With the expansion of the Internet into society, media reports of pornography, paedophiles and racist web sites have induced government regulatory measures across the globe. This Issue Analysis studies how public policy should react to the challenges of the Internet and considers the effects of the recently passed Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 (OSA) upon Internet content and usage.
- Introducing a new censorship scheme for the Internet may be an inefficient use of resources in attempts to reduce the distribution of child pornography.
- Difficulties arise when attempting to determine what Internet material is offensive to community standards.
- The compliance cost of the new legislation to the Internet industry could be as high as approximately $150 million.
The OSA creates inconsistency in ratings classifications between the Internet, films and books, and is likely to result in tighter controls on Internet content than those affecting conventional media. It may be impractical and beyond the resources of non-professional content providers to obtain expert advice as to the likely rating that their web-sites will receive.
The OSA Code of Conduct may make the OSA workable for some industry participants, but also imposes significant new burdens upon content providers and Internet users; it also discourages the provision of Internet content by non-commercial providers.
The author concludes by suggesting that the OSA should be subject to further examination to identify more possible weaknesses and detrimental side-effects.It would be a great loss to Australia, he contends, if the economic, political and personal promise of the Internet was watered down or lost because we failed to understand the issue fully before regulating it.
Heath Gibson is currently undertaking PhD research at The University of Newcastle on the economic, social, legal and political implications of information technology and the Internet.