Internet censorship is the use of filters or ‘blocks’ to control what is published, access and viewed across the internet. It is used by parents, organisations such as schools and corporations and governments to restrict what their citizen’s access and post online. Internet censorship has occurred since the early days of the public internet, where governments around the world have attempted to address the issue of illegal material, political propaganda, harmful material or content deemed unsuitable for children. This essay will discuss the instances of internet censorship failing to work, including when governments have attempted to introduce legislation to restrict access to the internet, and the reasons for the failure. Censorship across …show more content…

Encryption also allows citizens to browse safely without the government knowing what they are accessing, which is a safeguard as accessing antigovernment websites can lead to prosecution in China. Therefore in the case of China, internet censorship has failed to a certain extent, due to the availability of proxies and VPN’s .
Australia has some of the most strict internet policies of any Western country. The earliest form of internet censorship in Australia came into part in April 1999, when the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 was implemented. This introduced a complaints based system, which meant that content hosts were requested to remove Australian hosted content that is believed to be “objectionable” or not suitable for minors. In the year 2007, the Labor Party went to the election with a “cyber safety” initiative. This was a scheme introduced to have mandatory filtering of Australian citizens’ internet, an attempt to protect children from harmful, distasteful and offensive material. Federal Senator and then Shadow Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that the filter would be ISP-based to censor inappropriate material from overseas. A Government-controlled blacklist comprised of websites with content which is “refused