David Cameron Bans Porn

To anyone living in the UK this is old news, but others might not be aware. I was hoping someone might have posted a link to the story while I was away, but all I got here was tumbleweed.

Here's the original announcement from July 22nd:

Quote :

Most households in the UK will have pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they choose to receive it, David Cameron has announced.

In addition, the prime minister said possessing online pornography depicting rape would become illegal in England and Wales - in line with Scotland.

Mr Cameron warned in a speech that access to online pornography was "corroding childhood".

The new measures will apply to both existing and new customers.

Mr Cameron also called for some "horrific" internet search terms to be "blacklisted", meaning they would automatically bring up no results on websites such as Google or Bing.

He told the BBC he expected a "row" with service providers who, he said in his speech, were "not doing enough to take responsibility" despite having a "moral duty" to do so.

He also warned he could have to "force action" by changing the law and that, if there were "technical obstacles", firms should use their "greatest brains" to overcome them.

'Innocence'

In his speech, Mr Cameron said family-friendly filters would be automatically selected for all new customers by the end of the year - although they could choose to switch them off.

And millions of existing computer users would be contacted by their internet providers and told they must decide whether to use or not use "family-friendly filters" to restrict adult material.

The filters would apply to all devices linked to the affected home Wi-Fi network and across the public Wi-Fi network "wherever children are likely to be present".

Customers who do not click on either option - accepting or declining - will have filters activated by default, Tory MP Claire Perry, Mr Cameron's adviser on the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood, told the BBC.

The UK's biggest internet service providers have agreed to the filters scheme meaning it should cover 95% of homes.

Other measures announced by the prime minister included:

• New laws so videos streamed online in the UK will be subject to the same restrictions as those sold in shops
  
• Search engines having until October to introduce further measures to block illegal content
  
• Experts from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre being given more powers to examine secretive file-sharing networks
  
• A secure database of banned child pornography images gathered by police across the country will be used to trace illegal content and the paedophiles viewing it
  
• Mr Cameron also called for warning pages to pop up with helpline numbers when people try to search for illegal content.
  

He said: "I want to talk about the internet, the impact it is having on the innocence of our children, how online pornography is corroding childhood.

"And how, in the darkest corners of the internet, there are things going on that are a direct danger to our children, and that must be stamped out.

"I'm not making this speech because I want to moralise or scaremonger, but because I feel profoundly as a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come. This is, quite simply, about how we protect our children and their innocence."

But former Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre boss Jim Gamble told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was important to "get to the root cause" of illegal pornography, by catching those responsible for creating it.

He added: "You need a real deterrent, not a pop-up that paedophiles will laugh at."

But Ms Perry argued filters would make a difference, saying that the killers of schoolgirls April Jones and Tia Sharp had accessed legal pornography before moving on to images of child abuse.

She added: "It's impossible to buy this material in a sex shop... but it's possible to have it served up on a computer every day."

In his speech, Mr Cameron said possession of online pornography depicting rape would be made illegal.

Existing legislation only covers publication of pornographic portrayals of rape, as opposed to possession.

"Possession of such material is already an offence in Scotland but because of a loophole in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, it is not an offence south of the border," Mr Cameron said.

"Well I can tell you today we are changing that. We are closing the loophole - making it a criminal offence to possess internet pornography that depicts rape."

The move has been welcomed by women's groups and academics who had campaigned to have "rape porn" banned.

Holly Dustin, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the group was "delighted".

"The coalition government has pledged to prevent abuse of women and girls, so tackling a culture that glorifies abuse is critical for achieving this," she said.

"The next step is working with experts to ensure careful drafting of the law and proper resourcing to ensure the law is enforced fully."

'No safe place'

Mr Cameron, who has faced criticism from Labour over cuts to Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre's funding, insisted the centre's experts and police would be given the powers needed to keep pace with technological changes on the internet.

"Let me be clear to any offender who might think otherwise: there is no such thing as a safe place on the internet to access child abuse material," he said.

A spokesman for Google said: "We have a zero tolerance attitude to child sexual abuse imagery. Whenever we discover it, we respond quickly to remove and report it.

"We recently donated $5m (£3.3m) to help combat this problem and are committed to continuing the dialogue with the government on these issues."

According to some experts, "default on" can create a dangerous sense of complacency, says BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

He says internet service providers would dispute Mr Cameron's interpretation of the new measures, insisting they did not want to be seen as censors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401076


The wider reach of the default filters is covered in this Huffington Post article:

Quote :

The United Kingdom's new internet filters promise to block much more than just pornography, according to a report by the digital advocacy organization Open Rights Group.

Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron announced online porn would soon become automatically blocked in order to "protect children and their innocence." The filters will be implemented by the UK's major internet service providers, which encompass 95% of British web users.

Based on conversations with several ISPs, Open Rights Group says the new "parental controls" will reach far beyond pornography. By default, the controls will block access to "violent material," "extremist and terrorist related content," "anorexia and eating disorder websites," and "suicide related websites."

In addition, the new settings will censor websites that mention alcohol or smoking. The filter will even block "web forums" and "esoteric material," though Open Rights Group does not specify what these categories would include.

The Independent notes the filters implemented by the four main private internet providers will be "default-on," meaning users must explicitly choose to turn them off. Users can decide to keep certain filters while turning others off.

Making the filters default means most people will keep them, according to Open Rights Group Executive Director Jim Killock. "We know that people stick with defaults: this is part of the idea behind 'nudge theory' and 'choice architecture' that is popular with Cameron."

According to Cameron, the new parental control settings will be turned on for all new broadband subscribers "by the end of the year."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/uk-internet-filter-block-more-than-porn_n_3670771.html

The UK - everyone's favourite Father Knows Best State! When did the UK trend of politicians forcing their morality down your throat start anyhow?

It's ironic that this legilsation was brought in by a wanker.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

The UK - everyone's favourite Father Knows Best State! When did the UK trend of politicians forcing their morality down your throat start anyhow?

Long before my time. Even Thatcher did it with the Video Recordings Act of 1984.

CJB wrote:

It's ironic that this legilsation was brought in by a wanker.

 

I think Cameron must reckon that people will be too embarassed to 'opt in' to view adult material ... WRONG! I will be; I live alone, so therefore am the only one who uses my computer. There is no danger of children being corrupted by what I have made a personal and informed decision to look at online.

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but one wonders if those who think this is the 'thin end of the wedge' in terms of greater Governmental control of 'net content could be onto something.

You poor fuckers.

I think Rick Santorum said that he wanted to do this during his presidential campaign.

Quote :

A man using the British Library's wi-fi network was denied access to an online version of Shakespeare's Hamlet because the text contained "violent content". The British Library said the fault was caused by a newly installed wi-fi service from a third-party provider. One security expert said the incident highlighted the "dysfunction" of internet filters.
"We've received feedback from a number of users about sites which were blocked, but shouldn't have been. We're in the process of tweaking the service to unblock these sites."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23680689

Control wrote:

I think Rick Santorum said that he wanted to do this during his presidential campaign.

Individjal liburteh!™

Quote :

Parliamentary attempts to access online pornography revealed
Daily average of more than 800 'attempts to access websites categorised as pornography'

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/03/parliamentary-network-pornography-websites-figures

Sometimes politicians seem almost human.

Not that we needed more proof that they're a shower of wankers, but there you go.

Classic Daily Mail cockup. Literally.

The Fail is leading the antiporn campaign in Britain yet is inadvertently running a picture of a woman sucking a man's dick. Someone's going to get the sack so enjoy it while, um, it's still up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415578/Watching-porn-DOES-make-men-sexist--men-mean-begin-with.html

Hilarious. "That's no lollipop," says one comment. :P

Ironically the real abuse perpetrated via the internet is not porn related at all but rather arises from the broad brush and thoroughly ignorant measures governments take to manipulate the masses. Here they work tirelessly to attack a few hundred cases of potential abuse across the world by abusing the personal liberty and freedom of many millions from increased censorship and control.

Sadly though it may be Cameron's name at the top, getting rid of him has no effect, this level of ignorance and self righteous conceit is synonymous with government of any colour. George Orwell simply got the date wrong.

That last post is spot on. I'd only add that we are seeing also an increasing number of rape and abuse cases coming to court when there is no physical or forensic evidence whatsoever. I suddenly find I'm living in the new Salem.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/08/beeban-kidron-inreallife-interview-teenagers

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