If you have questions about the Hands Off MY Net! campaign that are not addressed here, please send them to us via our Questions mailbox.

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1. What is Internet filtering?
2. Why is unfiltered access to the Internet essential?
3. Is any Government really doing this?
4. What about parents filtering their children’s access?
5. Do you oppose businesses filtering Internet access in the workplace?
6. What about Government workplaces?
7. What about public libraries?
8. Are you against optional filtering services provided by ISPs and third parties?
9. Do you condone pornography? Overt sexual content?
10. What about child pornography?
11. What about child molesters?

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Q: What is Internet filtering?

HOMN defines Internet filtering as any technical control implemented to selectively deny users access to Internet resources. We are specifically concerned with filtering undertaken by Governments and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for purposes such as censorship or to deny individuals fundamental rights.

Q: Why is unfiltered access to the Internet essential?

Today, an increasing percentage of the world’s population obtains information from the Internet every day of their lives. Allowing Governments and Internet Service Providers to choose the information, news, and opinions that are available enables censorship and manipulation on an unprecedented scale.

While initial efforts may target less sociably acceptable Internet content, allowing any filtering is an extremely dangerous precedent. Consider the power of a set of keywords to effectively remove an event or person from history, or eliminate a dissenting voice. The world has, through the United Nations, confirmed that:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

HOMN came together to advocate for that right.

Q: Is any Government really doing this?

China has been filtering Internet access at the national level since at least 1994. According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, “The technical capacity of the [Chinese] system includes blocking domestic and overseas Web sites, filtering content and key words on Web pages, monitoring and suppressing e-mail and surfing; phone and SMS message tracking, hijacking PCs and sending out viruses.”

While human rights abuses on the part of China are a matter of longstanding record, Australia recently announced its intention to implement mandatory filtering at the national level.

Q: What about parents filtering their children’s access?

HOMN believes that every parent has not only the right but the obligation to supervise their minor children. It is the right of every parent to decide how and when to monitor and control their children’s use of the Internet. While we advocate vigilant, age-appropriate parental supervision and believe that it is superior to any technical solution, we respect the right of parents and schools as end users of Internet services to employ filtering technologies.

Q: Do you oppose businesses filtering Internet access in the workplace?

As the entities that pay for Internet connectivity and provide it to employees for business purposes, we respect the right of businesses and institutions to control the use of the Internet in the workplace.

Q: What about Government workplaces?

In their role as employers, Governments should have the same right to control the use of the Internet in the workplace as any other corporate or institutional employer.

Q: What about public libraries?

HOMN asserts that public libraries and other facilities provided to the general public by the Government have an obligation to provide unfiltered Internet access. Failing to do so would effectively impose Government censorship upon those who rely upon these facilities for Internet access.

Q: Are you against optional filtering services provided by ISPs and third parties?

HOMN is not opposed to optional filtering, provided that such filtering is under the control of the individual, business or organization that purchases the Internet connectivity and that an option to completely disable the filtering exists.

Q: Do you condone pornography? Overt sexual content?

HOMN supports freedom of expression. The campaign also asserts the right of every employer, institutional director, parent and adult individual to decide for themselves what Internet content they will allow their employees, members, families and themselves to access within the respective environments over which they have legal, moral and ethical jurisdiction.

Q: What about child pornography?

Proponents of filtering and censorship often use child pornography as a justification for filtering because others are hesitant to oppose them for fear of being labeled as supporting the horrific acts of child pornographers.

HOMN is strenuously opposed to the abuse and exploitation of children and believes that those responsible should be subject to the strongest possible criminal sanctions. We also respect the rights of corporations, governments, institutions parents and individuals to use filters in attempts to avoid exposing their employees, members, clients and families, and themselves, to such material.

However, HOMN strongly asserts the responsibility of governments to move pro-actively to detect child pornography on the Internet, remove such material from circulation and prosecute the criminals responsible. HOMN believes that mandatory Internet filtering and censorship do not effectively address the problem of child pornography but, instead, can only attempt to conceal or compartmentalize it, at best.

Q: What about child molesters?

HOMN asserts every parent’s right to regulate the Internet content to which their minor children may be exposed in the home, according to standards established the parents. HOMN also asserts every parent’s responsibility to do so. Similarly, HOMN asserts the right and responsibility of teachers and others tasked with supervising children in the absence of their parents to maintain Internet access standards within the scope of the standards that the parents set for their children.

HOMN also strongly asserts the responsibility of governments to move pro-actively to detect child exploiters and molesters on the Internet and to prosecute the criminals responsible. HOMN believes that mandatory Internet filtering and censorship do not effectively address the problem of child exploitation and molestation but, instead, can only attempt to conceal or compartmentalize it, at best.