UK plans to block all porn in effort to ‘protect children’

By Daniel Tencer
Sunday, December 19th, 2010 -- 1:01 pm

Fears over Internet freedom as UK plans to expand web censorship

As Britain finds itself in the middle of the political maelstrom surrounding WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, and the debate over Internet freedom resulting from his arrest on an Interpol warrant, British authorities are stepping up their efforts to wield more control over the Internet.

The UK's coalition government is discussing a plan that would see all pornographic websites automatically blocked in an effort to keep children from accessing them.

Under the proposed plan, which appears to have the backing of Britain's major Internet service providers, the government would provide ISPs a list of objectionable websites, which the ISPs would automatically block. An Internet surfer would then have to "opt in" to be allowed to see the content.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey says it's a useful step in preventing the premature sexualization of children. He cites a report earlier this year that showed three in 10 British children aged 10 had seen pornography online.

"We are not coming at this from an anti-porn perspective. We just want to make sure children aren't stumbling across things we don't want them to see," Conservative member of parliament Claire Perry said.

But critics say it's one more step in an effort by governments around the world to seize control of the Internet. They say the system would inevitably be used to restrict access to non-pornographic websites.

The British website block list, if it's implemented, would be based on an existing filter mechanism that blocks access to child pornography sites. That system, put into place several years ago, is being hailed as a resounding success in reducing access to illegal porn.

Internet activists point out that these block lists have already been abused in some countries. In Australia, for instance, a government block list -- which officials said would be used only to block illegal content -- was found to have targeted religious and political websites. The list was even used to block parts of WikiLeaks.

(Final implementation of the "Great Firewall of Australia" has been delayed until after the 2011 election.)

Some activists argue that the efforts to protect children are simply a politically palatable way to get the public to accept government control over the Internet.

However, in the US, government plans to take greater control over Internet content have been focused on copyright protection, rather than children.

A proposed law before Congress this fall would see the government granted powers to block access to websites that are deemed to have infringed on copyright law.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) has been criticized as a heavy-handed attempt at censorship that would allow officials to block access to an entire site if an instance of copyright infringement is found. So, for example, the entire YouTube domain could theoretically be blocked if a video on the site is found to be violating copyright.

Although COICA was blocked from passing through the lame-duck session of Congress by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), it may yet be revived in the new congressional session.

Meanwhile, Britain's Internet service providers are showing signs they support the effort at creating a porn site block list.

Andrew Heaney of wireless carrier TalkTalk said his company's objective was "not to do what the politicians want us but to do what is right for our customers." But, he added, "If other companies aren't going to do it of their own volition, then maybe they should be leant on."

Some activists argue that the efforts to protect children are simply a politically palatable way to get the public to accept government control over the Internet.

I don't see what's harmful about children seeing porn anyways? Have their been studies on this? Surely if it was harmful to kids then it would be at least a little harmful to adults.

Lol sorry, I find this humorous... You think it's wrong for parents to tell their children that Santa exists but don't see any problem with parents letting their children watch porn...
Ok...

Lol sorry, I find this humorous... You think it's wrong for parents to tell their children that Santa exists but don't see any problem with parents letting their children watch porn...
Ok...

Letting children watch porn hasn't been proven to be harmful in any way.

Demonstrate this.

I could see how free access to porn would be damaging to a child.

Some would argue that it is.

I now watching porn while I was young really gave me some wrong ideas. Granted the first smut I saw was John Holmes when I was in the 5th grade, I thought that was supposed to be the "average" and had a terrible self image for years until I found out he was just a freak of nature. That and I thought the height of romance was supposed to be 8 guys working a woman like a Nascar pit crew...

People only think porn is bad for children because its their culture. It's no different than religious beliefs... just believe it because everyone else does. There's absolutely no logic that says viewing sex hurts children. Violence on tv is 10000x worse and yet this is legal.

People only think porn is bad for children because its their culture. It's no different than religious beliefs... just believe it because everyone else does. There's absolutely no logic that says viewing sex hurts children. Violence on tv is 10000x worse and yet this is legal.

What is illogical is making such statements without doing any research on the subject.

I don't have to, it's common sense, especially since people didn't used to wear much clothing.

edit:

I'm also not going to search this topic while I'm at work.

ROFL!!!! Hahahahahaha!! Dude, walking around nude is vastly different from watching people ****. Which one do you think porn is??

I don't have to, it's common sense, especially since people didn't used to wear much clothing.

edit:

I'm also not going to search this topic while I'm at work.

People only think porn is bad for children because its their culture. It's no different than religious beliefs... just believe it because everyone else does. There's absolutely no logic that says viewing sex hurts children. Violence on tv is 10000x worse and yet this is legal.

No logic huh? I'm quite certain that if I were to let my kids watch porn I would not only be charged and fined with something and do jail time, but my kids would be taken away from me permanently.