Some sections of the media are reporting that a majority of Australians support mandatory Internet filtering. This is misleading, quoting a biased survey from a biased source.
ABC radio ran a story yesterday on AM reporting on the planned rallies against mandatory Internet filtering (link is to the transcript). In this story they spoke to Professor Charles Hamilton, Vice Chancellor at Charles Sturt University and former Executive Director of The Australia Institute. Here is part of the transcript:
DAVID WEBER: Professor Clive Hamilton of Charles Sturt University commissioned a study into the issue when he was with The Australia Institute.
He says there’s wide support in the community for a mandatory filtering system.
CLIVE HAMILTON: We found an extraordinarily high percentage of parents, 93 per cent, said that they would support that proposal for mandatory filtering.
This statistic was also included in the story run on ABC News in Brisbane last night without any reference to Professor Hamilton.
Since information without a source isn’t valuable, I looked into this a bit further. My research has found some rather concerning information on both Professor Hamilton and The Australia Institute’s role in promoting mandatory Internet filtering.
A 2003 media release from the Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) discusses this exact survey quoted by Professor Hamilton. So did 93% of Australians support mandatory Internet filtering in 2003? Only if adults could opt-out.
The question put to survey respondents was “Would you support a system which automatically filtered out Internet pornography going into homes unless adult users asked otherwise?” Quite clearly this is different to the proposal being presented by Senator Conroy and the Australian Government.
Now in the transcript for the AM story it notes that the survey was commissioned while Professor Hamilton was the Executive Director of the Australia Institute. However this was not mentioned on the ABC News in Brisbane. Until I researched this I thought that this was perhaps an independant survey.
Neither story mentions Professor Hamilton’s or The Australia Institute’s support of the internet filter, which could leave those unaware in the dark. If you’ve never heard of the Australia Institute’s proposal, I suggest you read the EFA’s comments on their proposal and their suggested methods of implementation.
It is misleading to suggest that 93% of Australians support the mandatory Internet filter. It is even more misleading to report this fact without any background information on the survey or even mentioning that the survey is five years old. Poor work, ABC.
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