Rights and Regulation

Digital Research and Publishing Week 4 - Presented by Emily Marquart

“[A] lawless frontier

where anarchy and vigilantism are alive and

well” (Stuart Biegel, 1996).

Traditional Means of Content Control

• Government regulation through: licensing systems, program scheduling and statutory complaints mechanism

• Single institutional approach (monopoly)

• Sector-specific rules

• Media ownership rules (diversity/pluralism)

Paradigm Shift: Digital Regulatory Mechanism

• Self regulation through: codes of conduct, green/red listing and hotlines

• Plural/competing approaches

• Content/convey distinction

• Access and bottleneck regulation

Self-Regulator Mechanisms

• Codes of conduct- awareness

• Rating and filtering- volume of content - objectivity and plurality

• Zoning- underinclusive/overrestrictive- property rights and access

• Hotlines - transparency -expertise - public/private ownership

Things that the filter aims to block:

• Child abuse

• Bestiality

• Instructions on euthanasia

• Sexual fetishes

Who decides?

• Australian Communication Media Authority

• ACMA creates a blacklist following the same criteria it uses to ban books, magazines and films

• The blacklist is kept private and only those on the judging panel know a trial is taking place

Other Problems with the Filter:

• Slows down connection speed to highly-trafficked sites (such as Youtube)

• Easy to bypass – proxy servers and anonymous private networks

And...

• Additional filters would be needed to completely stop children from accessing porn sites

• Not to mention the $$$

Great Firewall of China (Hungry Beast)

Linkage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1hKBZsY27w&feature=related