Australia is forging ahead with plans to filter Internet content in a bid to stop its citizens accessing obscene and crime-linked Web sites.
Under the Chinese-style system, Internet service providers (ISPs) in the country would be legally obliged to filter out banned material.
The move would mean more than 1,300 sites that show child pornography, bestiality, sexual violence or give instructions about committing crime would be blocked. The government says such a system would help protect people, especially children, from harmful material found online.
At the moment officials can order people to take down material if it is hosted online in Australia, but cannot directly regulate content hosted abroad.
However critics say filtering would not prevent determined users from sharing illegal content and could also see over-enthusiastic officials carrying out unnecessary censorship. They also complain that it would slow down Internet speeds.
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