a big wheel falls off Conroy's censorship wagon

Michael Flood, one of the main pro internet censorship theoreticians relied on by Senator Conroy, our worst ever Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, has changed his mind

Flood along with Clive Hamilton wrote a discussion paper in 2003, Youth and Pornography in Australia: Evidence on the extent of exposure and likely effects, which has been used as justification for Conroy's ISP based mandatory censorship plans

Now, Flood says, he has seen enough evidence to feel differently. "I am now far less convinced than I used to be of the value of ISP-based filtering as a strategy," he said at the forum. "I am much more convinced of its technological problems and I am much more convinced of its political dangers ... Clive Hamilton on the other hand — my then co-author — is still a firm advocate, I believe, but he and I have gone in separate directions."

The whole article,'Net Nanny' Advocate Does Back Flip, is worth a read. It is not as though Flood has changed his mind completely about the dangers of porn to youth. Some of his thoughts there are quite interesting. It seems more that he has realised that the technological and political problems associated with censorship by government are a greater danger to our social well being.