Web porn filter 'useless'

2007-08-27 12:20

Sydney - The Australian government on Monday admitted no internet child safeguards were foolproof after a teenager claimed he was able to break through its multimillion-dollar pornography filter in minutes.

Sixteen-year-old Melbourne teenager Tom Wood said it took him less than 30 minutes to override the cyber barrier technology which was launched by Prime Minister John Howard earlier this month.

"I downloaded it on Tuesday to see how good it was, because for $84m, I would have expected a pretty unbreakable filter," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"Tried a few things, it took about half an hour and (it) was completely useless," he said, having effectively disabled the software.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan said that the NetAlert filters, which the government has announced will be free for every family, were always going to be challenged by teenagers.

"Sadly, just as a seatbelt will never prevent every fatal car crash, as the government has always maintained, no filter is foolproof," Senator Coonan said.

"But a computer with a filter is infinitely safer than one without."

The company which provided the technology was investigating the unconfirmed hacking report, she added.

The filter system was one of several measures, including an information and education campaign and telephone hotline, announced by the Australian premier earlier this month to make the Internet safer for children and families.

- AFP