Earlier this month, Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced a multi-million dollar pornography filter along with several other measures to make the Internet safer for children and families, including an information and education campaign and telephone hotline. Sixteen-year-old Melbourne teenager Tom Wood said it took him less than 30 minutes to break through the cyber barrier. "I downloaded it on Tuesday to see how good it was, because for 84 million dollars (69 million US), I would have expected a pretty unbreakable filter. Tried a few things, it took about half an hour and (it) was completely useless," said the teenager.
Communications Minister Helen Coonan said that the NetAlert filters, which the government has announced will be free for every family, were always going to be challenged by teenagers. "Sadly, just as a seatbelt will never prevent every fatal car crash, as the government has always maintained, no filter is foolproof. But a computer with a filter is infinitely safer than one without," said Senator Coonan. The company which provided the technology was investigating the unconfirmed hacking report, she added.