SYDNEY, Australia -- The first legally binding government orders to remove sexually explicit Internet content from Australian Web servers could be issued within days, officials say.
The action will mark the first real manifestation of the strength of Australia's new Online Content Law, which grants the government the power to force removal of sexually explicit or violent material from Australian Web content hosts.
The controversial law, believed to be one of the most far-reaching content control measures in the world -- went into effect 1 January, giving the Australian Broadcasting Authority the role of acting upon public complaints about allegedly offensive Internet content.
While the ABA has received fewer than 10 complaints thus far, the ABA believes at least two of them involve online material likely to draw ratings of X (Sexually Explicit) or RC (Refused Classification) from the nation's Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), said Stephen Nugent, the ABA's special projects manager in charge of implementing the regulations.
As such, the ABA is planning to issue an "interim take down" notice to the content hosts once the ABA officially submits the sites to the OFLC for a content rating, which is based on existing rating systems for books and movies.
Once the content hosts receive the interim take down notices, they'll have until 6 p.m. the following business day to take the material off their Web servers or face fines of roughly US$18,000 per day.
For its part, the OFLC could make an official ratings determination on the content within days of the submission depending on how much other outstanding work it has, Nugent said.
In issuing the interim take down notices, the ABA could also issue a separate "special take down notice" prohibiting the content creator or content host from substituting similar content in place of the content in the interim take down notice. However, Nugent said no decision had been made yet whether such a course would be warranted in these initial cases.
In the coming weeks and months, the ABA will be looking to build a body of precedent, so content creators and hosts in Australia won't be left in ambiguous limbo about the new law's constraints on their behavior, Nugent said.
While Nugent wouldn't go into much detail about the complaints received thus far, he did say at least one of them didn't appear to be serious.
He said the small number of complaints thus far may be due mostly to the fact that Australia is still at the height of the summer vacation period, and many people's eyes may be more focused on building sandcastles than ferreting out smut.
A more representative sample of community complaints about allegedly offensive Internet content could take a while to emerge, he said. As the ABA takes action, it's unlikely to release the specific names or Web addresses of sites in order to avoid granting them unnecessary publicity.
"Our aim instead would be to report on the overall outcome of investigations, and the status and number of complaints referred for classification," Nugent said.
Australia's new law was passed last year. It's being promoted by the Australian government as a progressive program to meet community concerns, and criticized by online rights activists as a major step toward curbing online civil liberties.
At its heart is a complaints-driven system under which the ABA can, at its discretion, follow up written submissions about Internet content filed through its Web site, or by mail or fax.
The system aims to apply, in general terms, the same standards applied to movies and books to online content.
Under the law, online content deemed X or RC can be ordered removed from Australian servers. Similar material housed overseas is the responsibility -- but not the obligation -- of individual Web surfers to screen out using any one of 16 filtering software packages approved by the government.
Australian ISPs are required to make the software available to subscribers but are under no legal obligation to ensure filtering software is installed. R-rated material housed in Australia, and subjected to complaints, must instill a means of adult verification before granting access. There are no restrictions on content deemed R that is housed overseas.
