egafd.com

[quote]Internet service providers are to be asked by the government to tighten up on website pornography to try to combat the early sexualisation of children.

Ministers believe broadband providers should consider automatically blocking sex sites, with individuals being required to opt in to receive them, rather than opt out and use the available computer parental controls.

Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, is to meet internet providers, including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, "in the near future" to discuss changing the way pornography enters private homes, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed. The move is designed to protect children from being exposed to pornography on the net.

"This is a very serious matter. I think it is very important that it's the ISPs that some up with solutions to protect children," Vaizey told the Sunday Times.

"I'm hoping they will get their acts together so that we don't have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the next couple of years."

The action follows the success of moves by most British internet providers to prevent people inadvertently viewing child pornography websites.

Now ministers want to see adult pornography controlled with similar technology, with sites blocked unless people specifically request access to them. Internet providers had said implementing the scheme would be technically difficult and cost too much. However, some now seem willing to implement the scheme voluntarily.

Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk's executive director of strategy and regulation, told the newspaper: "Our objective was not to do what the politicians want us but to do what is right for our customers. If other companies aren't going to do it of their own volition, then maybe they should be leant on."

Virgin Media said that it had already implemented the technology on its mobile service, but said that parents can control what their children see at home and online. A BT spokesman said they had a "clean feed" system to stop access to illegal sites.

In a parliamentary debate last month, Claire Perry, a Conservative MP who has campaigned for tighter controls, said that 60% of nine- to 19-year-olds had found porn online, while only 15% of computer-literate parents knew how to use filters to block access to certain sites.

The MP said six companies ? BT, Virgin, Talk Talk, BSkyB, Orange and 02 ? streamed the internet to 90% of homes in the UK. Perry called on the government to put pressure on those companies to install default measures to stop children accessing pornography online.[/quote]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/ ... ren-vaizey

Anyone want to sign up?

That means we'll have to opt in just to look at this site.

And so the quest to control the internet begins....

This is where it starts, next they'll probbaly include sites like Wikileaks into this as well.

I'm all for preventing kids seeing porn but as long as the tube and torrewnt sites are left alone I dont see th epoint of them implementing this if porn can still be made easily available and still for free

Obviously people spearheading this campaign havent thought about that as torrent clients arent considered adult

OEJ wrote

'I'm all for preventing kids seeing porn but as long as the tube and torrewnt sites are left alone I dont see the point of them implementing this if porn can still be made easily available and still for free.'

Dont forget Terry, the people who propose measures like those suggested have such little knowledge of the interweb thingy that they have probably never heard of torrent sites etc.

Thats the point Andy.

How are they to actually deal with this if they dont pay attention to where the kids are really getting the stuff.

They're hardly paying for it with credit cards are they?

Or how about this for a radical idea to prevent the kids from seeing porn maybe the parents should pay a bit more attention to how their kids are using the internet

Rather than let them spend hours on FaceBook in the privacy of their room maybe they should be allotted about 30 minutes a day on tyhe family computer in the living room where you can monitor their activity perhaps.

Or is that too extreme an invasion of childrens privacy?

One door closes and another one opens or reopens in this case, dvd and mag sales will go up as people will always want porn and they may not wish to register with an ISP but they can secretly visit a sex shop !wink!

does anyone else see this as a bit of a way to name and shame porn users??

I for one won't be calling the likes of BT or Virgin to say "Hi, please turn the porn sites back on!" as what's the point - they add you to a list, anyone on that list has their internet activity tracked for "suspicious use" (especially looking at "extreme" sites like bondage or watersports) and then you're noted down as a deviant.

Then.... that list gets hacked in a year's time and you're listed amongst genuine paedos and perverts

I'm sorry folks, but if this went ahead, I see it as the death of porn sites in Britain altogether as some people will be too wary of contacting their ISP to ask to activate the porn

You can see a massive drop off when people have to register to access movies especially even when it's free to do so, but they still do.

Some people are on our side:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12041063

From that article:

' "If we take this step it will not take very long to end up with an internet that's a walled garden of sites the governments is happy for you to see," he said.'

Exactly like China, Iran, Burma, and any other country we condemn for censoring the internet. What good company we will keep.

The governments argument to that in the first place would be that people would still have the 'choice' of being able to view porn or not - by being able to opt in. That's what would keep ol'Blighty still democratic.

What it should be is an opt-out. If a person wants their internet censored then that's the option that should be given - not to have it censored by default.