Australia Wants To Regulate YouTube As Well
from the gotta-regulate-everything dept
It appears that the government in Australia is getting even more heavy handed in its efforts to regulate online content. After there were some complaints about an internet-only clip from the show Big Brother, and the government realized it had no jurisdiction over streaming video, it simply planned to change the rules and is putting forth legislation regulate local internet video content as well. Of course, in an age of things like YouTube, Google Video and the 500 other online video startups that allow just about anyone to post videos online, it seems like a difficult task to monitor and regulate all of it. That won’t stop yet another over protective government from trying, however.
Comments on “Australia Wants To Regulate YouTube As Well”
Don't worry...
This is just a publicity stunt gone too far.
Now the politicians are jumping on board to get some of the publicity. It will disappear as soon as a better chance to get their mugs on the tube shows up.
I would be astounded if anything changed, as then broadcasters like Alan Jones would have to be responsible ie not identify children involved in court cases.
No Austrailan government would dare create any actual laws that Alan Jones may not like, in case he turns on them.
If it gets Big Brother ect off the air then something good has come of this.
Don't Worry...
They will put forward the policy, it will be rejected. If anything they will just add the sites that are found in violation to the filter list, and seeing as the filter is opt-in it isn’t going to change anything.
They are just jumping on the good ol’ bandwagon again.
Australian Evangelical Dark Ages
Before this latest attempt at censorship, the Australian religious far right had succeeded in blackmailing Network Ten into killing BB Adults Only. I don’t care if you don’t like BB, this has a far broader context.
What a sad day for freedom in Australia it was when far right christian fundamentalists (Barnaby Joyce) opportunist politicians (Helen Coonan, Trish Draper) and small “L” liberal intellectual snobs (journalist Matt Price) triumphed over ordinary people.
Frankly, I don’t care if Joyce can’t explain BB to his daughter. Join the Exclusive Brethren, get rid of your TV, don’t talk to the rest of the world and leave us alone.
Helen Coonan’s commitment to imposing right wing restrictions on the media goes way beyond BB. Internet users in Australia watch out! And Matt Price! I don’t care if you think BB is polluting your intellect. Go away and leave ordinary people to enjoy a bit of escapism. You are the worst of this mottly crew.
Australia is indeed descending into an evangelical dark ages. How is it that far right christian fundamentalists got to have so much power and how was this cancer allowed to spread from the “land of the free”?
I don’t really blame Network Ten for caving in – they were facing powerful forces who must be stopped before it’s too late. BB AO is very much only the tip if the iceberg.
Don’t get me wrong, I think BB AO and BB are junk but enjoyed the escapism. The real concern was that if the far right succeeded with BB, what would they go after next – blasphemy, homosexuality, pacifism, liberalism – who knows?
Re: Australian Evangelical Dark Ages
Thought that kind of stuff was only going on in the U.S.
Re: Re: Australian Evangelical Dark Ages
Of all the neo-fascist countries all over the world (USA, France, Russia, England, Italy… the list is long), Australia is the most blatant one. Yes, even more than Bushist America.
i'ver seen this before
The Great FireWall of China… err Australia!
Why let internet TV be different?
The real question is that when is a TV program not a TV program? If we regulate free-to-air TV broadcasts, why not regulate free-to-internet TV broadcasts?
There might be an argument that TV not sourced in Australia should not be covered – fair enough – but when it’s a TV station just trying to get around the broadcast rules, it seems reasonable to reign them in.
Of course the anti-censorship lobby will moan and shake in their boots, of course there are technical issues with regulating content sourced from outside Australia, but we have a fundamental ideal here that we have the responsibility to protect the ‘free’ airwaves (and now internet) from this sort of crap.
All Channel Ten needs to do is make it a subscription-only service and they can do all sorts of things, virtually make it a porn show if they want. It just shouldn’t be something that kids who are hooked to the regulated free TV show should be able to lookup on the internet … don’t forget that this show is aimed squarely at the youth market, which the Ten GM of Sales describes as:
“They are very impressionable, and a lot of marketers spend an extensive amount of time trying to understand their consumer habits,” says Blackley. “They want to know how they can lock in these impressionable younger people, (because) that allows you what a lot see as a life-long benefit.”
Re: Why let internet TV be different?
>>If we regulate free-to-air TV broadcasts, why not regulate free-to-internet TV broadcasts?
Because we (Australia) has no right (legal, moral or practical) to regulate the content on the internet.
Any attempt to do so will be an (expensive) failure.
>>It just shouldn’t be something that kids who are hooked to the regulated free TV show should be able to lookup on the internet …
As opposed to hard core pornography which is currently freely available on the internet to kids if they decide to look?
Or the extreme violence shown all over free to air TV?
Or the massive advertising bombardment kids are subjected to each day?
If you realy wanted to protect the children you could start by replacing the current broadcasting voluntary code of conduct with enforceable legal penalties.
yeah we talked a bit about this on the g’day world podcast earlier this week and will cover the new developments today. Our government is a joke.