In the lead up to our federal election later this year, our two major parties are competing to make as many close-minded, conservative policies as possible. Last week they banned gay marriage. Now they're trying to ban internet pornography, because it causes children to commit more sex crimes. here's an opinion piece on the same issue, stating basically the same thing.

personally, I think there should be legislation *ensuring* that parents take responsibility for what their children view online - maybe mandatory filters on PCs in houses with kids in them? - as opposed to a blanket ban of pornography coming in through australian ISPs. Because, dude? I think that's going a bit far. Yeah, something has to be done; but it's like banning all alcohol because teenagers are becoming alcoholics. Banning all internet pornography in australia would be a basic violation of adult human rights - ie. the basic right to choose. And I'm aware of the fact that the practical definition of 'rights' and 'liberty' comes with the footnote "as long as it doesn't infringe on the liberty of others", and the argument of the gvt here is that children viewing online porn are infringing on the rights of others, then dude - stop *children* from viewing it. Not *everyone*. (could carry on about how the opinion piece talked about how it was "men" viewing porn, but will leave that to another day.)