Internet Porn Block Coming? U.K. Conservatives Propose 'Opt-In' To Protect Children

Conservative British lawmakers want Internet service providers to automatically block customers' access to pornography websites.

Designed to protect young children from accessing mature content, a block on porn would require customers to "opt in" (request access) to illicit websites, British communications minister Ed Vaizey told The Sunday Times, according to PC Pro.

Broadband firms like BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk are reportedly willing to cooperate with such a proposal and are among several major Internet service providers that will meet with Vaizey "in the near future," The Guardian reports.

"I'm hoping they [the providers] 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," Vaizey said, according to The Guardian.

Conservative MP Claire Perry, who favors more stringent Internet controls, has indicated a disparity between the percentage of children who have accessed pornography and the percentage of parents who know how to restrict their child's access to such sites, The Guardian says.

Writes Mashable,

It's a slippery slope the British government will be navigating here. Who will decide precisely what porn is? Will ISPs be required to install bare-skin-detecting software, and if so, who will pay for that? Will instructional videos such as breast-feeding demonstrations be considered porn? And how will British residents feel about adding their names to a list of people who specifically asked for access to pornography?

Indeed, ISP Timico's chief technology officer, Trefor Davies, told the BBC that this measure would not be practical or cost-effective. Furthermore, Davies said, "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."

Comments

[Blackorpheus]

08:27 PM on 12/22/2010

How could the UK have gotten worse since Thatcher? Well, it seems to have happened.

[roninroshi]

01:31 PM on 12/22/2010

Theres more porn in DC...than on the net!

[meijiame]

11:10 AM on 12/22/2010

If only there were a team, say of two people, who's were already tasked with the job of protecting and raising children. Then, the rest of us wouldn't have to live in a world increasingly remade by disney and nerf in order to save unsupervised brats from themselves..alas.

[mariusvinchi]

08:06 AM on 12/22/2010

And what IS pornography and WHO is the judge? My kids high school installed a program to block certain sites and searches. It lasted one term! They realized that students couldn't search for "breast cancer," and other biology related information.
The simple solution is to create .XXX and leave it to parents to block.
Never happen though. Its to easy and would actually work. Neither a government strongsuit....

[lvdragonlady]

12:28 AM on 12/22/2010

Keep a watch everyone, because the GOP is going to be oh so against this one.

[PhillyKing]

10:25 AM on 12/23/2010

yes... govt over-reach... they're 100% against that right??? I cant wait till they condemn this kinda action... *grabs popcorn* :-)

[King Cashaw]

09:19 PM on 12/21/2010

Trust me, if child proof caps will not stop them, this will not either. Plus while looking for non porn, my kids find some pretty good sites.

[Chyna Doll]

06:59 PM on 12/21/2010

this annoys me i mean come on there is war starvation etc all over the world and ppl are worried a kid might see a boob i think i have lost all faith in ppl

[joemac1114]

12:40 PM on 12/22/2010

How true, we worry about silly stuff while the world burns around us. Fanned and Faved.

[MrVee]

06:48 PM on 12/21/2010

A Block proposed?
Probably will have a same result of me "proposing" to Sanaa Lathan. lol.

[BruntLIVE]

06:30 PM on 12/21/2010

porn = todays anti christ

[Max Shaw]

03:58 PM on 12/21/2010

Phew! As long as its not the US...lol.

[Blackorpheus]

01:34 PM on 12/21/2010

Well, we knew it was coming. Surprised it has taken this long. The only "pornography" permitted will be devastating wars, political opportunism, and corporate greed--usually functioning together.

[joemac1114]

12:41 PM on 12/22/2010

No limits on killing video, etc, bare boobs you should do time.

[Blackorpheus]

08:26 PM on 12/22/2010

Bare your financial teeth--you should do time.

[popart]

07:39 AM on 12/21/2010

only people who have voted in the most recent elections should be allowed acess to pornographic internet sites...this would greatly increase the number of people who actually vote or it would drastically lower the number of adults who can watch porno on the web.

[Slagfish]

06:27 AM on 12/21/2010

My disappointment with Obama is palpable. I was really excited when he was elected. I thought we had finally gotten someone who would do the right thing for the working/middle class. How wrong I was. Rev. Wright warned us that he was just a politician. His administration is going to have a long lasting negative effect on the 90 percent who make up the middle, working, working poor class. He has begun the process of unraveling SS, Medicare, Medicaid with the payroll holiday which like the Obama tax cut for super rich will never be reinstated. I don't think we've ever had a Democrat President who could so easily be rolled by the Republications. He's done to the American people what the republicans could never have accomplished without him.

[drbslurp]

06:33 AM on 12/21/2010

And this has what to do with British politicians trying to outlaw porn?

[Slagfish]

06:38 AM on 12/21/2010

You're right. I have no excuses.

[nowhiz]

05:37 AM on 12/21/2010

But then what will I do while I'm stuck at Heathrow Airport for days?????

[paradoja]

03:23 AM on 12/21/2010

Parents these days have gotten pathetically lazy. First the happy meal deal in Cali now this...lol.

To "on the go" in this fast paced instant gratification smartphone, wired, digital world to raise your kid... Fear not... They will.