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Australia Censoring the Internet: mortgaging a nation’s future

At heart, I’m a libertarian: I am firm in my belief that the ills that accompany unfettered access to self-expression and communication are outweighed by the benefits - that the abdication of personal responsibility that seems endemic in our society is a call to community action and education - not an invitation to governments to censor and regulate.

Sadly, those of similar mind are under constant attack; for example, Australia has announced that default censorship of the Internet is coming. At issue are the children who’s parents are no longer deemed capable of seeing to their memetic welfare; instead, the entire nation must bear the cost for their inattention.

As often happens, it seems the Australian government has seized upon a media-manufactured social ill as an excuse to strengthen its powers. The TechCrunch post linked-to above suggests scary motives afoot - that broad filtering is a prelude to future crackdowns against bloggers, policy criticism, and free speech. While that may one day be the case, such conspiracy theories give governments too much credit for forethought. Apply Occam’s razor, and you get a much more utilitarian explanation: like most populations, governments expand when and where they can - purely by virtue of existing. An educated, activist citizenry is tasked with playing the role of antibody and containing their legislative spread. Witness the recent Canadian reaction to music industry sponsored legislation.

Where then are the Australians?

The Australian government has lulled its population by coating its plan in a beguiling, saccharine layer of moral virtue - after all, who doesn’t want to protect the children? (Parents, evidently.) And, criticism has been headed off with an exit clause: those not wishing to see the government’s interpretation of the world may be able to opt-out of the censored view, though the monetary and social cost of that choice are unknown. Wrapping an indecent proposal in a layer of barely acceptable plausibility: a method for selling used cars, not national leadership.

And so continues the slow slide into nanny state societies and the stunning willingness to trade freedom for security (or corporate profit) that has characterized the first decade of the new millennium. Parents are saved from taking responsibility for their children by a government willing to mortgage its citizen’s future.

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