ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the background to the Act; the policy debates, political postures and media controversies which formed the foundation of the law reform process. Engaging with opinions and arguments, it becomes clear that a great many spatial concepts are tied up with not only the Internet component of the debate, but also in the censorship discourse generally which constructs the community' in specific ways. Censorship is usually not a matter for state regulation in the United States which generally relies more on self-governance and censorship performed by industries rather than by government. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides a measure of protection for free speech from government intrusion. The chapter presents an overview of filtering and labelling technologies, which have been advocated as mandatory or voluntary tools of self governance. These related techniques have been suggested during both international and domestic law reform processes but have not been codified into mandatory law in any Western jurisdiction.
