Education, the Internet and the Filter
So Conroy’s proposed ISP level filter of the Internet just won’t work for a range of technical reasons. Whether or not it is effective in blocking websites, it will not stop one person getting access to child pornography so is therefore an awful waste of money. And that’s just the practical problem with it. The principled problem with it is that, inevitability, the filter’s scope will be broadened at some stage one way or another as history has shown us for just about every other breach of a population’s civil liberties. Civil Liberties are called that because they protect you from government so it is always dangerous to compromise.
But there is no doubt that the proliferation and normalisation of pornography is directly linked to it being available through the Internet. I think pornography is damaging to both women and men. It is even more damaging when it becomes normalised and is no longer challenged the way it should be.
Many opponents to the filter are saying that this money would be more effectively spent on educational initiatives. Teach ‘the kids’ how to avoid this sort of material. Increasingly I think that idea is also laughable. Young people are intuitively better at using computers and the internet than older people because they have always had it and just ‘get’ it.
What needs to be taught is respect for women and respect for yourself. Young people need to understand that pornography is not healthy and need to be given the tools to negotiate the mountains of contradictory and confusing emotions and responses they are experiencing. They need to be given guidance on how to deal with these feelings and thoughts and how to channel them in a healthy, constructive way which includes an intimate awareness of the role gender plays.
Sure, the Internet has made pornography freely and easily available. But it’s not the Internet’s fault, the internet is inherently neutral. It’s the patriarchy that is to blame and needs to be challenged and no amount of filtering the internet will do that.