Online porn to be filtered by default in UK

[nsane.forums]

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."

View: Original Article

[DKT27]

Yay! More censorship. That's exactly what we require. /s

[calguyhunk]

I know I am gonna be alone in this and flame me if you will for saying this, but this isn't censorship, this is regulation. Big difference. Censhorship is when you stop people from living their lives on their terms. Regulation is when your bring sanity to proceedings without infringing on anybody's right. :)

In this case, the adults can still get what they want any time they want it. This regulation is just gonna give others the democratic option of saying no, without taking away anybody's right to say yes. That's true democracy. I have been hoping for this to come to India for years now. Hopefully now we'll have this not just in India, but generally in the rest of the world as well sooner than later. The world will be a safer and better place for children online this way :yes:

[LeetPirate]

This is easy, all the ISP has to do is initially configure all customer routers to use OpenDNS Family Sheild which is preconfigured to block all adult sites and no signup is necessary. People who actually want to access adult websites will just have to use other dns servers on their computers. It's not parental control or censorship, just adult content is off by default so kids won't stumble upon porn during their normal internet usage.

[calguyhunk]

This is easy, all the ISP has to do is initially configure all customer routers to use OpenDNS Family Sheild which is preconfigured to block all adult sites and no signup is necessary. People who actually want to access adult websites will just have to use other dns servers on their computers. It's not parental control or censorship, just adult content is off by default so kids won't stumble upon porn during their normal internet usage.

Any DNS other than the ISP's own is generally notoriously slow. I've tried Google DNS and Open DNS. But surfing generally felt very sluggish and DNS Benchmark bore that out :(

Also, if people have to change settings themselves, that will become de-facto censorship. I think what the ISP's need to do is incorporate the list for themselves (in association with Open DNS) and route the default connections through that unless somebody officially requests for an unregulated web, in which case, just use the regular unfiltered server they've been using thus far :)

[Arachnoid]

My stiff.......er.... upper lip..........is all a quiver with anger over this :rolleyes: :lol:

[DKT27]

Protect pre-teens and new adolescents, fine. But there will be a time the child will come to know how to disable it or would want to disable it. What if parents don't think it should be enabled even when the child reaches 18? I know this cause I've come across parents that totally disabled children from using to internet, even in their front. Because of this, one side, I was learning computers from internet rapidly, and another side I had friends that thought the .exe files actually contained whole games in them. Of course, this filtering may make parents feel safe about the children, and let them surf more freely, but, one, do modern day parents care, two, if they do, do they know when to stop?

[emerglines]

I m with also against :) !!

[calguyhunk]

Protect pre-teens and new adolescents, fine. But there will be a time the child will come to know how to disable it or would want to disable it. What if parents don't think it should be enabled even when the child reaches 18?

Parents will think that their kids should not have access to not just adult sites, but liquor, tobacco, nightclubs and girls (or boys as the case may be) till they are 30 or something. It's in their nature to be protective of their kids and try and preserve their innocence for as long as possible. We will do that too for our kids someday. :) That doesn't mean a thing. If you're earning at 18, you can just show your ID and change your plan from your ISP just like you can subscribe to pay channels on your DTH connection or enable GPRS/3G/4G/ on your mobile handset. :yes:

If on the other hand you're 30 and mooching off of your parents in their basement and can't afford an internet/cable connection of your own, tough luck. The less access you have to pr0n, booze and firearms, the better it is for society :P

[Arachnoid]

The less access you have to pr0n, booze and firearms, the better it is for society :P

Your really making 30 somethings less than happy right now :P :D

[calguyhunk]

If on the other hand you're 30 and mooching off of your parents in their basement and can't afford an internet/cable connection of your own, tough luck. The less access you have to pr0n, booze and firearms, the better it is for society :P

Your really making 30 somethings less than happy right now :P :D

Unemployed, alcoholic, pornophiliac, suicidal/genocidal 30-somethings, you mean :P

[Arachnoid]

Tis lucky Im not 30 something then :D :lol: :blush:

[shahinul]

Less porn is much better. Internet and not only is intoxicated by porn and almost porn stuff. This kind of censorship I agree.

[dcs18]

Online porn to be filtered by default in UK

That's bad news for november_ra1n. <_<

[Sonar]

This is easy, all the ISP has to do is initially configure all customer routers to use OpenDNS Family Sheild which is preconfigured to block all adult sites and no signup is necessary. People who actually want to access adult websites will just have to use other dns servers on their computers. It's not parental control or censorship, just adult content is off by default so kids won't stumble upon porn during their normal internet usage.

Any DNS other than the ISP's own is generally notoriously slow. I've tried Google DNS and Open DNS. But surfing generally felt very sluggish and DNS Benchmark bore that out :(

Also, if people have to change settings themselves, that will become de-facto censorship. I think what the ISP's need to do is incorporate the list for themselves (in association with Open DNS) and route the default connections through that unless somebody officially requests for an unregulated web, in which case, just use the regular unfiltered server they've been using thus far :)

----

No problem with open DNS here.

Back on topic: This may lead to faster connections being put out to us members.

less pron being watched/downloaded = free bandwidth?

I also agree this is a great idea. You guys who arnt 18+ must go out and buy pron mags and hide them under your bed so your parents can find them :D

[emerglines]

For me its great but i see that they will use it make censorship stronger and more faster to implementing there strategies and take over the internet by an iron hand and we will lose our rights over the net , I'm not agreeing with them cause if so i will lose my privacy and liberty that i don't find it over the streets .

That's my aim and i hope they protect kids from those nasty porn sites cause they hurt us and show us imagination cause a real relationship as like "marriage" isn't like what they show us its just fantasy !!

[emerglines]

This is easy, all the ISP has to do is initially configure all customer routers to use OpenDNS Family Sheild which is preconfigured to block all adult sites and no signup is necessary. People who actually want to access adult websites will just have to use other dns servers on their computers. It's not parental control or censorship, just adult content is off by default so kids won't stumble upon porn during their normal internet usage.

Any DNS other than the ISP's own is generally notoriously slow. I've tried Google DNS and Open DNS. But surfing generally felt very sluggish and DNS Benchmark bore that out :(

Also, if people have to change settings themselves, that will become de-facto censorship. I think what the ISP's need to do is incorporate the list for themselves (in association with Open DNS) and route the default connections through that unless somebody officially requests for an unregulated web, in which case, just use the regular unfiltered server they've been using thus far :)

----

No problem with open DNS here.

Back on topic: This may lead to faster connections being put out to us members.

less pron being watched/downloaded = free bandwidth?

I also agree this is a great idea. You guys who arnt 18+ must go out and buy pron mags and hide them under your bed so your parents can find them :D

OpenNic is the same but more it provide domain names :)

http://opennicproject.org/