Cameron is at it again.....

[Geoff]

Looks like it might be a good time to get into the VPN business.

[Peter_W]

Looks like it might be a good time to get into the VPN business.

 

I already use PIA as a firewall bypass in school. We use it for support applications or blocked websites that teachers need to access.

[Dos_Box]

And who gets to decide what gets blocked or not? This is a very slippy slope the govt has entered into.

What about deviantart and other such sites? Will there be a centralised government controlled 'approved' and 'naughty' website list?

I have a very bad feeling about this.

[sted]

And who gets to decide what gets blocked or not? This is a very slippy slope the govt has entered into.

What about deviantart and other such sites? Will there be a centralised government controlled 'approved' and 'naughty' website list?

I have a very bad feeling about this.

which ultimately turns the internet into tv with only regulated stations allowed to "broadcast"

[Geoff]

Until the legal system moves at as fast as technology does technology will be impossible to regulate.

[sonofsanta]

Analogy time: expecting the search engines to police online content is like expecting Ordnance Survey to police squatters, because they've mapped the house that is now being used for squatting.

[Ephelyon]

In fairness, they do seem to have been quite specific in terms of suggesting that this is online pornography that depicts rape... so presumably your bog-standard old-school pizza delivery guy scenario is safe for a little while longer. The "old" Internet maxim that "if it exists, there is porn of it" would seem to suggest that the majority of porn will continue unabated. I'm sure other interested bodies [no pun intended] can discuss whether or not that's a good thing...

[LiamH]

It appears i woke up in China/North Korea this morning, i cant find my way home because google maps is blocked due to someone sunbathing topless. Help!

 

Its very worrying and Orwellian.

 

I remember reading an article I can't relocate about predictions for future roads by motorists, the 80's predictions were full of hope and promise, self driving cars, fewer cars in cities ect. The more recent ones were along the lines of "speed camera's on every road, reg plate recognition camera's", Just shows how resigned to this the general public is.

 

I don't mind CCTV on the streets, but things like this and the PRISM leak show how the government are not content with monitoring our public lives, but feel the need to monitor/dictate our personal ones too.

Edited July 22, 2013 by LiamH

[chazzy2501]

They start with child protection so its hard to rally against. Then they'll include sites that are bad for commerce (piracy), then sites that are bad for government... Then the next thing you know the local council are reading your emails to see your paying enough council tax..

[Fleetwood]

Wonderful, I've had enough bloody problems with filtering systems at the workplace (SWGfL, Websense,) never mind at home! I can't imagine this will be using a decent filtering system either, can you? How long before I end up getting blocked out because it picked up the keyword "f**king" in a forum post and automatically assumes I'm looking at adult material, or I'm a member of a clan on a MMORPG game and it blocks me out of the clan's website for having "Roleplay" in it - "Bugger me skipper, he's been flagged for Roleplay. It must involve all sorts of illegal acts. BROADSWORD TO DANNY BOY, BLOCK HIM BLOCK HIM BLOCK HIM!" - Pfft, please..

 

Another dose of the government trying to tackle a problem they have zero knowledge of, it isn't just websites. People have access to all sorts of technology these days, I imagine all sorts gets sent over text messages or WhatsApp/Kik/BBM/Skype etc. - Absolutely clueless bunch.

 

I will not be surprised if this is one of their 'cunning plans' to worm even more filtering into our internet access. How long before they suddenly try blocking out other types of content beyond adult material? "Sorry, you can't watch those Family Guy clips on youtube anymore!"

Edited July 22, 2013 by Fleetwood

[penfold]

So the reason this is being pushed is because (unlike renting films)there are no rules when accessing the internet the solution is to filtering everyone's access rather than a raise awareness of the existing filters that can be put in place by parents NOW? No filter can replace supervision and education about using the internet and rather than teaching children to use it properly they are now going to provide a false sense of security to parents thinking that their children will not see any "adult material".

 

How long after being put in place until we see the headline that some parents are going to try and make a claim against their ISP because it let boobs through on the internet because little johnny was searching for "boobs" but his parents assumed everything would be ok?

 

Why can't we just push for parents to take more interest in parenting?

Edited July 22, 2013 by penfold

[sted]

Why can't we just push for parents to take more interest in parenting?

 

no point. The responsible ones already do, the ones that dont care wont and will just complain that the state isnt bringing up their kids for them. Just look at parents evenings by and large the parents that turn up are the ones nobody needs to see as their kids are doing fine the ones that dont turn up are the grotbags parents

[Ephelyon]

Shameless advertising: the book "The WiFi Generation" goes into detail about this, saying how filtering on the family PC is useless as long as they (or a friend) have a smartphone.

 

"We can no longer constrain or forbid them; we who were once taught to be streetwise must now teach our children to be mediawise."

[gtg93]

The blocking of sites to protect children should be down to the parents, or be an opt-in feature at the least as not everyone has the knowledge to set a filtering system up. I'm all for the blocking of adult content to protect children, but that's where it should end, though I'm sure it won't. It'll only be a matter of time, as people have mentioned, before they're blocking social networking sites and photography sites due to the possibility of adult content. Then slowly, I can see sites with forums where users have had a rant and moan about the government being classed as "terrorism" or "discrimination" and getting blocked too.

 

Think about it, a lot of sites could in one way or another be argued to have adult content on it, and therefore be blocked by default. If anyone has ever taken a mobile phone contract out and not asked for the content block to be removed, you'll know what I mean - the amount of sites that are blocked by that is silly, I think it was with Vodafone at one point they even blocked ebay!

 

They should tackle the dodgey stuff at the source, blocking it is not going to help. If someone wants to see it, they're going to find a way to do so! Then, concentrate on educating the parents on the dangers of the internet so they can personally put measure in place to protect their own children.

Edited July 22, 2013 by gtg93
Fixing my terrible attempt at grammar! :/

[sted]

The blocking of sites to protect children should be down to the parents, or be an opt-in feature at the least as not everyone has the knowledge to set a filtering system up. I'm all for the blocking of adult content to protect children, but that's where it should end, though I'm sure it won't. It'll only be a matter of time, as people have mentioned, before they're blocking social networking sites and photography sites due to the possibility of adult content. Then slowly, I can see sites with forums where users have had a rant and moan about the government being classed as "terrorism" or "discrimination" and getting blocked too.

 

Think about it, a lot of sites could in one way or another be argued to have adult content on it, and therefore be blocked by default. If anyone has ever taken a mobile phone contract out and not asked for the content block to be removed, you'll know what I mean - the amount of sites that are blocked by that is silly, I think it was with Vodafone at one point they even blocked ebay!

 

They should tackle the dodgey stuff at the source, blocking it is not going to help. If someone wants to see it, they're going to find a way to do so! Then, concentrate on educating the parents on the dangers of the internet so they can personally put measure in place to protect their own children.

 

orange used to (not with them anymore) block edugeek as adult material

[gtg93]

orange used to (not with them anymore) block edugeek as adult material

 

Well, with all the dodgey content on here I'm not surprised!

 

This proves my point really. Just because it's a forum, it doesn't mean it's going to be full of people swearing and sharing illegal content.

 

And, if the one the ISPs are forced to put in place is anything like the mobile one I was talking about, or the ones used in schools, it's likely some self help sites such as Talk To Frank will be blocked, whether by accident or not, for containing drug references.

 

It's never going to be a fool proof system, so therefore, in my opinion, education is still the best solution.

Edited July 22, 2013 by gtg93

[sted]

 

It's never going to be a fool proof system, so therefore, in my opinion, education is still the best solution.

 

i would go a step further and say its the ONLY solution

[sonofsanta]

It's never going to be a fool proof system, so therefore, in my opinion, education is still the best solution.

 

I'm paraphrasing, but I was shown this quote on an e-safety course, and I quite liked it:

To keep our children safe around swimming pools we can install fences, wire up pool alarms, provide life jackets and supervise our children constantly. Or we can teach our children to swim.

It's the best analogy I've heard for the issue of online safety.

[Ephelyon]

It does seem like just one step closer to the Great Firewall of China.

[tmcd35]

It does seem like just one step closer to the Great Firewall of China.

 

I nearly posted that earlier (don't know why I didn't now). Also thought, look how well that's worked out for them...

[plexer]

Will Google pull out of the UK?

 

Does Cameron really think that child abuse images are easily found with a google search?

 

If it was that easy I'm sure Google would have already fixed it but the answer is that no it's not.

 

Ben

[sted]

I'm paraphrasing, but I was shown this quote on an e-safety course, and I quite liked it:

To keep our children safe around swimming pools we can install fences, wire up pool alarms, provide life jackets and supervise our children constantly. Or we can teach our children to swim.

It's the best analogy I've heard for the issue of online safety.

 

or just remove the water and fill the hole with playground tiles which seems closer to what they are trying to do

[Sirbendy]

I shall be opting out. I don't want external filtering, and I'm damn sure it'll play hob with the missus webdev stuff somehow. As far as the kids go, when they're old enough for me to worry, I've got an R-Pi running dansguardian that I can bring in to do the rudimentary stuff, and educate them for the rest. I pay for internet access, not a partial version thereof. Unless of course they're willing to allow me to make a partial payment for partial services rendered?

[Fleetwood]

Let's not be hasty, fellow EduGeekers. Think about it, this will cure our frustrations of seeing people not being able to type in the Queen's English properly and scare all the chavs from typing out words incorrectly now, such as 'coming' - you get the idea. Effective, nice work DC! DC Comical more like.

 

I'll be opting out, too bad I'm 99.9% likely to be labelled a pervert because of it but I don't pay for my internet access to have a Whiney Shiney-Forehead Pillock come along and say "Sorry young man, I must block you from seeing this photo gallery of the national art gallery museum because it displays a naked statue of a man with his winkle showing while holding his child in his arms. Good day to you." and, like the majority of the country, we're all mature and educated enough to deal with this problem ourselves and actually educate our children on how to use technology/the internet (luckily I have no children, that I know of, yet. Phew!) - so why not instead support the parents who are not all clued up on e-safety/the internet/technology and teach them simple methods of how to protect their kids, such as knowing their passwords or checking internet history, and deal with the parents who simply don't give a hoot.

 

I don't condone child abuse or anything like that, that's not why I'm angry. I'm angry because they've automatically jumped on the "BLAME THE INTERNET/TECHNOLOGY!" bandwagon, like they do every single time, and are penalising the entire country for it.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Fleetwood

[broc]

Filtering is a battle we are losing; education is the answer as many have said.

 

Years ago I can remember an irate Humanities teacher coming to complain that one of her students had searched on Google images and had found a photo of a near nude lady. When I asked her what the student had searched for she said 'british actresses'...... my reply then was shall we block 'british' or 'actresses' ?