Australia´s Antiporn Program

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, facing re-election later this year, has started to implement a big plan to block all adult material off ad on the line, a program that he proposed in an online speech to 900 Christian churches across Australia.

Hardcore pornography was found to be pervasive in the Aboriginal communities and easily accessible by children, who were then desensitized to sexual behavior by being exposed to explicit materials. "The Little Children Are Sacred' report revealed the availability of pornography in Northern Territory communities as a factor contributing to child sexual abuse, being used to groom children for sex, and desensitizing children to violence and inappropriate sexual behavior," Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough told Parliament.

Planned regulations call for a ban on adult materials, including monitoring of publicly funded computers to ensure no sexual content was downloaded or stored on them. Other restrictions that have been placed on the indigenous communities include a ban on alcohol and tighter regulation of welfare assistance. In June, the Australian Broadcast Authority banned already mobile adult content, extending a ban originally aimed at the Northern Territories and Sydney-area.

In the move anyone possessing more than five adult-oriented films or magazines will be arrested for "trafficking" and face up to two years in prison. The ban on explicit materials includes X-rated movies, books and magazines that have been classified as Category 1 or 2 under the National Classification Codes which apply to various forms of media.

Those in possession of Category 1 material face a fine of up to $5,000 and Category 2 material can bring a fine of up to $11,000. Anyone with five or more restricted items can be classified as a "trafficker," and could face up to $20,000 in fines and a two-year prison term, whether or not the materials were intended for resale. The bill also prohibits the material from being transported.

"Protecting Australian Families Online," as another part will cost $133 million. It will be operated by NetAlert, Australia's Internet safety advisory body. Almost half of the funds - $60 million - will go into a filtering program offered to individual homes and public libraries. Parents can install filtering software on their home computers or request a "clean" connection from their service provider, which will be responsible for blocking adult content at the ISP level.