Online blocking of Pornography in the UK it was announced today - views on this

[Girl-Afraid]

Here's the link to the story:

http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401076

I would love to hear people's opinions on this.

I'm in two minds about it, personally, an adult person should be able to consent to whatever they wish to view (provided it doesn't go against laws I.e. child or animal porn).

On the other hand, it will make finding porn unnecessarily, extremely difficult and this will be a blessing for many parents as they wonder what their child may stumble across with a simple search on Google.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Hey England friends,

If you decide to live in California when you move I'll give you a tour of LA. PM me.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

This is a difficult one. On one hand I do believe boys are being given a false impression of adult sexuality and that that is potentially dangerous, not to mention being potentially profoundly bloody disappointing.

On the other side of the argument if parents are so stupid as to be unable to regulate their children's online activity themselves then whose fault is that?

Finally, and this is the clincher for me, government across the world are already far too interested in regulating the internet. Some are very successful as it is. China, for example.

What starts today as a simple ban on certain keywords can easily be extended, and that is without the idiocy of certain police officers' interpretation of what they think the new law might say. In the early days of the internet the people of the English town of Scunthorpe had great difficulty.

These matters are best left in the hands of parents.

 

[Girl-Afraid]

This is a difficult one. On one hand I do believe boys are being given a false impression of adult sexuality and that that is potentially dangerous, not to mention being potentially profoundly bloody disappointing.

On the other side of the argument if parents are so stupid as to be unable to regulate their children's online activity themselves then whose fault is that?

Finally, and this is the clincher for me, government across the world are already far too interested in regulating the internet. Some are very successful as it is. China, for example.

What starts today as a simple ban on certain keywords can easily be extended, and that is without the idiocy of certain police officers' interpretation of what they think the new law might say. In the early days of the internet the people of the English town of Scunthorpe had great difficulty.

These matters are best left in the hands of parents.

Fair points but they are also saying it could stop child abusers, as many peadophiles looked up child abuse and child porn images online before going and committing the act themselves.

 

[realitybites]

Strongly disagree with it. It is an invasion of privacy, pure and simple. If the default position is to be blocked (use filters), then those who have it unblocked, are virtually saying, we want to watch porn in our household. This tells the internet companies who may be watching porn. Also, what if your partner disapproves of you viewing porn... for ridiculous reasons... but you want to indulge every once in a while, in secrecy (is this really a crime?) Well, you won't be able to do that now. If you unblock it s/he will know. It's nobody's business but your own.

All businesses and public access sites will be blocked, I'm certain. Wireless connections that are unblocked will become hot commodities. Hey, lets hang out at Joe's house... his wireless isn't filtered. Or, let's stay at the Grand Plaza, they don't have filters on their wireless.

I also don't like that certain words are being censored. What's next folks?

All that said, I do agree with this...

...boys are being given a false impression of adult sexuality and that that is potentially dangerous, not to mention being potentially profoundly bloody disappointing.

I think parental guidance and education are what are needed.

My son has viewed porn. But he is not addicted. And he has a healthy view of human sexuality. Because he was raised with certain values. He knows porn is not representative of the real world or real human relations. It is fantasy. Like the movies.

And lastly, making rape scenes illegal... real rape or assimilated? What is next? Whipping scenes? Any kind of depictions of submission and domination? This is a slippery slope.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

Fair points but they are also saying it could stop child abusers, as many peadophiles looked up child abuse and child porn images online before going and committing the act themselves.

Although both these policies came to light yesterday they are actually not directly connected. The opt in for porn is for general adult pornography.

The child porn issue, the part pretty much anyone agrees with is slightly different. That would prevent certain search words or phrases, and in some coverage I've read would include a government warning coming up on your screen if you attempted to search those terms. Already they are looking to add certain non child porn searches to this list, particularly those covering violence against women.

It's moot how much good this would do. Most of this material is in the deep internet or exchanged via torrent apparently. Neither of those points of access would be affected by the proposed legislation. The truth is if you want to find that stuff you'll find a way to circumvent any barriers to it.

On the radio this morning a couple of website owners rang up to mention issues they had already encountered. A woman who ran a jewellry site found it was inaccessible to many potential clients because of the amount of bare flesh, arms, wrists, necklines, on display. Another ran an amateur nature site. His pages on bluetits and their feathery cousins meant no-one could access the site.

I've been online for getting on for twenty years and have never seen a single child porn image. I doubt any people reading this have either, because we haven't looked. There is a hint of moral outrage about this matter, and that often makes for poor legislation. Too often governments' seem to base their sctions on "Something must be done. This is something. Let's do it."

It might help more if peodophiles were given long mandatory sentences. I know you have such things in many States of the USA. Here they often get quite soft sentences, or walk out of court free with time served.

 

[Lasse Kongo]

People forget that this is done because of the high price we all pay for islam having such a grip on everything now. They are the true puritans and so it is funny that the same people that claim to love diversity and various religions now have their own freedom restricted. All this will lead to is creating even more sexual monsters out there as illegal porn for them will be something even more valuable to treasure.
Personally I think we should just shut down the internet entirely as it is obvious that freedom is something that people cannot handle and that probably includes me. Now this story is both scary and uplifting but finding out Jehne has a kid, and a boy no less, is the truly scary part. Maybe Cameron and world leaders should focus on reducing the number of single mothers which I see as a much bigger problem on a whole.
First stop reached on my world tour, don't know when I will post next.

 

[Lasse Kongo]

Hey England friends,

If you decide to live in California when you move I'll give you a tour of LA. PM me.

If I looked like you I'd also have a big need of consuming large amounts of porn.

 

[fenner]

Let me start by saying this: The porn industry, for the most part, is disgusting and corrupt, and treats women unfairly(and I'm not talking about the porn scenes themselves). Yes, sometimes it can be fun, sure, but I think (in fact, I know) it can create false perceptions of sex in certain people. Porn is a great in theory, but in reality, many things could be improved (and this is not the way to do it).
But also, I think it's wrong that there should be any sort of regulation on what people are allowed and not allowed to see on the internet. And going back to what realitybites said, if people do choose to unblock porn on their internet connection, then their providers can see it! "Honey, I think we should get the porn-inclusive internet package..." how do you think that conversation would end?
Is softcore porn banned too? What if you want to browse for some undies at victoriassecret.com or something one day? Is that going to be blocked?
Also, wouldn't porn websites just find sneakier ways to disguise their content? It's like this has been put in place just to cause problems and get people in trouble. I don't know.
I also really don't like this because it's sort of like.... shaming people who enjoy porn?

 

[Anonymous]

This story follows in the wake of Visa and Mastercard banning companies that sell porn and sex toys and also VPN providers. So this story did not at all surprise me as it seems likely that someone with a lot of power is showing exactly how much power he or she or they have.

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news...providers-says-swedish-payment-service-payson

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Isn't it weird that the day the royal baby is born the other hot topic in the news is the blocking of your porn?

 

[Mozza220559]

I love watching porn now and again, kiddie porn doesn't float my boat, usually.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

It seems this will only cover new broadband installations and that you won't have to ring some little scrote to opt in, you'll just have to tick some boxes. Still doesn't take away the unsettling mission creep these things often have, but its not quite as draconian as it sounded yesterday.

 

[realitybites]

It seems this will only cover new broadband installations and that you won't have to ring some little scrote to opt in, you'll just have to tick some boxes. Still doesn't take away the unsettling mission creep these things often have, but its not quite as draconian as it sounded yesterday.

Just read this in Slate...

It’s unclear how effective the policy will be. For one thing, a leaked letter from the prime minister’s office to Internet Service Providers revealed that Cameron’s “default on” setting for family filters is not quite what you might think. New ISP customers will indeed see the filter box checked when they activate their service, and will have to uncheck it if they don’t want their Internet providers blocking legal adult content. Existing customers, meanwhile, will get a message from their ISPs sometime in 2014 asking if they want to turn on the filters. That sounds more like “default off”—so why would the ISPs call it “default on?” Because Cameron begged them to. From the letter:

Without changing what you will be offering … the Prime Minister would like to be able to refer to your solutions [as] “default-on.” Can you consider how to include this language (or similar) in the screens that begin the set-up process?

Doublespeak aside, the agreement really does seem likely to tilt the field in favor of family filters, by forcing households to make an explicit decision to allow porn if they don’t want it blocked. No doubt some awkward conversations are on the horizon.​

Full article... U.K. Cracks Down on Internet Porn, Will Require Households to Opt In if They Don't Want It Blocked

 

[Iona Mink]

To me this sounds like politicians trying to sound effective without actually doing anything to address the problem. Those who they are looking to curtail will use other methods to get what they want.

It's like the recent banning of pirate bay and other torrent sites. Proxy sites popped up within 24 hours and everyone went back to what they had been doing before, rendering whatever measures that were put in place, useless.

Although I have never searched for child porn it seems this sort of illegal material isn't going to appear on Google alerts. It's going to be traded in chatrooms and newsgroups and in that realm beyond the www and the browser, but instead via the internet. So while you won't be able to search for it will the ISPs grasp be able to stretch beyond Google?

The thing that surprises me is that no one who actually knows how the internet works seems to be advising law makers. Or maybe it doesn't surprise me, politics remains smoke and mirrors, the same as it always was.

I did read one thing, if rape images are considered against the law, will The Accused be banned?

 

[realitybites]

To me this sounds like politicians trying to sound effective without actually do anything to address the problem. Those who they are looking to curtail will use other methods to get what they want.

It's like the recent banning of pirate bay and other torrent sites. Proxy sites popped up within 24 hours and everyone went back to what they had been doing before, rendering whatever measures that were put in place, useless.

Although I have never searched for child porn it seems this sort of illegal material isn't going to appear on Google alerts. It's going to be traded in chatrooms and newsgroups and in that realm beyond the www and the browser, but instead via the internet. So while you won't be able to search for this sort of material will the ISPs grasp be able to stretch beyond Google?

The thing that surprises me is that no one who actually knows how the internet works seems to be advising law makers. Or maybe it doesn't surprise me, politics remains smoke and mirrors, the same as it always was.

I did read one thing, if rape images are considered illegal material, will The Accused be banned?

First film images (acting), then drawings, and paintings, and literature... and finally... the Bible! Oh no, not the Bible, say the good Christian policy makers and community leaders.

 

[Iona Mink]

First film images (acting), then drawings, and paintings, and literature... and finally... the Bible! Oh no, not the Bible, say the good Christian policy makers and community leaders.

Apparently erotica remains a-ok for now. So concepts are safe. Doubleplusgood.

 

[Skylarker]

I don't live in England so I really don't care.

 

[malvachat]

I don't live in England so I really don't care.

Oh how good for you.
I'd like a poll to see who really cares what you think about anything.
Have fun Troll.

 

[Skylarker]

Oh how good for you.
I'd like a poll to see who really cares what you think about anything.
Have fun Troll.

I'm sorry that child porn got blocked in your country. Don't take it out on me, mate.