Proposed mandatory filtering for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) — a brief insight into how filtering the Refused Content List may affect Australian ISPs
Colette Langos · Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) · 2010
In Practice: Legal advisors representing the interests of Australian ISPs should encourage ISP participation in the review undertaken at the state and territory level in regards to what type of material should fall into the class of Refused Classification (RC) content. Additionally, legal advisors representing the interests of ISPs should highlight the penalties which may apply should RC deemed content not be removed by ISPs. An ISP that fails to filter content on the list of RC rated URLs will commit an offence that carries a penalty of up to $27,500 per day for on-compliance. ISPs will be subject to the same law enforcement and sanction regime currently applicable under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. The government has indicated that large ISPs will not be financially assisted in relation to the costs to be incurred with the filtering of RC content. Smaller ISPs may receive some financial support from the government and should stipulate what their specified costs will be in relation to filtering in accordance with the RC content list to enable compliance with the requirements of the new legislation should it be enacted. The transparency and accountability mechanism, which would be introduced, will effect ISPs in a variety of ways. Legal advisors would be prudent to highlight these measures to ISPs. The rights of ISPs in relation to the avenue of appeal available to an ISP where an ISP believes certain content as been wrongly classified as being RC content by the Classification Board and thus wrongly included on the RC list, would be of particular significance.