Google and Yahoo have said that they strongly oppose a proposed Australian law that would block all web traffic that would be "refused classification" – the Australian equivalent of "not rated" – if it was a book or a movie.

The Safe Internet Group issued a statement denouncing the censorship efforts on behalf of the search giants, the Australian Library and Information Association, and several other organizations this week, saying that "as a large proportion of child sexual abuse content is not found on public websites, but in chat-rooms or peer-to-peer networks, we know the proposed filtering regime will not effectively protect children from this objectionable material. In fact, the policy may give parents a ‘false sense of security,’ encouraging them to reduce their supervision."

Experts say that search engine optimization (SEO) in Australia could be heavily affected if the censorship law is enacted, since a number of widely-used websites like YouTube could cause severe bottlenecks in the filter, slowing performance to a crawl. Additionally, the filter is highly fallible, as a teenage hacker has already proved, according to tech news website The Register.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.