Search A Light In The Darkness

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Australia planning to block 10,000 websites

Source: Daily Telegraph

The websites will be blocked as part of a government-sponsored trial of its filter technology that will start before Christmas and last six weeks.

The government has already identified 1300 websites that it wants to black list as part of the clean feeds scheme.

"While the ACMA blacklist is currently around 1300 URLs, the pilot will test against this list - as well as filtering for a range of URLs to around 10,000 - so that the impacts on network performance of a larger blacklist can be examined," se said.

The government is calling for ISP providers to express interest in taking part in the trial. Just one ISP has volunteered so far.

A spokesman for Mr Conroy said: ''The pilot will provide an invaluable opportunity for ISPs to inform the Government’s approach. ''The live pilot will provide valuable real-world evidence of the potential impact on internet speeds and costs to industry and will help ensure we implement a filtering solution that is efficient, effective and easy for Australian families to use.''

A trial of web-filtering technology earler this year found it could slow internet access by as much as 87 per cent and by at least 2 per cent. Australia's internet service is already notoriously sluggish.