UK Adult Filter

[CAM]

I haven't put this on the news yet as I am struggling to find any sources for it. Only an Australian site (oh the irony!) reporting on something from the Sunday Times which is behind a paywall.

All internet porn will be blocked to protect children, under UK government plan | News.com.au

Does anyone have any other sources for this? Put simply, it's a national web filter that blocks porn unless you explicitly say to the ISP that you want to access it. Real solution or just censorship riding on the back of safeguarding?

And yes, this does affect residential connections.

[nephilim]

so they plan to block 1/5th of the internet? lmao

[EduTech]

It does appear that most of the links on the search engines or link back to that AU Web site.. Hmm...

[srochford]

It's on the front page of today's Sunday Times and I think the Aus article you link to is probably the same story (both Murdoch publications and the last line of the story says "The ISPA did not return calls to London's Sunday Times."

Not sure how you do this in such a big scale. Smoothwall type approaches are fine for the relatively small organisations like schools but I'm not sure if you can scale them. Blocking by DNS is possible but then takes out huge chunks of the web "by accident" because there happens to porn on the same host as loads of other stuff.

There's also the problem of whether it will do what's intended. "She quoted the example of two underage brothers sentenced to at least five years' detention this year for a sadistic sex attack on two other boys in South Yorkshire. The brothers were said to have had a "toxic" home life where they were exposed to pornography." - in this case, I'd guess the parents would have opted in to having porn available so the children still wouldn't have been protected.

[joe90bass]

Damn, may as well cancel my Broadband subscription now then

[pete]

BBC covered it a while ago: BBC News - MP calls for pornography 'opt-in' to protect children

It's a sneaky attempt at forcing self-censorship on people, pushed forward by yet another MP who wants to be seen to be "doing something" regardless of how utterly retarded that something is.

And so no doubt Ed Vaizey will go charging off in Internet white knight mode. Hey Ed, if you hate the job you could just resign rather than messing things up until it gets taken away from you.

*damn kids, get off my Internet*

[nile_c]

This was raised in adjournment debate by Claire Perry MP a couple of weeks ago. As far as I can tell nothing much has come of it.

The whole debate is actually on YouTube however, I'll warn you, I've watched it and it bored me to tears.
YouTube - Claire Perry MP - Adjournment debate - Regulation of internet access to pornography

[AyatollahPies]

I agree with pete. How long until they start blocking access to sites like wikileaks, using the excuse that they harbour dangerous content?

Make the most of the internet folks. I doubt it will be anything like we know it, in 10 years time.

[localzuk]

Another ridiculous scheme which won't work and open a giant can of worms:

1. Who gets the blame when something slips past and parents get upset?
2. Who gets the bill when a company gets misclassified as a pornographic provider ends up blocked, loses income and decides to sue?
3. Who gets to decide what is certified and how?
4. Is this the start of what people talked of when the whole clean feed system was introduced? ie. start with the illegal stuff, then move onto pornography, and then onto stuff the government doesn't like? Will sites like Wikileaks end up on such systems?
5. Is it also the beginning of marginalising consumers of porn? ie. they request access to adult material, therefore must be deviants and perverts?

My preferred outcome of this - get parents to actually parent their children. They find something online? They should've been taught from the beginning to tell their parents, and as such the parents can explain and deal with it, rather than hiding behind technology.

[gshaw]

Agree with AyatollahPies, it's the start of trying to censor the free web... can't let it happen as it'll start with this and before you know it you've got a walled garden of "Government approved" content and big business closing out the market (kinda fits in with the whole two tier Internet argument also going on at the moment as well)

However some hope is still there, if groups like Anonymous can take down corporates like Visa then imagine what they could do with an entire population's worth of machines if the Government tried to put censorship on

[pete]

However some hope is still there, if groups like Anonymous can take down corporates like Visa then imagine what they could do with an entire population's worth of machines if the Government tried to put censorship on

Much as it would amuse me to see a certain ring-wearing bowel-stretching man appear as the wallpaper on every government desktop, they'd use it as an excuse to say "see we're right! and slip yet more stupid over-reacting laws through parliament on a tidal wave of Daily Mail readers getting upset.

There's an idea for a slogan - "Save the Internet, Defenestrate a Daily Mail reader"

[gshaw]

Well I'd rather that than just give in and nod and agree quietly as we get restricted to what Government and big business sees fit for us to have... but tbh it's one hell of a battle for any Government to want to take on by themselves so hopefully will come to nothing

[DaveP]

Does anyone have any other sources for this? Put simply, it's a national web filter that blocks porn unless you explicitly say to the ISP that you want to access it.

Not sure if you are still looking for other sources but this was on the Guardian's website yesterday afternoon and not behind a paywall:

Link: Broadband firms urged to block sex websites to protect children | Society | The Guardian

Edit: Link 2: Porn in the United Kingdom to become opt-in

Link 3: Porn block on PCs | The Sun |News [I can't believe I am putting in a link to The Sun here!]

[Andrew_C]

Does it say something about me that I read the title as "UK Adult Finder" and wondered whether it was appropriate to this forum?

Seriously though, who voted for the Tories? I'll hold my hand up to having voted (probably for the last time) Liberal. The whole thing will be run through like Part (taking the) P of the building regs. Some dopey daughter of an MP killed herself using a dodgy drill, into a wall where a wire was quite legitimately run, and we can't do any (there are things you can still do) DIY wiring any more.

Was it about safety? No, all about protecting the "Legitimate" electricians and tax. Will the proposed filtering protect kids? No. In the homes where they are currently abused* they will continue to be abused. In loving homes, they will continue to be protected. This is ALL about Govt wanting more control over the population.

* in whatever form it takes

[penfold]

<SNIP>

My preferred outcome of this - get parents to actually parent their children. They find something online? They should've been taught from the beginning to tell their parents, and as such the parents can explain and deal with it, rather than hiding behind technology.

Cant agree more with this, and this doesn't just apply to this story, but with numerous things. Especially in education as it is always the school/teacher/support staff/LEA.... it's never the parents fault that their child is a little brat because they dont take any responsibility.

As you say, this is just another tech fix to a person problem.