[MLB-WIRELESS] Government Internet Filter - What do you think?

[Tyson Clugg]

2008/12/10 Emil Mikulic <emikulic at dmr.ath.cx>

> > It could be argued that the government is trying to get ISPs to clean
> > up their own act by providing content filtering services as some
> > members of the community could legitimately expect.  Furthermore it
> > could be argued that the ISPs have been dragging their heels on this
> > issue, forcing the government to consider alternative means of meeting
> > expectations of the Australian community, rather than through self
> > regulation.  What should our response be to this type of argument?
>
> That if there were demand for such a service, the free market would
> provide more of it.  Not provide it, provide more of it.  Because there
> are already ISPs that sell ISP-level filtering:
>
> - http://www.webshield.net.au/
> - http://www.itxtreme.com.au/
>
> AFAIK Netspace provides filtered feeds to schools.
> Does anyone know of any others?
>

Having a look at itxtreme.com.au reveals they are a dial-up only provider,
I'd exclude them from the list since we're supposedly in the age of
broadband.  Leaving only webshield.net.au, which look pretty good if you
actually want content filtering.  Data plans are shaped (no excess usage
fees), and they're a not for profit - hence the prices don't look too horrid
considering the service they offer.  $52.95 per month gets 12 gig per month,
256K downstream 64K upstream, shaped to 64K downstream.  All sorts of
filtering options (eg: time based filtering for individual sites and
services) and supposedly the support is good too.  Lots of other plans
available too, including dial-up and high speed.  Going to a 8000K/384K
costs $87.95 and gets you 10 gigabytes per month.  They even support
fast-churn.

>From the IAA website comes the following list:
IIA 'Family Friendly' ISPs

 AUSTAR broadband <http://www.austar.com.au/>
Gday.net <http://www.gday.net.au/>
iiNet <http://www.iinet.net.au/>
Optus <http://www.optus.com.au/home/index.html>
 Queensland IT Services <http://www.qldits.com/>
Soul Communications <http://www.soulaustralia.com.au/>
Telstra BigPond <http://www.bigpond.com/homepage/>
 UQConnect <http://uqconnect.net/>
 Virgin Broadband <http://www.virginbroadband.com.au/>
 WebCentral <http://www.webcentral.com.au/>
 Webshield <http://www.webshield.net.au/>
 Westnet <http://www.westnet.com.au/>
 Wideband Networks <http://wideband.net.au/>


Regards,

Tyson.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wireless.org.au/pipermail/melbwireless/attachments/20081211/5845cf23/attachment.html>