UK to block all online porn later this year

[Casinomeister]

I find it abhorrent whenever a government tries to make moral decisions for its people. As was mentioned earlier, every casino browser (and most routers btw) have their own "nanny" devices. This is an individual choice, not a government's.

If you're worried about your kids watching porn, convince them beforehand it's wrong - it's against your morals and ethics. We need better supervised households, not a better supervised Internet.

 

[Richas]

See? The internet censorship cancer spreads fast:

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I like how it went from "doing it to block children from accessing porn" to "blocking child porn". Old trick of using shocking words to pass her point. Because if you're against censorship, you're pro child porn, right? Bitch.

Every government will want a piece of that pie now. How easy it will be to censor additional stuff once they already have a foot in the door. It always starts with a noble cause, like "saving the children". Oh we've seen that one before...

Oh for goodness sake chill. There is no justification for chucking terms like "bitch" around.

This is not some huge leap in terms of censorship. Today people can opt in to filtering, tomorrow it will be opt in to adult content. that is not censorship it is a small change of default settings.

When i got my Vodaphone 3G dongle that I wanted to play online poker with it came with a default on adult content that included barring gambling sites. My only problem with this is that I could not (3 years ago) just opt in to the adult services I wanted, gambling, and not also OK porn sites at the same time. It was fine as I have a family filter on the o/s anyway but expecting all parents to be perfect and also tech savvy by default is a strange view. There is nothing wrong or state heavy about having adults opt in to adult content.

I can't say that calling Vodaphone to get the bar lifted was embarrassing, certainly less embarrassing than buying a mag in a newsagents or going to a sex shop to buy an R rated video.

The state allowing consumer choice via ratings like the BBFC is a good thing - the BBFC app is invaluable to me with a 12 year old and 10 year old in terms of imposing parental control on what they see. Having a default of 18+ (or R) material being opt in is not a huge civil liberties or state control issue.

Neither is it a solution to the proliferation of porn that has altered how young people see sex and themselves. Today the young see simple things like pubic hair as abnormal or dirty because the porn industry has eradicated it from most content. Views on bodies and behaviour amongst the very young has been changed by online porn. That may or may not be a terrible thing but when i let my 10 and 12 year olds stay at their friends house or see their friends mobile phones a default of no (less) adult content unless the person paying has opted in seems fine. It allows adults to opt in and so is not censorship but it does make access a bit more difficult for ten year olds.

 

[Cleveland]

This is not some huge leap in terms of censorship. Today people can opt in to filtering, tomorrow it will be opt in to adult content. that is not censorship it is a small change of default settings.

You view these changes as small. Too many small changes leads too bigger issues. It's a slippery slope and at the top of that slope sits your "small changes." As they roll down hill they do indeed get bigger. Too much government control is a bad thing. Too much government power is a bad thing.

I know of a number of laws that were attempted and as of yet failed in terms of censorship and / or controlling the "people" because you feel your way is best when it comes to moral / personal decisions. Not a good road to go down.

 

[Simmo!]

There's some confusion here I think. This is designed to make it harder to view what are essentially either illegal acts or the depiction of illegal acts. And being illegal, they are already censored. So this isn't actually censoring anything new: you can still get porn if you want it.

I initially saw this as censorship and am not a fan of that. But it's not - at least, it's not new. It's just tightening existing laws essentially. In fact, the more I think about it the more I like it and it might well be a good idea to go down this opt-in route for things like gambling.

 

[AC7X]

Sounds like the first step towards an Orwellian dystopia to me... I won't add anything else because it's all been said already. It's not that I care that much about accessing porn (although who doesn't enjoy the "big natural breasts" section of a tube site?!), it's more about the precedent being set and the eroding of our freedom.

This country is going to the dogs bla bla bla...

 

[SubzeroWins]

i wish UK women good luck, dealing with all those mega horny guys around them
stupid measure IMO, why don't they concentrate their efforts on, say, child pornography

 

[vinylweatherman]

If the content is illegal, it should be a police crackdown, not a change of filter defaults, that is pushed for. It looks like a taking of the easy route of hiding a problem rather than tackling it. It could lead to a situation where many people feel that porn content available online has reduced, and illegal porn more or less eradicated. Instead, an underground of users will flourish out of sight of the mainstream because the filters will be no obstacle to them, and with the issue out of the spotlight, less scrutiny from the police, media, and public over what is going on can be expected.

Compulsory internet censorship is already a fact in the UK, with numerous court orders having been granted that forces ISPs to block certain sites and services, and with no right of opt-in available. This has already shown how ineffective the censorship is, as those who want to opt in have found unofficial means of bypassing the censorship filter, and the same will happen with porn.

A better overall solution would be to ensure that children are educated about the dark side of the internet so that they can handle it, and know that they can ask the adults close to them for guidance without the fear of getting into trouble merely for knowing about a "taboo" subject like sex and exploitation.

 

[mattsgame]

I can't watch most videos on BBC.uk but I don't call that censorship because it's not. You pay big bucks for the BBC, I don't. Therefore you can watch them and I can't. Same with the US, except that it's advertisers' money instead of public money. Can't compare that with government censorship. At all.

oh yes you can Netflix is a fine example of what we are not "supposed" to be able to enjoy in AUS but I sit down every night and stream a few doco's or shows. (ok this is not exactly porn but my point is below)

This is the problem with anyone trying to block anything, it does not work! It looks good for votes but simply does not work, there is always a way around it and those that want to do it will know how and it spreads like wildfire.

 

[vinylweatherman]

oh yes you can Netflix is a fine example of what we are not "supposed" to be able to enjoy in AUS but I sit down every night and stream a few doco's or shows. (ok this is not exactly porn but my point is below)

This is the problem with anyone trying to block anything, it does not work! It looks good for votes but simply does not work, there is always a way around it and those that want to do it will know how and it spreads like wildfire.

That is just stupid, Netflix charge a fee anyway, so it's not the same as Pirate Bay. It shows a disjointed effort by the media industry that is actually DRIVING traffic to unofficial sources such as Pirate Bay. They don't realise that whilst Netflix is blocked in many countries, the advertising, blogging, and information about the service is not. Aussies will be seeing endless reviews and adverts for Netflix and other such services as they browse the net, especially since many big companies default to US based websites with US advertising and content, so they will see what the service offers, and look for a way to get it.

Pirate Bay and other such sites are not really blocked in any case, they have been driven partly underground. Shut one down, and two more pop up.