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By Patrick Gray, 4 March 2003 10:58

NEWS An Australian think-tank has reopened old wounds over who should police children's internet access by slamming "irresponsible" ISPs for allowing underage surfers to access pornographic content. Clive Hamilton executive director of The Australia Institute, enraged ISPs with the comments which followed a report from the 'public interest' think tank which claimed "regulation of pornography is manifestly failing" and the Australian Broadcasting Authority "seems to be more concerned to promote the use of the internet than to protect children from its dangers." However, the managing director of ISP Netspace Online Systems, Stuart Marburg, has described blocking technologies as too difficult and costly to set up and administer But that argument held little sway with Hamilton. "The ISPs are actively undermining the government's legislation," he said. Hamilton also believes ISPs are resisting their call for the implementation of industry-wide filtering because it would eat into their profits. "The internet industry has got to be brought back to the real world. They're just like any other industry but they've got away with murder because they've convinced politicians that they've saved the world," he said. However, Marburg deflected criticism saying that the onus should be on parents to protect their children from explicit material and not the ISPs. "I believe parents should supervise their children while using the Internet. It's a parenting responsibility, just like television, videos and magazines," he said. Marburg described implementing the technology in its current form as "unfeasible" in many ways and dismissed accusations that internet service providers are interested in safeguarding profits generated through allowing children to access the internet. "The support and administration time that's dealt with explaining these issues to parents and responding to complaints probably outweighs those profits," he said. He also claimed children would be able to circumvent most filtering measures. He said: "If the children are smart enough they can get the material anyway. Parents have to remember that kids have been using computers since they were four years old." But Hamilton says he is outraged by this position. "For industry people to dump it on parents is outrageous," he said, describing the position of ISPs in general as a "commercially driven morality".