Australia to Launch Attack on Internet Porn
Government to spend $189 on crackdown; bill proposes jail, fines.
By: Bianca Fox
Posted: 08/09/2007
AUSTRALIA - The Australian government plans to crack down on
Internet pornography, according to two announcements made this week.
Prime Minister John Howard
announced that the government will spend $189 million to block porn websites
for families, increase searches for chat-room sex predators and cut off terror
sites. And a bill presented Tuesday to the Australian Parliament proposes imprisonment
for possession of five or more pornographic items within the Aboriginal
communities of the Northern Territory;
possession of one to four items would be punished by a fine.
Howard and Kevin Rudd, leader of the opposition for the Australian Labor Party,
addressed their intention to crack down on porn during their 2007 election
campaigns; the announcement was aired by webcam to 770 Christian churches of various
denominations. Howard spoke of the importance of Christianity and family values,
and described his plans for protecting families from pornography and sex predators.
He said Australian families will be provided free Internet filters they can
obtain at public libraries, and the government will create partnerships with
leading Internet-service providers to block porn sites and detect sex predators
who go online to contact children.
The Australian Federal Police
will receive $43 million to double the size of its branch that combats the online
sexual exploitation of children; the police agency also will use the money to create
a group to discover ways around privacy laws that protect sexual predators,
Howard said. After a consultation with the attorney general, the Australian
Communications and Media Authority's black list, which includes Australia-based
porn and terror sites, will be expanded to include sites based in other
countries.
"This is a valuable
opportunity to highlight the importance of the Christian constituency in the
lead-up to the election and to ensure that the Christian influence has maximum
impact," Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby said after the
announcement aired to the churches.
The bill presented Tuesday to
the Australian Parliament would attach "trafficker" status to anyone found in
possession of five or more pornographic items in the Northern Territory; the punishment would be
up to two years in prison. The bill, which was presented by Indigenous Affairs
Minister Mal Brough, would call for a fine ranging from $5,500 to $11,000 for
possession of one to four pornographic items in the region.
According to the "Little
Children are Sacred" report published by the Northern Territory Board of
Inquiry, a government task force that investigated sexual child abuse among Aboriginals
in 2006, the availability of pornography in Northern Territory communities is
"a factor contributing to child sexual abuse, being used to groom children for
sex and desensitizing children to violence and inappropriate sexual behavior."
