Govt launches net crackdown
The Australian
AUGUST 20, 2003
The federal Government plans to outlaw using the internet for "offensive
and menacing purposes," proposing new laws that could mean two years in
prison for activities like organising or advocating violent protests
through the internet.
A joint statement from Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston
and Justice Minister Chris Ellison said the new laws were part of a
crackdown on e-crime.
"People using the internet to advocate or facilitate violent protests,
for example by spreading information on methods of violently disrupting
international meetings and attacking police officers protecting such
gatherings, including those using the internet to harass or menace
others are amongst those who could be prosecuted under the new
offences," the statement says.
Other targets would include those using the internet to encourage
criminal acts.
The new laws are part of a package of legislation that will tackle other
offences including child pornography and the rebirthing of mobile phones.
The legislation will also introduce "criminal penalties for placing
material on the internet that would be regarded by reasonable persons as
being, in all the circumstances, offensive".
However, the new laws will include specific exemptions for internet
service providers and content hosts "where they do not have knowledge of
the content of the material that they transmit or host".
Under current laws, it is an offence to use a telecommunications service
"in a way that would be considered by a reasonable person as offensive,
or with the result that another person is menaced or harassed". The
proposed legislation would extend the provisions to cover the internet,
which is not covered under existing legislation.
"The new offence will carry a penalty of two years imprisonment, double
the punishment for an existing offence," the statement says.
.
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