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Victory for the tabloids! Online porn to be filtered by default in UK
New rules by PM David Cameron follow almost a year of porn-scare headlines.
Save the children! UK Prime Minister David Cameron wants porn filters to come on, by default, in any British houses that have children in them.
"A silent attack on innocence is underway in our country today, and I am determined that we fight it with all we've got," wrote Cameron in today's Daily Mail.
The system Cameron promises will be in the works by February, when British ISPs will have to present plans for how they will present the filter options. Every owner of a new computer will be asked when they log in through their Internet service provider if they have children in the house. If they answer yes, it will immediately prompt them to set up filters blocking content, individual sites, or restricting access at particular times of day, according to the Mail.
If those options just get clicked through rapidly, filters that keep out porn and "self-harm" sites will be "on" by default.
Cameron's pledge seems to be a response to a vocal campaign by the Daily Mail, a century-old British tabloid with a daily readership of more than four million. The newspaper has been pressuring British politicians to filter Internet porn for most of this year, with screaming headlines like "Children Grow Up Addicted to Online Porn Sites," "How Internet Porn Turned My Beautiful Boy Into A Hollow, Self-Hating Shell," and "Online Porn 'Is Turning Children Into Sex Attackers'."
A headline in the same newspaper earlier this week trumpeted a study allegedly showing that online porn "can make you lose your memory."
The newspaper is taking credit for the announcement as well. Today's Daily Mail accompanied Cameron's essay about the new "filter by default" policy with a headline crowing: "Victory for the Mail! Children WILL be protected..."
Cameron's promise to filter Internet traffic by default replaces an earlier suggestion in which, rather than prompt parents to set up filters, the filters were simply already turned on. "All the evidence suggests that wouldn't work very well in practice," said Cameron. He gave the example of one parent who tried to access things like TV stations on demand, but found they were blocked as well. These "blanket filters" will just get turned off, he said.
That automatic block was rejected by Cameron's ministers earlier this week. Opposition politicians accused the government of "bow[ing] to pressure from the Internet industry, which is opposed to restrictions on the lucrative porn sector," as reported in the Daily Mail. "The fight MUST go on: Furious charities hit out after ministers refuse to order an automatic block on Internet filth," read the headline.
Conservative Member of Parliament Claire Perry will take charge of making sure the system gets implemented. She said the age checks would probably involve using credit card numbers and electoral rolls to make sure kids can't get around the new system.
The UK proposal is reminiscent of the years-long effort to install porn filtering by default in Australia. That plan was finally abandoned in November.
"All this comes back to something really important. It’s not just about the Internet, or modern technology–it’s about childhood," Cameron concluded in his announcement today. "These should be distinct and precious years, full of security and love, untainted by the worries and complexities of adulthood."
Source: Ars Technica
