Alston pushes porn PIN to reduce phone bills - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Alston pushes porn PIN to reduce phone bills

By Rachel Lebihan, ZDNet Australia
May 02, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Alston-pushes-porn-PIN-to-reduce-phone-bills/0,130061791,120264977,00.htm

Government-driven draft standards, which could force ISPs to restrict access to online pornography via premium rate services unless customers have a PIN and have given their written approval to access these services, have been released for public comment.

The draft regulations are an attempt to crack down on premium rate phone services and would protect consumers against high phone bills often racked up when users are -dumped off" their un-timed local call and surreptitiously swapped to a premium rate call -- a racket known as -Internet dumping" and often associated with Net accessed pornography.

Communications Minister, Senator Richard Alston, released the proposed regulations for public comment yesterday.

-We've been concerned about the level [of Internet dumping] and obviously it's a problem for those who have received these bills that are clearly beyond their control. We're going to act to protect other members of the community from falling prey to these actions," a spokesperson for Senator Alston told ZDNet Australia. -Clearly it's a practice that is growing and needs to be stamped out."

The draft regulations also empower the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) to create service provider rules that would safeguard consumers from excessive telephone bills as a result of high premium rate calls being made to 190 and 0011 numbers.

New ACA service provider rules would relate to issues including the liability of customers of premium rate phone services; terms and conditions of the supply of such services; the advertising of premium rate services; and restricted access and call barring arrangements.

Whether or not Internet Service Providers would be forced to follow such rules will depend in part on the public comment received, according to Alston's spokesperson. -If the public thought that would be a good approach, we'd take that into consideration.

Further information on the regulations can be accessed at www.dcita.gov.au and public comments on the proposed regulations can be sent by July 1.