I know that no one really wants censorship. And it's pretty absurd in a democratic nation like Australia. BUT ... I've been living in Saudi Arabia for the past year and a half. My Internet Access here is cesored. Basically, I can't view porn. I think some political sites are probably blocked too, but I've never come accross a political site which I was not allowed to view.

It may not suite some people, but it has its advantages. For one thing, Internet access can be made available anywhere in the country (resteraunts, schools, kindergardens even) without having to worry about people visiting offensive sites, and causing problems for everyone.

The high school I used to goto in Toronto, Canada has full, high speed Internet. This thing started where everytime a lab was left unattended, people would pull up a porno site on all the computers in the lab. When the teachers, or visitors came into the lab ... you get the picture. They tried to setup a proxy, but they couldn't figure out how to make it work. In the end, Internet access was taken off the network, and was just put in the library, which is always monitored by someone. So students and teachers could no longer pull up information from the Internet, while in class. The fact of the matter is, the Internet MUST BE REGULATED in certain enviornments. Else, bad things happen. This is such an open and free medium that it has reached a level where entire nations have banned it (for example, Internet was banned in Saudi Arabia until late 1998).

I'm not saying that I promote censorship, nor am I saying that I'm against it. I'm just saying, it has its obviouse advantages.