EFA Content Regulation Campaign

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Campaign against Unnecessary Content Regulation Legislation

Last update: 2nd November 1997

On 20th July 1997, EFA announced the commencement of a campaign against proposals by the Department of Communications and the Arts to legislate to impose burdensome content regulation on the Internet Services industry in Australia. EFA's position is that content regulation of the Internet is unnecessary.

For details of what the government proposes, see Principles for a Regulatory Framework for On-line Services in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which were released on 15th July. On 10th August, EFA released a response to the proposals. A total of 59 submissions was received and these have now been made available online. Latest information is that the framework is being reviewed but draft exposure legislation is not expected now until early 1998.

See also EFA's Media Release of 20th July on the proposals.

The major problems EFA sees with the proposed principles are:

They make Internet Service Providers (ISPs) responsible for policing content created and published by others.
They make the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) responsible for regulating ISPs.
They force ISPs to make judgements about how material published by their users would be classified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC).
They fail to recognise the major problems that will result from inconsistencies between state censorship laws.
They fail to take into account that clearly objectionable material such as child pornography is already illegal, or that the vast bulk of "adult" material is sourced from outside Australia.

The Campaign

Key aspects of the campaign include:

An online petition to be presented to the Senate. Please sign now.
Widespread publicity about the DCA proposals with the aim of encouraging as many Internet users as possible to voice their opposition to the proposals.
Publication of a detailed critique of the proposals.
IRC sessions on IRC channel #EFA at times to be advised to enable interested users to discuss the issues and become better informed about the proposals.
EFA Action Mailing List - a discussion list for information and debate on the issues.
A formal EFA submission to the Minister for Communications and the Arts.
A mailing to every Member of Parliament to advise them of the problems with the proposals.
Media briefings.
Liaison with other industry and user organisations opposed to the proposals.

What You Can Do

1.: Sign the petition now.
2.: Join the EFA Action List - send email to action-request@efa.org.au with the word "subscribe" in the body of the message.
3.: Join the IRC sessions.
4.: Write to your local member about the proposal.
5.: Watch this page regularly for updated information.