Australia Plans to Censor the Internet
Found on Slashdot on Saturday, 22 December 2007
From January 20, 2008 new content laws introduced by the Federal Government will force sites to verify the age of users before accessing content intended for mature audiences (MA15+ and R18+).
ACMA (The Australian Communications and Media Authority) claims that adults will not be affected by the new laws, yet user-generated and even chatrooms are required to be assessed for classification and powers are granted to ACMA to send 'take down' notices to offending sites.
And the rest of the world will care about those take down notices because? If I'd operate some 18+ website and get a sweet letter from somewhere in Australia, it'd go straight to the trash. I think they'll send out emails though, but those go the same way with getting even less attention. Worst thing they could do is telling ISPs to block access to the site in question. Around 20.5 million less possible visitors. With several billion people worldwide, why care? That's just a loss of 0.31% anyway.