Alphalink - Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999

On the 1st January, 2000, the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 came into effect.

The Act:

defines certain types of Internet content as prohibited content (or potential prohibited content)
provides for the development of industry codes of practice for the ISP
creates a mechanism through which members of the public may complain to the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) about Internet content which they believe is, or may be, prohibited content
empowers the ABA to investigate such complaints and, where appropriate, issue notices to ISPs to take action in relation to the content
makes non-compliance with a notice an offence

For the purposes of the Act, Internet content is defined as stored information that is accessible over an Internet carriage service. Types of Internet content that may be prohibited include material on the World Wide Web, articles on newsgroups and bulletin boards and other information that can be downloaded from a library or archive of files.

The following categories of Internet content are prohibited:

Content which is (or would be) classified RC or X by the Classification Board. This includes:
- material containing detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use
- child pornography
- bestiality
- real depictions of actual sexual activity
- excessively violent or sexually violent material
Content hosted in Australia which is classified R and not subject to a restricted access system which complies with criteria determined by the ABA. Content classified R is not considered suitable for minors and includes:
- material containing excessive and/or strong violence or sexual violence
- material containing implied or simulated sexual activity
- material which deals with issues or contains depictions which require an adult perspective

The Classification Board Guidelines for the Classification of Films and Videotapes can be found at the Office of Film and Literature Classification Website.

Information about the criteria with which restricted access systems must comply can be found at the ABA Website. Please Note: You can also find details on how to make a complaint to the ABA on this website.

Alphalink will be complying with the Act by abiding by the Internet Industry Association's Code of Practice.

Alphalink's obligations under this code are to:

take reasonable steps to ensure that Internet access accounts are not provided to persons under the age of 18 years without the consent of a parent, teacher or other responsible adult.
Alphalink will only be enabling accounts created for persons under the age of 18 years if we have received a signed consent form from the appropriate parent, teacher or other responsible adult. We will be searching our database for any current members who may be under the age of 18 and either obtain a consent form from the appropriate person or disable the account.

take reasonable steps to encourage commercial content providers to use appropriate labeling systems and to inform them of their legal responsibilities in regard to the content they publish.

The IIA has compiled a resource for this purpose - IIA - Guide for Internet Users

If you use your Alphalink account for business purposes or are an educational institution, please advise us if you are using any form of content filtering or control on your web site. The purpose of collecting this information is to advise the IIA and ABA.

take reasonable steps to provide users with information about: supervising and controlling children's access to Internet content procedures which parents can implement to control children's access to Internet content their right to make complaints to the ABA about online content procedures by which such complaints can be made.
The IIA has compiled a resource for this purpose - IIA - Guide for Internet Users
provide users with, or direct them to, information describing methods by which receipt of unsolicited email promoting offensive material can be minimised.
The IIA will compile a resource for this purpose - Alphalink will provide a link to this resource once it has been posted. We also filter all incoming emails through a program called SpamAssassin which attempts to identify unsolicited email and tag it so that members can use the results to filter it out.
where an ISP is aware of the identity and email address of a content host, advise the relevant content host by email about prohibited content since the legislation does not refer to 'potential prohibited content' here, ISPs will not be required to evaluate the content themselves.
The ABA is likely to be the only body who will know that material is prohibited. Alphalink will relay any message from the ABA to the content host. This provision is required by legislation and was included to assist the ABA in notifying a content host that they are hosting prohibited content.

provide to subscribers within Australia as soon as reasonably practicable, at a charge determined by the ISP, an Approved Filter; this will not be required where the ISP provides to an exempted class of subscribers which include some commercial subscribers, schools and institutions already subject to filtering, or end users who advise the ISP that they are already using an Approved Filter.

Alphalink is not required to filter or in any way block content nor are we required to ensure that end-users install or operate the filters provided for use.

Alphalink recommends our members use Net Nanny as a scheduled filter.

If you use your Alphalink account at home, please advise us if you are using any form of content filtering. The purpose of collecting this information is to advise the IIA and ABA.