ireckon blog

Warning: Contents May Be Hot

Posted by: Emily on 6 Nov 2008 @ 8:01 am Category: The Wondrous Wide Web

I have a huge issue with the apparent lack of personal responsibility that has now become so common. We’ve all heard the stories about people suing large corporations or individuals for ridiculous amounts of money and actually being awarded huge sums despite their obvious stupidity and its significant contribution to the outcome.

Take the woman who sued McDonalds after sustaining burns whilst driving with a take-away coffee in her lap (rumour has it the cup did not identify that the contents were hot). She reportedly limped away with a burnt inner thigh and a cool (or cooling) $640k. Then there was the guy who broke into someone’s house, injured himself mid-burglary by falling through a skylight and managed to sue the owners (his intended victims) for compensation for the injuries he incurred whilst dreaming of Mrs Victim’s diamonds and eyeing off son Victim’s piggy bank. I didn’t realise burglars were concerned about workplace health and safety, nor that they are entitled to worker’s compensation.

Are we becoming a society that no longer understands consequence? What ever happened to the notion that the outcomes of a person’s actions can and should be linked back to the specific actions themselves? There’s a certain convenience with the lack of correlation, and as a result we no longer have to feel the guilt of our actions or their impact on others. But then – it’s not our fault is it?

The Australian Government has quite recently announced plans to introduce compulsory website filtering. The aim of the filtering is to block access to illegal and disturbing or inappropriate content. Good in theory, not so good in practice. Amongst many others some of the expected downsides include:

• Slower internet
• Accidental filtering of ‘clean’ sites
• More expensive internet; and
• General control over what has been long considered the last true example of ‘Freedom of Information’.
  

Whilst I am of course concerned about the issues that this may cause for both the cost and speed of my internet access, my main beef, and the issue that seems to be prominent in the minds of other webaholics is the fact that this move completely impacts on our freedom to view and research any topic of choice. Now I'm not about to argue that having access to internet pornography and other questionable website content is important to me, but freedom of information is.

How will this impact on my decision making ability? The internet is my main resource for researching topics important to me. If heaven forbid I want to know about a health issue or surgical procedure, how do I know that I'm not missing some important piece of the puzzle as a result of an accidental or questionable filter? The value of the internet lies largely in its ability to provide information to the largest audience possible. What then if the information available to me is censored and limited, in effect – potentially changing the outcome of my decision making process? Is that worse than me making an informed decision based on facts regardless of them being good or bad, legal or illegal?

There's a degree of insult in the proposed filtration of websites. We seem to be being grouped together with the aforementioned coffee spillers and clumsy burglars that cannot and will not take responsibility for their actions.

I don't think anyone expects the Government's proposal will be a roaring success for many reasons, but I'm guessing it will be more of an annoyance to those who want to use the internet for legitimate and legal reasons. It looks like we will have to wait and see. But in the meantime if you want to you can voice your opinions on the Government's proposed internet filtering.

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