "social networking" sites are just the "killer ap" for organizing and activism. With blogs and twits and face book one person can reach thousands.
With this ill conceived censorship notion your government is in danger of waking up the sleeping masses of Internet users and getting them personally involved in politics. Wake the sleeping tiger at your peril, Mr Rudd. These people have all the tools at their fingertips for mass communication, organization and politics. Game players and Internet users are not in any sense of the world isolated. Don't isolate yourself, Mr Rudd, please show some leadership and do something sensible to solve this problem.
Thank you,
Frances
posted by chemonro at 4:55 PM
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