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PM vows to clean up the internet
By Dennis Shanahan and Jill Rowbotham
August 10, 2007 02:00am

Free internet filters for Australiam families
Work with service providers to "clean up" content
Announcement made during webcast to Christians

JOHN Howard is going to spend $189 million on "cleaning up the Internet" for Australian families, blocking pornography, upgrading the search for chatroom sex predators and cutting off terror sites.

Every Australian family will be provided with a free internet filter and the federal Government will enter an unprecedented partnership with service providers to filter pornography at the source.

Communications and Australian Federal Police resources will be boosted immediately to expand checks on chatrooms to detect child predators, and privacy laws masking sex offenders on the net will be altered.

The Prime Minister unveiled his new net commandments last night on a webcast to more than 700 churches around the country. At least 100,000 people were believed to have watched.

Kevin Rudd also delivered an addresses as part of the webcast.

Mr Howard and the Opposition Leader agreed to speak for 20 minutes and answer questions from church leaders at the National Press Club in Canberra as part of the Australian Christian Lobby's campaign to get Christians to make their vote count.

Both leaders attend church and have appealed to Christian voters to support them.

Last night, as Mr Howard talked about Christianity and family values, he revealed the government plan to upgrade the protection for families from Internet pornography, violence and sexual predators.

ISP partnerships

As well as practical tools to help families put internet pornography beyond the reach of children, the Government will form partnerships with major computer providers in upgraded steps to block porn sites and detect predators using popular websites such as MySpace and Facebook to contact children.

Of the $189 million, $43 million will be provided immediately to double the size of the online child sex exploitation branch of the AFP and establish a working group to find ways of getting around privacy laws that protect sexual predators.

A "black list" of the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which covers Australian-based pornographic and terror sites, will be expanded internationally after consultation with the Attorney-General.

The AMCA will also receive 14 additional Internet regulators.

A seven-day-a-week hotline will be established to help parents put filters on their home computers.

All families will receive the filters and they will be sent to public libraries.

Mr Howard said last night the address to the churches was an ideal opportunity to deal with family and community concerns about internet pornography and cyber-stalking.

'Cyber smut' crackdown

The package announced last night follows a $117 million crackdown on cyber smut announced last year by Communications Minister Helen Coonan which promised parents free software that prevented children downloading pornography and other offensive material on home computers.

The plan also promised to rollout "child-friendly" filtering programs to all internet terminals to libraries across Australia.

Mr Howard and Mr Rudd have been keen to tap into the voter base represented by the church, particularly in light of the faith-based support that helped Family First's Steve Fielding win a place in the Senate.

The Liberal victory in the NSW seat of Greenway was also attributed, in part, to the participation of the local Hillsong congregation.

In marked contrast to Mark Latham at the last election, Mr Rudd has made it clear he wants to engage churches in the political debate.

Last year, Mr Rudd made several appeals for people of faith not to turn away from Labor.

Labor woos church vote

It was the continuation of a theme he had begun almost as soon as the smoke had cleared after Labor's disastrous showing in the 2004 election under Mr Latham.

Early in 2005, Mr Rudd convened a meeting of Labor MPs to discuss the impact of religion and counteract anti-church feeling within the ALP.

Although Kim Beazley also had a strong religious faith, the elevation of Mr Rudd to the leadership put a stronger spotlight on the role of religion in politics.

Catholic-baptised Mr Rudd is now a churchgoing Anglican convert. Mr Howard, who goes to church, is also an Anglican.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...29-421,00.html

That should be interesting!