According to an article on AustralianIT the Internet filtering trial “works”. However, its no surprise that the actual report hasn’t been released yet and no date has been set for its release. This just smacks of political propoganda spin. Of particular concern is:

“The trial shows that filtering does work and that the gear stops identified IP addresses without major degradation to network speed,” sources close to the trial said.”

What is “major degradation”? A 5% reuction in speed, a 10% reduction in speed, a 50% reduction in speed? The trial was on an opt-in basis so you have to ask how many people actucally chose to participate? The actual number of sites blocked hasn’t been released and one of the changes was to only filter websites classified as RC. Whilst many sites classified as RC should definitely be banned, those sites are already illegal under other existing laws and the host/producers can be prosecuted under those laws. The Australian Classification Board has a long history of making mistakes when classifying content. There is also no independent review of sites and no-one can publish the list of sites so there is no way anyone can find out what sites are blocked.  If all of the money and resources used for the “trial” had been spent investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators of child pornography the world would be a better, safer place.

I encourage everyone to join the campaign at GetUp! to ensure Australians have the best possible Internet speed and that resources are used to actually catch and prosecute