$85 Million P0rn Filter Failing Big Time

Keeping children away from pornography is a must with the Internet today, everybody agrees on that. Many governments have invested a lot of money into programs that would allow parents to filter out the sites their kids visit and they deem as not safe, the Australian one being among them. 7 months after it was released, officials admitted to have spent the money on nothing.

Out of the total AUS $189 million being spent on the NetAlert program, brought forth at the time with fanfare and appropriate media coverage, the filter cost about AUS $85 mil, and, as Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was quoted by The Register, it was AUS $85 mil too many.

It was only minutes until some clever kid managed to crack its protection wide open, making the hack available for everybody. It seems that p0rn has a bigger pull to teenagers than the government thought. Either that, or they completely underestimated the wit of their young, but that’s not an area most want to go because of the talks being held today about the Internet actually killing the new generations’ analysis capacity.

Out of the predicted 25 million households to have the software installed within a year, a staggering 144,000 copies have been downloaded or ordered, and out of those only 29,000 are actually being used. "The program has clearly failed, despite over $15m being spent in advertising to support. […]Labor has always said that PC filtering is not a stand-alone solution to protecting children from online dangers," Conroy told The Sydney Morning Herald. "The Government has a comprehensive cyber-safety plan that includes the implementation of mandatory ISP-based filtering to deliver a filtered feed to all homes, schools and public internet points. Education for parents and teachers as well as children is a priority," he added.

No disrespect intended, but based on their previous experience, I cannot help but ask O, RLY?

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