First they came for the porn importers

 

As I read about the current state of Australian censorship, in which pornographic images depicting characters from the Simpsons are considered child pornography. In which depictions of models over the age of 18, no more misleadingly edited then any other image published in pornography (oh, she's had her complexion flaws airbrushed in post production - and you think that the lack of visible pimples makes her look MORE like a teenager?) is considered to depict someone under the age of 18 (it depicts a model, who's over 18, how the fuck does it depict someone under the age of 18?) and video games which will be played primarily by men aged 18-34 and could legally only be sold or rented to people over the age of 18 are considered too harmful to children to be classified - I can't help but wonder if I'm living in the right country.

It bothers me that the government is intending to force import restriction level censorship on the internet. It bothers me that those restrictions are so impractical that they cannot help but have a vast range of false positive. It bothers me that they are so expensive and so ineffective that all they truly do is make criminals of honest people. It bothers me that Australia's already limited bandwidth capacity will take a massive speed hit. It bothers me that the obvious ways to avoid these solutions will make investigation of cyber crime virtually impossible. It bothers me that the obvious ways to avoid these restrictions were developed to bring democratic freedom to dictatorships and fundamentalist nations. It bothers me that no deployment of nationalized internet filtering has EVER been implemented without it being misused to suppress political opposition.

But mostly it bothers me because as a grown adult - my government shouldn't be determining what ideas I can and can't be exposed to. My government shouldn't be limiting what filmed actions of consenting adults are suitable for my exposure. And it bothers me that my government having determined that I'm too feeble minded to be exposed to these ideas, has started off with pornography - but continues to allow increasingly graphic violence to be shown to increasingly younger audiences.

I voted for this government. I voted for a leftist government with an eye towards increased social freedoms and a reduction of war mongering and repression of the rights of minorities. I recognized that I was trading a government with excellent fiscal policies for a government with I believed, better social policies. I'm increasingly finding that despite the campaign material - what I voted for was a right wing theocracy masquerading as the left wing moderates.

Stop the country. I want to get off. Without having to explain to a government censor that the video I'm watching is of a petite and youthful appearing 23 year old who gave her full legal consent to having the video taken, and that's neither illegal nor immoral under any reasonable interpretation of the law or common sense.