The rollout of national broadband networks for the early-adopter countries is uncovering some very interesting challenges. The least expected is the slow take-up of subscribers to the blindingly fast fiber networks. Is it because the technology is scary, the cost too high or consumers are happy with what they have? Whatever the reason, suggestions are coming thick and fast as to what may be needed to stimulate customer numbers.

Perhaps the most novel has come from a ComputerWorld report that personal entertainment use, adult entertainment specifically, will drive the uptake that will be vital to the success of the NBN project in Australia. Yes folks, we’ve all heard the great socio-economic reasons for NBNs like eHealth, education, IPTV, government services, video streaming delivery, social networking, etc etc, but adult content?

“The single most important factor is the porn factor because pornography has always been at the cutting edge of technology,” Jennifer Wilson, director of content provider The Project Factory, told the Australian Computer Society (ACS) forum in Sydney. “If we cannot get porn on the NBN than we will have trouble getting consumer acceptance and uptake.”

It has long been known that the adult content industry spearheaded video-streaming technology as well as the associated eco-system for accepting payments online. It was, for many years, the only truly profitable online business and continues to proliferate in markets that allow its distribution. But here lies the catch.

Australia, like many of its neighbours in Asia, now actively filters content on its networks. We will now see internet censorship from a country known for democracy, human rights and freedom.

Internet censorship is spreading like wildfire, surprisingly in more developed countries like Turkey that announced its plans to censor internet from 22 August, while New Zealand approved the plan to censor torrent and P2P sharing sites. Malaysia recently blocked 10 top file sharing websites, disruption in accessing ‘thepiratebay.com’ in USA, Iran banned access to several websites, China is censoring almost all the world’s top websites, while at the same time encouraging clones to rise, and censorship plans in several other countries are still on table.