Anti mandatory internet filter (Australia) protesters have been slurred.

I am against the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering. I have good reasons.

I have written a number of articles on this blog about the issue. You can view them here. (Scroll down past Twitter Digest posts).

Recently I have become aware that some supporters of the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering have implied that opponents are pro child pornography or similar. Frankly this is stupid, besides being inflammatory and insulting.

In fact, the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering will assist pedophiles. I will explain why later in this post.

Firstly, let me state my position.

1. I am very opposed to the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering – as per my previous articles on the subject.
2. I hate pedophilia and pedophiles.
3. In my view, people convicted of serious pedophilia in a manner in which guilt is undoubted should be executed. Yes, put to death. Death penalty. I am not talking about things like the 15 year old guy who seduces his teacher (16 years of age is the Australian legal age for sex) but more serious stuff.
4. If it was legally permissible I would deal with some of these pedophiles myself. As it is against the law I do not, and will not. Yes, I will spell it out: if the law permitted it I would hunt some of these pedophiles down and kill them myself.
5. As a large number of people within the community are strongly opposed to pedophilia I do question how democratic our system is. I suspect that the majority view would have a much more stringent and severe way of dealing with these scumbags than our current system.
6. Our current societal system is barbaric in the sense that it allows pedophiles to continue abusing children. Pedophiles are treated way too softly by our system and many of them are released from jail only to continue abusing children.
7. Some people would say that I am barbaric because I support the death penalty and would even assist the hangman if the law permitted it. Execution of these pedophiles would ensure that they never got out to abuse kids again. I will spell it out: pedophiles abuse a range of children; some are only babies, others are abused in very severe ways and even killed (for snuff movies for example). The true barbarians are they that would support a system which allows these scum back onto the streets to continue their evil deeds, all while patting themselves on the back thinking how civilised and even loving they are. Real love protects the vulnerable.
8. It is very rare for pedophiles to ever change. It is possible, however few want to change. If they are really sincere about change then they should seek help BEFORE they commit these heinous crimes.
9. Just because someone was abused themselves does not excuse them if they become an abuser. I know people who were abused in this way and have not gone on to abuse others.

So, why did I say earlier in this article that the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering will assist pedophiles.

It is a big claim, with a simple answer.

First some technical knowledge, which I will keep simple.

When the internet is filtered you cannot access certain sites due to the blocking.

The way around this is VERY SIMPLE and I will give you an example.

What you do is set up a secure tunnel to a virtual private network (VPN), and then browse what you want from there.

It sounds technical, and it is, but it is actually very EASY and CHEAP to set up. I will show you how so in due course.

A secure tunnel means that your ISP (Internet Service Provider) CANNOT see what you are doing online. All they can see is that you are online and how much data you are downloading/uploading. They cannot see what. This also means that if law enforcement officers want to review your browsing history, internet activity at the ISP, or even monitor your activity in real time they cannot. When you run a secure tunnel it is not just your browsing which is private, it also shields your applications/software.

Because pedophiles will still want to continue to view child porn AFTER the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering is introduced then a secure tunnel will be a key way for them to do this. Which will mean that Australian law enforcement officers will have a much harder job. In other words, the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering will assist pedophiles. How is that good for kids? You tell me, or better still, tell the morons who thought up this barmy idea as well as those idiots who try to claim that people who oppose the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering are supportive of pedophilia.

Another unfortunate side effect of all this is that while the pedophiles are busy setting up secure tunnels or other ways of accessing their sick material and bypassing the national internet filter, many of them will come across information about data encryption because it is security related. (Some pedophiles are not currently aware of encryption). Some of this encryption cannot even be broken by spy agencies, let alone Police departments, even if they can find it*.(* Some people go one step further and use steganography and/or ‘plausible deniability’ in conjunction with encryption). How will that help kids?

After the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering is implemented there will be a significant increase in people using secure tunnels. Many of these will be people wanting to access NON child porn/illegal material which the government has DICTATED that they should not view. One of the problems with this is that a lot of ordinary people who are not up to anything significant will be added to the secure tunnel usage pool. This will hinder law enforcement. Here’s why: secure tunnels are used by criminals as well as people like me with special needs. Currently there will not be a huge number of people using them so it is easier to exclude people like me and concentrate on the crooks or terrorists. Encryption, use of secure tunnels, counter surveillance etc can be flags for law enforcement/counter intelligence to look closer. When you have hordes of the general public using secure tunnels to browse the internet so that they are not inconvenienced by a dictatorship, then the dodgy users have a bigger crowd in which to hide.

I expect after reading the above that it is much clearer about what a stupid plan the proposed Australian mandatory internet filtering is.

I said it was easy and cheap to set up a secure tunnel….

As usual, being good at problem solving, I do have a solution and workaround to Internet filtering. Currently I use this service to overcome a number of problems related to my business. I have above average IT & computer skills, specialist expertise in the fields of research and private investigation and a lot of internet experience. I do not suffer fools gladly and take time to find top-quality services – I have high standards. Over the years, I have tested a number of a anonymization software applications and proxy websites. All the software I have tried has been lacking somewhat and one or two of the website versions have been acceptable, though they have a limited range of features. What I use is very simple, very effective, inexpensive, reliable and comprehensive.

Simply speaking, the service, which is very easy to set up and has excellent tutorials, does not involve installing any software and creates what is known as a secure tunnel between your computer and an American server. Not even your ISP can see your traffic. You receive an American IP address, which can have many advantages. Personally, my use of the service includes the following reasons:

Testing – sometimes I need to know where the problem I’m getting lies – is it my ISP or something else perhaps? A recent example was when I had trouble logging into my Internet banking. The bank technical support suggested that I reboot my computer and modem to resolve the problem until they had sorted out their system glitch. While I was on the phone with them I switched to my secure tunnel and discovered that I was able to login using my American IP address. This saved me a lot of inconvenience and valuable time that would have been lost due to the second rate service of my bank.

Investigations and research – sometimes, as a Private Investigator, I have to make sure that I do not leave traces of my investigations in IP address logs. This also applies to some other research, including some concerning search engine optimization.

Ordering and review of material – I do a lot of shopping online, some of which comes from the USA. Some companies will only sell to people with a US postal address, which I have, and some of them go one step further; preventing people with a non-US IP address from placing orders or even reviewing the site altogether. My secure tunnel solves this problem.

Running applications which require a US IP address. Website proxies and most software do not handle this issue at all, or if they do, well. I have a mission critical application which I use occasionally and without a US IP address I would not be able to use it.

Personally, I have nothing to hide from my ISP and in any case mine is a large one, with effective measures in place to prevent staff from idly snooping etc. It is even impossible for me to get information from them in the case of unexplained bandwidth usage. People who are using smaller ISPs, perhaps more locally-based and not national, are likely to be much more at risk of privacy intrusions by the staff of their ISP. I have a key security protocol recommendation of not using a small local ISP for Internet access. Assurances of privacy in my experience as a Private Investigator are often completely meaningless. If you are running a business and use a localised ISP, you are at much greater risk of your private data being compromised by competitors or other interested parties who may compromise local staff. A secure tunnel will protect you from this risk.

Without further ado, here are the details you need to protect yourself via a secure tunnel – or virtual private network. They have passed my stringent selection criteria and exacting standards in use.

Witopia

Addendum 25 Feb 2009:

Web filter debate descends into slanging match at Kickstart Forum 2009

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• Australia Day 2010 – The Great Australian Internet Blackout
• Australian government's draconian mandatory internet filter.
• Save The Net – from the Australian government's moronic plans!
• Backlash – Australian Net Censorship
• The State Of Broadcast Television
• My email to Senator Conroy about mandatory Internet filtering in Australia
• How long will it take the Australian government to wake up to the facts on Internet filtering?
• Obama's web strategist criticises Australian Government's controversial plan to censor the internet
• Are we living in a Goldfish bowl?
• Internet evolution = life evolution – don’t miss this.

Tags: Community, Internet, Internet Filtering, Society

Category: Internet