In a surprise decision recently announced by Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, the Government has dumped its contentious Internet filtering plans; thereby leaving the blocking of child pornography up to the individual service providers.

The recent disclosure by Conroy marks a complete turnaround from a 2009 statement in which Senator Conroy had asserted that Internet filtering was essential for protecting children from illegal online content. He had also argued at that time that Internet filtering would be "100 per cent" accurate.

Pointing to Conroy's recent statement made on Friday, a Herald Sun report said that while the Government's earlier plans to filter illegal online content have now been abandoned, the authorities have nonetheless worked out an agreement with telecom companies to block nearly 1400 "worst of the worst" sites which are on an Interpol blacklist.

As per another report, in Melbourne's leading newspaper The Age, the Government will not create an Internet filter law because, going by Conroy's statement, it has "no need to proceed with mandatory filtering." As such, the Government will rather use its powers underlined in the existing telecom legislation than craft new filter legislation.

The report further noted that most of the Australian Internet service providers (ISPs) already have the Interpol criteria in place for "more than a year," without leading to either slower Internet speeds or false positives.