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Submission on the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 19993 May 1999
Senator Jeannie Ferris Dear Senator Ferris The Australian Library and Information Association welcomes this opportunity to participate in the Committee's inquiry into this Bill. The Association represents over 8000 libraries and librarians throughout Australia. In recent years we have been a party to many of the government initiated inquiries and public forums on the matter of regulation of online content. The Association has consistently argued that effective regulation requires a package of measures:
and is set out in the attached statement on Use of online information in libraries which was endorsed by our national council in July 1998. Many of these measures have been incorporated into the Bill. The Association's position though does not support the requirements within the Bill of internet service providers (ISPs) and content holders (ICHs) in relation to complaints about content. It is clear that libraries as providers of online access would not be subject to the complaints and classification regulatory framework of the Bill. However, the Association is of the view that internet service providers should not and cannot reasonably be held responsible for content they host, and therefore the regulatory action to be taken in response to a complaint should be directed at content providers rather than service providers. The technical and administrative difficulties in locating sites to apply take-down notices, the likely increased costs to users, and the ability of a content provider to circumvent this action by relocating the site have been well documented in submissions to the Committee by ISPs, including VICNET, a service provider unit of the State Library of Victoria, one of our members. The recent action by Interpol in 12 countries suggests that content providers can be dealt with under existing law. Our industry is not convinced that the potential of systems such as Platform for internet Content Selection (PICS) has been sufficiently realised to provide reliability at the ISP level to identify or filter out illegal or offensive materials. Labelling is generally done by the content provider and there is often ambiguity of naming systems. Filtering is more reliably done at the local/home computer level, where the individual determines what information resources are suitable. Members of the Association are committed to the principle of freedom of access to information. Such freedom of access is essential to the democratic process and to the social well-being of the Australian community. Libraries are a major provider of access to and training for the internet yet there is little evidence within libraries of users complaining about being exposed to illegal or unsuitable material through the internet. As the European Union Action Plan on promoting safer use of the internet points out "it is important to emphasise that the vast majority of internet content poses absolutely no problem." It is therefore important that this is kept in proper perspective and that legislation for the regulation of online content does not have the unintended consequence of restricting access by the wider community to information of their choice which is not illegal or unsuitable. The Association believes that this may best be achieved through a regulatory framework directed at the content provider rather than the service provider; self-regulatory industry codes of practice by ISPs and ICHs; and education programs which emphasise the positive aspects of online content. Libraries have shown leadership in the development of such education programs and the establishment of resource sites. We hope that this submission provides valuable information to assist the Committee in its inquiry. Yours faithfully
Jennefer Nicholson Attachment: Interim statement on Use of online information in libraries
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