It's still safe to bypass the filter
The Federal Government has denied reports it will criminalise attempts to circumvent its proposed internet content filter.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's office said that the government has not changed its former stance of tolerating attempts and technologies that bypass the filter, despite a report this morning by telecommunications publication CommsDay stating the opposite.
(Day #53/365 image by Tarter Time
Photography, CC BY-SA 2.0)
The claims follow responses from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy to questions by Greens Senator Scott Ludlam on details of the filter scheme.
In its response, the government said "unauthorised distribution of the [filter blacklist] might constitute a criminal offence under existing law", but did not state that circumvention of the filter will be considered illegal.
The government had previously announced that it will even permit the promotion of methods to circumvent the filter, after pro-euthanasia Exit International publicly demonstrated ways to access banned online material.