A Melbourne teenager who has managed to circumvent the Federal Government's internet pornography filter has described it as "completely useless".

Earlier this month Prime Minister John Howard announced that the filter would be made available free to every family.

But 16-year-old Melbourne student Tom Wood says he was able to completely override the filter in half an hour.

"I downloaded it on Tuesday to see how good it was, because for $84 million I would have expected a pretty unbreakable filter," he said.

"Tried a few things, it took about half an hour and [the filter] was completely useless."

Mr Wood described the situation as "extremely ridiculous".

"If you ask most people in IT, the problem's not the filter, I'm sure they did it with the right intentions, it's just that they've spent such a great amount of money on it when they could've probably done something as effective for a few million dollars," he said.

"But $84 million is just outrageous, I think."

He says filters are just part of the solution.

"Filtering pornography is going to play a part but the main things that need to be done are collaboration with kids, because the problems that we have are directly affecting kids, not adults, and unless you speak to them quite a lot you're not going to do anything with any effect," he said.

"What really needs to happen is a lot of research done with kids and then education, compulsory in all levels of schooling, and awareness-raising for adults so we can get a more holistic approach and it'll be a lot more effective all over."