Universal Porn Filter Coming to the U.K.

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Universal Porn Filter Coming to the U.K.


Pornography on the internet will soon be universally blocked in the U.K. unless users specifically ask their service provider to disable the filter.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that virtually every home in the country will have access to online pornography blocked at the ISP level unless a request to remove the block is made. Cameron said that by the end of 2014, the country's largest internet providers have agreed to contact their existing customers with an "unavoidable decision about whether or not to install family friendly content filters" - unavoidable because customers who fail to respond for any reason will have it switched on by default. New customers will also be required to indicate whether or not they want to access adult content when they subscribe.

The filter will be put into place on mobile phone networks and on the U.K.'s public wi-fi network "wherever children are likely to be present." The government is also looking into creating a "Family Friendly Wi-Fi" symbol for retailers, hotels and other companies who want to let their customers know that their wi-fi network is filtered.

Cameron called upon Google, Bing and other search engines to blacklist sites provided to them by the government, implement pop-ups in place of disabled "child abuse sites" warning viewers that they risk losing their jobs, their family and even access to their children if they persist in their behavior, and to provide "clear routes... to legitimate sites on the web" when potentially illegal searches are conducted. If search engine companies haven't come up with acceptable voluntary solutions by October, he warned that legislation to "force action" will be put into place.

"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," Cameron said in his speech. "I'm not making this speech because I want to moralize or scare-monger, 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."

Cameron also said that new laws will impose the same restrictions on streaming videos on the internet as those sold in retail outlets, give more power to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center to investigate "secretive file-sharing networks," create a secure database of child pornography that will help police trace illegal content and the people who look at it, and criminalize the possession of "rape porn."

Source: BBC [https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-internet-and-pornography-prime-minister-calls-for-action]


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Saucycarpdog

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Sep 30, 2009
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Well, glad I don't live in the UK right now

[sub]of course, this is probably going to happen in the US soon...[/sub]
 

idarkphoenixi

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May 2, 2011
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Nothing get's under my skin more than a politician hiding behind children. Notice, he mentioned "secretive file-sharing networks". Now I wonder what he's talking about when he says "file-sharing"...At least have the guts to say what this is really about.

This fucking country sometimes...I wish more than anything I had the kind of money to move out, but unfortunately I'm stuck with a ridiculously conservative nation that doesn't give a single iota to what "I" want.

But hey, it's all about the children, everything we do is to protect the children, right?

Don't worry kids, you can still see naked ladies on page 3 newspapers. He's already specifically said he's not touching the newspapers, which makes it all the more obvious this has nothing to do with porn.
 

Legion

Were it so easy
Oct 2, 2008
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They tried passing this before, but with the idea being that everybody with an internet connection would be left as they are, but people signing up for one would have to opt-in.

Like most of his parties policies, it's a knee-jerk reaction to try and win votes, rather than something they actually give a damn about. They see this as winning the parent vote after the recent Jimmy Saville and similar BBC scandals as well as the recent killing of April Jones.

I suspect that once they discover how difficult this will be to enforce, or how it does absolutely nothing to magically stop teenagers thinking about sex and criminals committing crimes, they will backtrack like they have done on almost all of their other major policies.

Capitano Segnaposto said:
Okay, I am confused. Since when was porn considered something that would ruin a child? I remember seeing my first porn mag at the age of 7. I didn't become a mass murderer or serial rapist.
The reasons they give are the increasing amount of kids/teenagers with mobiles sexting, taking nude pictures, exposing themselves on webcams etc. They are saying that the fact pornography is so easily accessible is warping children's perception of what is normal and acceptable behaviour.

Heaven forbid they spend the money on better sex education and such. Or parents doing their damn jobs and not buying their twelve year old an iphone and a laptop with a webcam.
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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I imagine this will work just as well as their previous plan to block access to The Pirate Bay and other file sharing sites. That's 'not at all' if you were wondering.

The whole spiel about it protecting kids is nonsense too, if parents want to keep their kids away from porn then they can pay for some nanny software or supervise their kids whilst they are on the web. The government don't need to force everyone to hold their hand in the name of 'innocence'.
 

Ne1butme

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Nov 16, 2009
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I don't care that much about porn, but i'll be damned if i'd let the gov't decide what i can't look at. This is not the same as blocking child porn or biological/chemical weapons recipes. You can't get a waiver to look at those. Legal porn isn't inherently dangerous and the gov't shouldn't require people to ask for access to legal content.
 

thesilentman

What this
Jun 14, 2012
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... *Sigh*.

Yet another politician not knowing what's happening. But knowing politicians, they fully know, and don't give a damn about the consequences of this.

I would just say that this IS porn we're talking about and leave it at that, but the fact that this could lead the way into censorship of more information saddens me.

I think I'll start preparing the VPNs and seven proxies for when this hits the States... -_-
 

Falterfire

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Jul 9, 2012
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Capitano Segnaposto said:
Okay, I am confused. Since when was porn considered something that would ruin a child? I remember seeing my first porn mag at the age of 7. I didn't become a mass murderer or serial rapist.
Yeah, but I bet you now play those evil murder-simulators like Starcraft, don't you? You're not a murderer, but you are a murderer-in-training. It's probably only a matter of time before you snap and go on a killing spree, just like every gamer.
 

carpathic

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Oct 5, 2009
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First cameras on very nearly ever corner in the UK and now this big brother move? Very interesting times we are living in right now.

I imagine it will be about 2 minutes before hackers figure out how to bypass this badboy...
 
Dec 14, 2009
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The biggest wanker in the country wants to ban porn.

There's something ironic about that.

Just another example of the nanny state taking responsibility from stupid parents so the rest of us have to suffer. Why an opt out system? Why not make it an opt in system, it makes no goddamn sense.
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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Capitano Segnaposto said:
Okay, I am confused. Since when was porn considered something that would ruin a child? I remember seeing my first porn mag at the age of 7. I didn't become a mass murderer or serial rapist.
Porn is the front/distraction being used to bring in active web screening to the UK, so the government gets to make a list of all the websites it doesn't like and then force ISPs (and search providers) to block UK users from ever seeing them (without any kind of due process). If you want to see anything on the banned list, you will have to called up your ISP, hand over your name and number, no way that will ever be abused, no sir.

Whilst Cameron is talking big on violent porn and paedophilia, the bill will apply to everything, yay freedom of speech! If I were one of these ISPs, I would erase Cameron and the conservative party from the internet right about now to demonstrate the practical use of this legislation. Google bomb them to oblivion already!
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Isn't Cameron the guy who's butchering the UK's health system (NHS, I believe it's called) and who is also cutting funding for schools?

How the hell can he possibly say he's protecting the children with a straight face?

Also, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about these things. Probably am. Get most of my info from UK friends who complain about it, so yeah.
 

Caffeine_Bombed

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Feb 13, 2012
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This isn't in relation to the article, but Cameron has this sort of face you wouldn't stop punching...

In relation to the article - I'm all for blocking access to rape and child porn, but simply saying "it's on or off" is a half-arsed plan. I'm no computer wiz, but I think most of us know that there are ways to get round these sorts of things (and kids/teenagers ain't as stupid as you think). Parents need to put in the effort too, rather then relying on some magic anti-porn button.
 

Tom_green_day

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Jan 5, 2013
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Article about how porn is bad, has a dick in the picture. (I can't claim responsibility for this line unfortunately )
So he wants to stop corroding childhood, but because of him I have to pay 3-4 times as much for university? Great. To be fair, he's targeting the more violent and disgusting stuff that only really hardcore watchers like, and I think that's fine. I expect this ruling will see many people off the internet and into bars and clubs however, might be interesting.
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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Irridium said:
Isn't Cameron the guy who's butchering the UK's health system
Sooner or later the NHS will need butchering, it's too big and too corrupt to continue as is.

The Problem is that Cameron, Osbourne and Pickles have no plan and no competence, it's like asking a group of spot welders to remove a tumor from a living patient and giving them chainsaws to do it with... messy.
 

Smooth Operator

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Oct 5, 2010
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And so it begins, enforcing ever more censorship little by little under false pretenses, heck not even pretenses he open with a damn right threat to your lives, if there ever was a time to protest and riot...