Two Thirds of Internet-connected households child free

Although the clean-feed policy is targeted solely at "vulnerable" children, official statistics show that a large majority of internet-connected households in Australia have no children under 15.

According to ABS research (Household use of information technology2006-07), the number of households with internet access was:

Households without children under 15: 3.356 million
Households with children under 15: 1.782 million
Total: 5.138 million

When the objective of an ISP based filtering system is “to give peace of mind to mums and dads” (as indicated in a Labor media release), it seems it would be an irresponsible waste of tax payer funding to implement a mandatory system applicable to 100% of households with Internet access (5.1 million) when only 34% have children under 15 years (1.8 million), due to the likelihood that most households without children would not particularly want a filtered service.

Further, the 34% of households with children under 15 years would include:
the third of parents of children aged 8 to 13 years who have a filter installed; and
the two-thirds of parents of children aged 8 to 13 years who do not have a filter installed, 67% of which choose not to install filtering software because either they trust their child or feel that installing software is redundant because of their use of other safeguards. It is highly questionable whether those parents would want mandatory ISP filtering.

For more detailed information, take a look at our detailed policy response.