Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) have today announced their brand new initiative in the fight against the draconian Internet filter. “Time to Tell Mum” is all about encouraging Australians to tell their Mum (and Dad, and other family and friends) about the Internet filter and, more importantly, why the filter will not protect Australian children.

The campaign features a 4 minute video by comedian Akmal Saleh is also designed to highlight the misconception that this filter will somehow help families. It’s a brilliant video which will certainly raise interest with mainstream audiences.

“The Government took this policy to the last election as a ‘cyber-safety’ tool to help parents, but it’s since changed into something completely different. Not only will the filter not protect children, it might give parents a false sense of security and actually lessen the supervision kids get online,” said Colin Jacobs, EFA chair.

“Australian parents need help and information about real ways to keep their families safe – how to best supervise their children, and tools that can work inside their homes. The filter is a political stunt that distracts from that. Once people understand the cynicism of the policy, they go pretty cold on it. Even my mum thinks it’s a lousy idea,” said Jacobs.

The campaign’s website and video, plus links to purchase merchandise, are at http://timetotellmum.com. It’s time to tell your mum.

For those of you in South Australia, there will be a meeting this Tuesday to discuss what you can do to fight the Internet filter.

The Federal Government plans to introduce mandatory internet
censorship, at the ISP level, for all Australians in 2010.

There is overwhelming opposition to the Government’s proposal from:

The IT and Telecommunications industries, the Right to Know Coalition, the Australian Librarian
and Information Association, child welfare groups such as Save the Children, major online
content providers like Yahoo! and Google – not to mention the Liberal Opposition,
Nick Xenophon and the Greens.

Street protesting and online campaigns have raised awareness in the online community.
Now it’s time to really step up the pressure on the Government and convince them that they
could lose votes, or even power, if they introduce this legislation.

Join other activists and concerned citizens to discuss lobbying techniques and
help develop a coherent, ongoing strategy to ensure Australia’s Internet access
remains open to every one of us. Your thoughts and input will be appreciated.

To be held in the Harry Medlin Rooms, Union House, Adelaide University
Tues March 2nd, 6.30-8.30PM
Meet from 5:30PM in the Cloisters to eat and network before the meeting commences

Here is the Facebook event page, including a map of how to get there.

Attacks on Federal Government websites in order to bring attention to the government’s plan to implement a mandatory Internet filter are harmful, according to Stop Internet Censorship co-founder Nicholas Perkins.

“Reports that attacks on Federal Government websites are being used to draw attention to the government’s plan to introduce a mandatory Internet filter are alarming, and any illegal action of this nature must be condemned,” Mr Perkins said.

“By attempting to bring down or deface government websites, a minority of Internet users have brought negative attention to what is a very important issue for Australians.

“It would be much more helpful for these people to put their efforts behind legitimate action to stop this ineffective and inefficient attempt at censorship by the Australian government.

“Educating families, friends and the local community about that the filter will not work, does not target child pornographers or paedophiles, and could result in parents believing that their children are safe when they are not, is more important.

“Parents need to be aware that any attempt to filter the Internet by Internet Service Providers will never work as well as filtering technologies that can be used within the home.

“Government bureaucrats and politicians should not have the right to tell parents what their children can or cannot access as it must be a decision made based on a parent’s individual values, not those of a bureaucrat.

“Money spent on a mandatory Internet filter would be better spent by funding additional police investigations into child pornography and child sexual abuse.

“The facts are that the list of filtered sites will not be made publicly available, and therefore is open to abuse by governments in the future that wish to censor debate on public policy in Australia,” Mr Perkins said.

ABOUT STOP INTERNET CENSORSHIP – Stop Internet Censorship is a group of people committed to educating the Australian people about the government’s attempts to introduce a mandatory Internet filter. This filter will be ineffective, inefficient and can be used by future governments to censor public debate within Australia. Stop Internet Censorship believe that educating Australians on the government’s plans by talking to friends, families and co-workers is an important part of the campaign against Internet censorship.

CONTACT:
Nicholas Perkins
Stop Internet Censorship
nicholas@stopinternetcensorship.org

http://www.stopinternetcensorship.org/

END

These two videos are from our Adelaide meeting held on January 14th. They show Mark Newton, a leading anti-Internet-censorship campaigner, and Senator Simon Birmingham, a Liberal senator for South Australia, both talking about the campaign to stop Internet censorship.

Mark Newton

Simon Birmingham

Here is a nice invitation to the Australia Day BBQ next Tuesday. Feel free to post it on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, your mum’s website… wherever really. You can click on the image to get to the original size image.

Please repost anywhere you like, as long as you use this for good not evil.

This video blog is by Dave Jones, who runs the eevblog. He let us know he’d done the video blog – thanks very much Dave for making the video and helping us spread the word against Internet censorship. You can also follow the eevblog on Twitter.

If you’re a YouTuber we’d love you to make a video against Internet censorship and let us know about it. We need content for our campaign!

If you’re an artist or a photographer, you can help us too – here’s one example of artwork that one of our supporters has made for us.