Pirate Party Australia Cautiously Welcomes Recommendations of ALRC National Classification Scheme Review

Pirate Party Australia welcomes several of the recommendations put by the Australian Law Reform Commission in regard to reforming the current classification system.

The ALRC’s final report includes several recommendations that are in line with the Pirate Party’s policies, proving that the Party’s policies are not as extremist as often made out to be. In one instance, Telstra agreed with the Pirate Party on the issue of voluntary industry classifications.

Other recommendations that the Pirate Party are pleased with are the recommendations that all commercial computer games that are likely to be MA15+ or higher must be classified. The report also recommends that all media must be classified according to a platform neutral system that would end discrepancy between various mediums whilst not extending to various non-commercial and user generated content media, as well as the suggestion that the ‘Refused Classification’ category be replaced with the more appropriate ‘Prohibited’ category.

“The recommendation to use the far more appropriate term ‘Prohibited’ in place of the spineless and vague ‘Refused Classification’ is a move in the right direction,” said Party President David W. Campbell. “Too much content is left in limbo. Hopefully this is a victory for common sense, and we will see less content lumped in with materials that truly deserve to be illegal, such as child pornography.”

Furthermore, the possible redefinition of the ‘Prohibited’ category to narrow its scope and review the prohibitions on depictions of sexual fetishes, to bring it more in line with what are socially acceptable practices to certain communities who legally engage in the practices depicted, is indicative of a progressive society, and a step that Pirate Party Australia believes is necessary to experience true freedom of expression.

The Pirate Party is grieved however by the inclusion of a recommendation to obligate Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other intermediaries to, in effect, filter the internet. The Party has long campaigned against the mandatory internet filter as proposed by Senator Stephen Conroy, the current Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

“The inclusion of the toxic notion of Internet Service Provider obligations is once again flogging the dead horse of privacy encroachment and destructive break down of Australian citizens’ rights,” Campbell commented further. “Aside from the technical impracticalities of restricting any content on the Internet without destroying it, this recommendation once again attempts to turn Internet Service Providers into enforcement agencies. This expansion of “intermediary liability” constantly rears its head in all facets of Internet governance — it is both unwarranted and unnecessary.”

Pirate Party Australia may release a more detailed response after further analysis of the lengthy and detailed report.