AUSTRALIA — With common sense in increasingly short supply but politically motivated moral outrage always available in abundance, the Australian government continues to pour money into an internet filtering program that repeatedly proves unworthy of investment efforts. However laudable attempts to filter content entering the nation’s school systems may be, ISPs throughout the country continue to warn legislators that they simply do not work as well in real life as they do on paper.
According to media reports, the school filters have proven exceptionally good at filtering out educational and governmental websites but not so good at keeping out the more traditionally x-rated content.
As explained by The Daily Telegraph, although the sites associated with various members of Parliament and even Education Minister Verity Firth’s websites are impossible to reach via a school internet connection, a remote learning schoolgirl’s search for the bird known as the “swallow” returned a very adult collection of results, although the filter neatly blocked a documentary about swallowing toothpaste.
Department of Education and Training representatives have admitted that the system needs some tweaking and insist that improvements on the filter is done on a daily basis.
“On rare occasions inappropriate websites are not captured,” one spokesman confessed modestly.
Every school in the country currently uses the blocking software and the government would like to see it used more widely. However, not everyone thinks that’s a great idea. In fact, Acting Opposition education representative Andrew Stoner considers the filter to be a “debacle.”
“Internet access should be a key component of Kevin Rudd’s so-called Education Revolution,” he told The Daily Telegraph, adding that “Nathan Reese and Education Minister Verity Firth are quick to claim credit for the good news, so they should accept responsibility for this debacle and fix it as soon as possible.”
