Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Website: http://www.smh.com.au/ Contact: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 Author: Tom Allard, in Canberra AUNTIE'S WEB 'LINK' TO BOMB SITE: MP A Liberal backbencher looking to catch up on the daily news on the ABC's Web site instead found herself perusing sites that advised how to make illegal drugs and backyard bombs. Federal MP Ms Kay Elson said she was "horrified" by the sites, which she found through "links" on sites devoted to the Quantum television program and the ABC's youth radio network Triple J. While the ABC didn't have the information that concerned Ms Elson on its own sites, the links either brought Internet users directly to the controversial site or to sites with links that eventually offered the offending matter. Ms Elson, a mother of eight grown children, said Triple J in particular had played a critical role in undermining the Government's anti-drugs message. "You talk to kids about marijuana and they tell you: 'Come off it, I listen to Triple J and it's not that bad'." Defending the ABC, its head of multimedia, Mr Colin Griffith, said: "With the Internet, you are only two or three links away from the dark corners of humanity. This is part of the risk that comes with Internet culture." He said the ABC would continue the practice of providing links, although "you always have to be careful". The Triple J site had removed from its "cool sites" link the offending connection to "backyard ballistics", a home-grown explosives site, following Ms Elson's complaints. Mr Griffith said Ms Elson had exaggerated the content on the explosives site. He said it merely provided advice on how to fashion a potato gun, in contrast to Ms Elson's claim that it advised how to make a mortar device using a soft drink can. But the Quantum links to sites that can lead users to recipes for ecstasy and its pharmacological cousin MDMA remain. Mr Griffith said the Quantum site "neither condoned or promoted the use of drugs" but just gave "different views" on the subject. The site in question was devoted to its show, What's Your Poison, screened last year. Ms Elson has written to the ABC's managing director, Mr Brian Johns, with her complaints but has yet to get a response. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck