Netalert a “Failure”
Netalert a “Failure”
February 22, 2008: The Howard government’s Netalert software filtration scheme is on the chopping block, with the Rudd government declaring the $84 million initiative a failure.
Less than six months after the free online filtration software was made available to concerned parents around the country, and after the sixteen year-old Tom Wood demonstrated that it could be cracked and bypassed 30 minutes after its release, Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is now assessing the software’s future.
Part of the previous government’s broader Netalert program, the client-side filtration software was designed to protect children from unsavoury internet dens, and following a multimillion dollar advertising campaign 2.5 million households were expected to sign up
However, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, only a fraction more than 144,000 copies of the software were downloaded or ordered, and estimates from The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy show that only 29,000 copies are actually still in use.
“The program has clearly failed, despite over $15 million being spent in advertising to support it," said senator Conroy. “Labor has always said that PC filtering is not a stand-alone solution to protecting children from online dangers.”
The Government says it has a cyber-safety plan ready to go, with mandatory ISP-based filtering to be used for all connections to homes, schools and public internet points.
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