Communications Minister Stephen Conroy vowed to continue on with his proposals for a mandatory Internet filtering policy. Appearing on ABC's Q&A program, Conroy said that the ability of parents to look after their children have been compromised due to the popularity of iPhones and iPads.

Conroy made the statement in response to Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, who said that the best "net nanny" in the home was for parents to put the computer in an open area such as the living room so that they can supervise internet usage.

"Unfortunately, an open space doesn't exist when an iPad exists and when an iPhone exists... The argument that you should put it in a family room is now technologically bypassed," Conroy said.

Steve Jobs said previously that he believed Apple has a "moral response" to keep the iPhone free from pornographic material.

Conroy refused to back away from the policy in spite of admitting that the legislation for the filtering policy had yet to be drafted and that the scope of refused classification content had not yet taken place.

"You don't because you get a lot of criticism say 'I'm going to run away from that policy'," he said.

Conroy lauded the voluntary child pornography filtering measures from ISPs such as Optus, Primus and Telstra. He said that the measures prove that filtering would not slow down Internet speeds. However, he rejected the notion that the child pornography filter could be used to substitute for the mandatory filtering policy.

"There's two internet service providers have said they will not block child pornography, two of them have stated they will not block the list. They're on the record," Conroy said.

Internode has said it would not comply with the proposal, while iiNet CEO Michael Malone said he would wait for details of the proposal before deciding whether to opt in.

Shadow Innovation Minister Sophie Mirabella said that the policy simply "didn't work".

"It won't stop the peer-to-peer discussions, it won't stop chat-room discussions. You haven't actually shown how it will work," Mirabella said.

"It is 100 per cent accurate. Blocking individual URLs as is in Europe at the moment is 100 per cent accurate. It does work... I've said repeatedly, the filter is not an attempt to deal with peer to peer," Conroy said.