The government is planning to block internet pornography by forcing Internet Service Providers to restrict access to adult material, in a bid to stop children accessing unsuitable images.
Communications minister Ed Vaizey told The Sunday Times he will hold talks “in the near future” with BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media to discuss changing the way pornography is accessed in the home.
ISPs have previously said that a porn block will not be possible, pointing out that it will be massively expensive and very difficult to implement.
However Vaizey was adamant that children must be protected from the scourge of porn, telling the paper:
“This is a very serious matter. I think it is very important that it’s the ISPs that come up with solutions to protect children. I’m hoping they 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.”
Despite their previous negative reaction to the proposed pornography block, some ISPs seem to be coming around to the idea.
TalkTalk’s executive director of strategy and regulation, Andrew Heaney, told The Sunday Times that, if ISPs don’t start restricting porn access, “then maybe they should be leant on”.
Virgin Media already blocks access to porn on mobiles but not in the home, where children’s internet use can be monitored by parents.
BT told the BBC: “There are many legal, consumer rights and technical issues that would need to be considered before any new Web-blocking policy was developed.”
Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Ispa industry body, is against the move, telling the BBC: “Ispa firmly believes that controls on children’s access to the internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPs provide, rather than being imposed top-down.
“ISPs currently block child abuse content which is illegal and widely regarded as abhorrent. Blocking lawful pornography content is less clear cut, will lead to the blocking of access to legitimate content and is only effective in preventing inadvertent access.”
Worries are that blocking porn “at source” is the slippery slope to internet censorship.
What do you think – should we be safeguarding against our sprogs looking at filth online? Or is freedom of speech more important? And is it really that easy to define what constitutes pornography?
