http://alp.net.au/media/1107/mscoit190.php

Information from the Australian Labor Party website about the plan. How they present it is thus:

"Providing a mandatory ‘clean feed’ internet service for all homes, schools and public computers that are used by Australian children, so that ISPs will filter out content identified as prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The ACMA ‘blacklist’ will also be made more comprehensive to ensure that children are protected from harmful and inappropriate online material;"

What they're not saying is by putting this filter in place, the only way to "opt-out" of it is to have a different blacklist, only those sites deemed "illegal."

that site's not loading for me..

Hmm so... people without children should technically be excempted... =/

@Hessah - According to that article the child protective censoring will be optional, but the other blacklist is mandatory. You have to accept it or choose to break the law and go around it. That's what I get out of it anyway. It's likely that the stuff being blocked isn't something most people would care to see anyway, but that's not the point.

I don't have a problem with schools blocking things since that's a public place, but they're talking about forcing blocks on you in your private homes and that's just not cool to me. It slowing down the network is just the turd cherry on top of a mud sundae.

Lots of countries employ certain degrees of internet censorship. Most like the US and (formerly?) Australia aren't really mandatory or very strict. Some, like China, Iran, N. Korea, etc... enforce much greater controls.

List of countries with internet censorship. What this article proposes could bump Australia up from the Nominal category to the Substantial one.