Last year the Howard Government shunned the idea of an Internet porn filter suggesting it to be of little benefit. But a few days ago, in what could easily be interpreted as an attempt to win Christian votes for the upcoming election, John Howard announced a $189 Million plan to put such a filter in place.

At least this time the Government is picking up the cheque for parents who opt into the ISP filtering service.

But you have to wonder if it will stop at porn filtering, as the technology in place, to be funded by the government, can be subject to any kind of filtering by the government. Why not filter unfavourable political opinions?

It doesn't matter anyway, as anyone in this industry knows this sort of thing just wont work. And besides, what passes as porn for one person might be considered tame by another.

Could this site be filtered because we used a close-up of a woman's cleavage on an article? Could something as harmless or trivial as a be filtered? Maybe not, but then, I have zero faith when it comes to trusting the government's competency on technological issues.

If anyone can provide a technical reason why this plan might succeed, I would love to hear about it.