InternetNZ rejects internet filtering

InternetNZ calls for thorough study of ways to address child abuse imagery

InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) has released a position paper rejecting centralised internet filtering as an acceptable approach for New Zealand.

The paper is a response to the Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System, InternetNZ says.

The paper calls on the department to conduct a thorough study of the extent of access of child abuse material on the internet and the best ways of addressing it.

"InternetNZ supports a safe environment for people online, and absolutely deplores the availability and use of child abuse material," says InternetNZ policy director Jordan Carter.

"However, a government filtering system, centrally operated, is not the answer. It risks leaving parents feeling that the government is providing a safe environment, but it cannot deliver on that promise. The filter would only help at the margin, and child abuse material would still be available on the internet."

Carter says the paper was prompted by DIA testing its filter and the possibility it would be more widely implemented.

He says InternetNZ wants people to have and to make an "active choice" about how they protest themselves from such material.

If ISPs offer customers a choice of filtered or unfiltered services, InternetNZ would be comfortable with that, he says. However, the worst situation would be if the filter was widely adopted by ISPs due to pressure and no such choice was offered.

InternetNZ argues a filter would disrupt end-to-end connectivity on the internet. It also creates confidentiality concerns, and is not subject to all the usual lawful checks and balances that apply to all other parts of New Zealand's censorship regime, the organisation says.

"Besides studying the scale of the problem, the preferred approach New Zealand needs to take is a proactive one. People need to understand the risks of such material, and they need to be made aware of things that they can do to avoid it," Carter says.

"Filtering solutions chosen by individuals and applied to their computers is a good option. A centralised, government scheme is not."

Carter says the New Zealand system is considerably different from the controversial one being implemented in Australia and, as far as he knows, has less impact. However, we need to avoid the Australian situation where much more than child abuse material is being or can be blocked.