UK Gov't Wants To Block Internet Porn By Default

airfoobar writes "Yet another country wants to 'protect the children' by blocking all internet porn — not just child porn, all porn. The British gov will talk with ISPs next month to ask them to make porn blocking mandatory (and they appear more than happy to comply). As an effect, adults who want to access pornography through their internet connections will have to 'opt in.' Their rationale is that if ISPs have managed to block all child porn, they'll also be able to block all other porn as well."

Re:Oh wow.

[chrb]

Apparently they don't actually want to block all porn: [thisissomerset.co.uk]

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has refused a request from a West MP for the Government to take action to stop children being able to access internet pornography.

Devizes Tory MP Claire Perry raised the issue at a special Commons debate, because as a mother-of-three she knew how difficult it was to keep youngsters from seeing inappropriate material.

But Mr Vaizey made it clear ministers will not take any steps to force internet service providers (ISPs) to tackle the problem.

He said: "We believe in an open, lightly regulated internet. The internet is by and large a force for good, it is central to our lives and to our economy and Government has to be wary about regulating or passing legislation."

The minister suggested it was for parents to take responsibility for what their children see online, rather than the ISPs that make money from pornography.

Re:Oh wow.

[devbox]

And it's still opt-in. I'm currently in Thailand and they block all porn, you opt-in or not. Of course, it's only the most known sites blocked while smaller less-known ones work.

Terrible journalism

[litheye]

This article is completely inaccurate and hyperbolic. It's just one MP (not a minister or anyone with any real power) calling for this and there are no signs that it is gaining traction with the actual government. In fact, the minister responsible said this: "The internet is by and large a force for good, it is central to our lives and to our economy and Government has to be wary before it regulates and passes legislation". Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jJiC8J_CirrU_ieNBO6oiEXvFlbw?docId=N0237401290546543448A [google.com]

Re:Oh wow.

[supertrinko]

Many pornographic sites are named in such a way that children could come across them by mistyping a website they were trying to go to.

Re:Oh wow.

[RDW]

For perhaps the only time in living memory, the Daily Mail has one of the more measured articles about this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339926/Internet-pornography-Parents-allowed-block-sexual-imagery.html [dailymail.co.uk]

'The plan is to allow parents to 'opt out' of the sites and they will then be blocked at the source, rather than using conventional parental controls...Adults who wish to view the material would have to choose to 'opt in'.'

The Metro is even clearer:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/850896-new-porn-controls-for-children-on-internet-planned-by-government [metro.co.uk]

'He hopes to introduce a system that would enable parents to ask internet service providers (ISPs) to block adult sites at source, rather than relying on parental controls that they need to set themselves...Adults using the internet connection would then have to specifically 'opt in' if they want to view pornography.'

So Vaizey (and right now it's just him having a chat with the IPSs, not government policy) wants a scheme where parents can REQUEST a default filter for their connection, but Dad can opt back in when he's 'working late' at the PC.

Re:VPN?

[SuricouRaven]

I work in a school, maintaining the filter, so I know a little about how they evade censorship. The kids will not turn to VPNs, for they will have no need to: They will simply exchange pornographic files via IM software or email instead, or on USB stick. Same way they get games right now. I also imagine they wouldn't think twice about sending some unsolicited to a friend, either expecting the friend to approve or just as a joke.

Re:Opting in

[xaxa]

Just like to point out, Virgin Media already do this

They do? They didn't for this home connection.

It looks like it's some software you install on your PC (see here [virginmedia.com]). I don't know what the defaults are, since I didn't install it.

Re:Oh wow.

[BasilBrush]

Thank you, o British people, for no matter how big of a bunch of douchebags our government in the USA becomes, you will ALWAYS end up so much worse

Don't be so sure. As of yet, the security at airports in the UK hasn't sunk to the depths of public molestation that the US TSA system has.
http://thedailypatdown.com/ [thedailypatdown.com]

Re:What in the heck??

[Anonymous Coward]

They won't because most ISPs are already blocking child porn (and this was done some years ago with very little fuss

Apart from that time they blocked Wikipedia...