posted
The Australian government released their internet snooping proposal, with 90% of the text blocked out so as not to cause, quote, "Premature and unnecessary debate."
Now, I know that the aussie government has been incredibly weird and prudish these days, especially on subjects like video games and the internet (or small-breasted women in porn), but I like this story for how it also says 'hey guys, your freedom of information act might be a tad bit useless'
quote: "Australian Classification Board (ACB) is now banning depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. They banned mainstream pornography from showing women with A-cup breasts, apparently on the grounds that they encourage paedophilia, and in spite of the fact this is a normal breast size for many adult women. Presumably small breasted women taking photographs of themselves will now be guilty of creating simulated child pornography, to say nothing of the message this sends to women with modestly sized chests or those who favour them. Australia has also banned pornographic depictions of female ejaculation, a normal orgasmic sexual response in many women, with censors branding it as 'abhorrent.'"
posted
Australia has had a weird series of events involving their classification boards, media regulatory boards, government, etc, having a bunch of fanatical moral purists in them who will do strange things that have rendered australia's censorship laws a complete mess governed by the dictates of the rulings of a few individuals.
quote:Michael Atkinson, South Australian attorney general, resigned from his position on Sunday. Atkinson has long been considered the roadblock to Mature-rated videogames being sold in the country.
Australia is the only Western democracy without a rating similar to our Mature classification. Atkinson came under fire from gamers for refusing to help create an R18+ rating for videogames; such a move would require a unanimous vote from all classification ministers, and Atkinson has long given the rating a thumbs-down.
That has left gamemakers with two options — bowdlerize games until they are suitable for 15-year-olds, or not release their games in Australia.
In a lengthy response to a letter written in November 2009, Atkinson laid out his case for censorship, saying that the issue “has little traction with my constituents who are more concerned with real-life issues than with home entertainment in imaginary worlds.”
quote: "Australian Classification Board (ACB) is now banning depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. They banned mainstream pornography from showing women with A-cup breasts, apparently on the grounds that they encourage paedophilia, and in spite of the fact this is a normal breast size for many adult women. Presumably small breasted women taking photographs of themselves will now be guilty of creating simulated child pornography, to say nothing of the message this sends to women with modestly sized chests or those who favour them. Australia has also banned pornographic depictions of female ejaculation, a normal orgasmic sexual response in many women, with censors branding it as 'abhorrent.'"
Now see, what happened here is this:
A group of plastic surgeons got together and said "how do we boost our business?" I mean, there are thousands of small breasted women running around so all they have to do is find another way to encourage them to get augmentation. So they lobby every politician to implement this ban and come up with a crazy moral justification for it and bingo, half the porn industry has a need for a service they can provide.
Pretty darn brilliant if you ask me Posts: 891 | Registered: Feb 2010
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posted
In this age of globalization, I suspect that they import most of their porn. This means that there should be an even bigger boost in hiring for detail-oriented candidates to analyze imported porn.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
This is laughable. What's up with the Western World recently? We're supposed to be the non-crazy part of the world, we're supposed to be the part of the world which DOESN'T gather data from its citizens and then when asked to reveal exactly what they are doing turns out something so ridiculously useless they might as well would just stick up a middle finger at the Australian people.
We're supposed to be better than that. Gah!
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Well, we're human. I doubt that as a species we'll ever get over interfering with the business of our neighbors.
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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No place on earth is or ever has been this. But some places are aspiring to be and others don't seem to care.
Most people would put Australia on the aspiring to be list (yes, there's sexism and rednecks and racism, and those exist everywhere), and some might argue that is less enlightened for getting in the way of free expression, while others would say that banning sexually explicit video games is an enlightened thing to do.
Matter of perspective, and it's up to Australians to decide what they want. It's a free country. Mistakes get made.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Fundamentalist Christians are hijacking Religious Instruction (RI) classes in Queensland despite education experts saying Creationism and attempts to convert children to Christianity have no place in state schools.
Students have been told Noah collected dinosaur eggs to bring on the Ark, and Adam and Eve were not eaten by dinosaurs because they were under a protective spell.
Critics are calling for the RI program to be scrapped after claims emerged Christian lay people are feeding children misinformation.
About 80 per cent of children at state primary schools attend one half-hour instruction a week, open to any interested lay person to conduct.
*facepalm*
quote:Set Free Christian Church's Tim McKenzie said when students questioned him why dinosaur fossils carbon dated as earlier than man, he replied that the great flood must have skewed the data. ... Buddhist Council of Queensland president Jim Ferguson said he was so disturbed that Creationism was being aired in state school classrooms that he would bring it up at the next meeting of the Religious Education Advisory Committee, part of Education Queensland.
He said RI was supposed to be a forum for multi-faith discussion.
Well, a credit for Buddhists
quote:PhD researcher Cathy Byrne found in a NSW-based survey that scripture teachers tended to discourage questioning, emphasised submission to authority and excluded different beliefs. She said 70 per cent of scripture teachers thought children should be taught the Bible as historical fact.
quote:Originally posted by Bella Bee: Matter of perspective, and it's up to Australians to decide what they want. It's a free country. Mistakes get made.
I think the fact of this bill, which in any free democratic society would be a matter of public record on which the constituents of the MPs would be welcome to voice their opinion, calls the "free country" argument into serious question. Information, and the control of information, constitutes a great part of the source of governmental power. Secrets are not, for that reason, *inherently* bad, but I would love to see your argument for why a matter of very moralistic public free speech policy is shrouded in complete mystery.
The Patriot Act was one thing- I can read a bill that says: "we will do things and keep them secret," and understand the reason why. I can't look at a bill that doesn't say anything and understand it, nor can I contribute in a democracy in which that freedom is not allowed me. Tell me how the Australians *can* decide what they want if they can't even read this bill. If their MPs go off and vote on something they haven't seen, and are not guaranteed to ever see, how can they decide anything? How can they judge the people governing them if there is no transparent process which shows how those people set about governing? How can the press be used by the people if the people are not granted access to any information on what's happening? See where I'm getting at?
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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