Tough Porn Restrictions Proposed in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia — Australia’s Labor Party is considering draconian new restrictions on adult Internet. The proposal would require all Internet Service Providers to install filters that would block triple-X content from being transmitted to home computers.

Necrophilia, bestiality, rape and torture would be among the hardcore material screened out, if the plan is put into action. The proposal was originated by the Australia Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

The leader of the Labor opposition, Mark Latham, reportedly has a “strong interest” in the Institute’s plan. Its goal is to tighten up Internet porn so that only adults can access it.

Whereas in America it is usually the conservatives who push so-called “family values,” Down Under the leftwing Labor Party is using this social issue against the rightwing government of Prime Minister John Howard. The pro-Bush Howard heads the ruling Liberal Party – which is actually a conservative political party.

The Australia Institute’s executive director, Clive Hamilton, accuses the Howard government of being “soft on porn.” The Institute’s anti-porn paper asserts that since the Prime Minister Howard “is responsible for a hopelessly ineffective system of regulation of Internet pornography, yet frequently expresses concern for the moral dangers facing children, the Howard Government is vulnerable on this issue.”

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