Federal Government’s Mandatory Internet Filtering Proposal
Netspace Customer Survey Results
We asked our customers to participate in a survey to see what they thought about the Federal Government’s intentions. We had an overwhelming response with nearly 10,000 people responding. Netspace would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey. The questions and results are below.
Q1 — Do you agree with the Federal Government’s policy to make ISP level filtering mandatory for all Australians?
- Strongly Agree: 6.3%
- Agree: 7.3%
- Undecided: 7.1%
- Disagree: 17.1%
- Strongly Disagree: 61.8%
- No Response: 0.4%
Q2 — Complying with the Federal Government’s mandatory filtering policy may cause additional operational costs for ISPs which in turn may cause ISPs to raise consumer Internet prices. Do you agree that it is reasonable for consumers to pay more to facilitate mandatory ISP level filtering?
- Strongly Agree: 2%
- Agree: 5.5%
- Undecided: 4.1%
- Disagree: 16.5%
- Strongly Disagree: 71.3%
- No Response: 0.6%
Q3 — Complying with the Federal Government’s mandatory filtering policy may significantly reduce the speed of your Internet service. Do you agree that reduced Internet speed is an acceptable trade off to facilitate mandatory ISP level filtering?
- Strongly Agree: 1.9%
- Agree: 4.4%
- Undecided: 2.4%
- Disagree: 13.6%
- Strongly Disagree: 77.1%
- No Response: 0.6%
Q4 — Government trials have shown that it is unlikely that any filtering system could be entirely accurate and reliable. As such, some websites may be blocked from viewing when in fact they contain no inappropriate content. Conversely, inappropriate websites might pass through the filter undetected. Do you agree that it is reasonable for consumers to experience "innocent" websites being blocked from viewing in order to facilitate mandatory ISP level filtering?
- Strongly Agree: 2.8%
- Agree: 5.7%
- Undecided: 4%
- Disagree: 16.6%
- Strongly Disagree: 70.1%
- No Response: 0.8%
Q5 — In addition to blocking a list of known illegal sites, the Federal Government’s plan proposes the introduction of a commercially available filtering service that provides a "Clean Feed" from your ISP. This would not be mandatory and you would have the option to buy this service from your ISP to help block content that is deemed inappropriate for children. Would you purchase a filtering service or "Clean Feed" from your ISP if it was available?
- Yes: 8.4%
- No: 64.9%
- Maybe: 26.1%
- No Response: 0.6%
