SausageOnline pornography to be blocked by default, PM announces
David Cameron: "In the balance between freedom and responsibility we have neglected our responsibility to children" 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.
Seven years ago David Cameron told a Google conference that politicians should encourage companies to change, not over-regulate them. Today, he announced he had reached agreement with the four biggest ISPs on pornography filters, after some behind the scenes tussling. But he hinted that if search engines like Google didn't agree to a blacklist of search terms, he would legislate. From Downing St, he can supplement the art of persuasion with the smack of firm government.
Back in his opposition days, Cameron made waves presenting himself as a man on the side of parents against firms that sold chocolates at checkouts and children's bikinis. If he can mould a similar image in Downing St, as a PM doing battle with big business on behalf of fellow parents, he will be more than happy.
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."The coalition government has pledged to prevent abuse of women and girls, so tackling a culture that glorifies abuse is critical for achieving this”
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.
Gotta admit, as a US citizen its hard for me to wrap my head around this with respect to its implications to citizens of the UK. Personally I think it's rather scary as the government is saying they have the right to censor the internet, decide what's appropriate for you to view, and install filters on your computer remotely whether you like it or not. If you want to be able to view this content then you have to register and how long do you think that list is going to stay secret? Combined with cracking down on encryption methods you have to imagine that VPN/Tor/Proxies are going to be made illegal to in short order. It's just flat out internet censorship, a power grab to put the government back in control of it all. Hell, just the technical implementation of it. How do you decide what's a porno website to ban and what's not? Who gets to decide? Do you ban Deviant Art because some people post nudes there? Do you ban amazon for selling 50 Shades of Grey?
I'd love to say, "No way this could happen here," but given how utterly complacent Americans are the moment someone waves the "Terrorism" or "Protect the Children" banner I think you could probably sail this right on through Congress, the 1st Amendment be damned.
The older I get the more certain I am that Democracy is a rosy eyed experiment and Autocracy is the norm for human existence.
