UK to Block All Online Porn

[Tom]

UK to block all online porn by default later this year
Prime Minister David Cameron to unveil bold and controversial plan in a speech Monday

British Prime Minister David Cameron today will announce an aggressive plan to crack down on online pornography, as part of an ongoing campaign to protect children from its "corroding" influence. Under Cameron's plan, online porn will be blocked by default for all new UK household internet connections, meaning consumers will have to tell their internet service providers (ISPs) whether they want to disable the filters. The plan will also make it a crime to possess "extreme pornography," such as images or video of simulated rape, the Daily Mail reports.

"By the end of this year, when someone sets up a new broadband account the settings to install family-friendly filters will be automatically selected," Cameron will say in a speech to the child protection group NSPCC on Monday. "If you just click 'next' or 'enter', then the filters are automatically on."

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/22/4544574/uk-david-cameron-cracks-down-on-internet-porn-child-pornography

[Aiden]

mhmmmm
if people want to find porn, they can even if its blocked
but i guess you wont stumble across it

[FlyingJesus]

We do a really good job of driving non-damaging practises underground and thus making them dangerous where they previously weren't. Super duper

[ihatehash]

If it wasn't for porn I would have probably tried to have sex a lot younger than I did.
I don't know how porn negatively affects society.

[myles]

everyone downlaod as much as u can because its gonna be awkward askin ur mum or dad to unblock da internet pmsl!!!!!!!!!!

[The Don]

Absolutely ridiculous. There is tons of software available online which parents can download to filter porn on their home network. I love how this announcement was timed just as the duchess went into labour so that there isn't a huge initial backlash. It makes no sense for the entire countries internet to be filtered, and using the excuse "think of the children" doesn't make it any less stupid.

There's a petition up already, click here to sign it. (http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/51746)

[myles]

Absolutely ridiculous. There is tons of software available online which parents can download to filter porn on their home network. I love how this announcement was timed just as the duchess went into labour so that there isn't a huge initial backlash. It makes no sense for the entire countries internet to be filtered, and using the excuse "think of the children" doesn't make it any less stupid.

There's a petition up already, click here to sign it. (http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/51746)not signing that its embarrasin LOL!

[cornbix]

omg this is bad news

[-:Undertaker:-]

To all those who have backed other anti-freedom laws such as the smoking ban, fatty foods ban, spying on citizens, ID cards, chipping, and fingerprinting - you just got served. I told you they wouldn't stop at just taking away freedoms that you happen to not engage in or dislike, and that they would come for yours too - and they have. Well done and fully deserved.

For those of us who have always opposed the state meddling in our freedoms and who have protected non-internet freedoms (because believe it or not guys, the internet isn't everything or the most important freedom for everyone) it's another sad day for us but hopefully one that, in time, we'll be able to reverse and get the government off our backs.

[dbgtz]

http://i.imgur.com/xGqSJ.jpg

The logic behind this whole idea to block porn is ridiculous, but it's so much worse than meets the eye as, if it passes, it will probably lead to the censorship of other materials which are not illegal. Infact, it may do so inadvertently as image hosting sites & sites like reddit and 4chan may have some porn on it which could lead to the entire site being blocked.

Also, if I remember correctly, this is also a government pushing for earlier sex education lessons...

Though I think the worst part is that it shows no willingness to tackle any problems, rather they just want to hide it. Out of sight, out of mind.

However, Cameron does make one valid point in that there is a cultural issue but it is not one of kids, one of parents. Some parents, the louder parents, seem to believe it is the role of government and business to look after them and their kids and rather than simply block sites locally and/or monitor their childs activity, they essentially seek to impose their views because they're too damn ignorant. Infact, both them and government are so ignorant, they don't realise it isn't hard to bypass these kinds of blocks.

[myles]

I never watch it so shame on you :)

[Yupt]

Lol he's going to lose the next generation of voters then. xox

[Ardemax]

That's the way to do it Cameron: clamp down on our freedoms and bugger up the economy. Brownie points.

[lawrawrrr]

My favourite part of this is Cameron seems to think that no porn = no child porn (which is true) which then seems to mean (in his head) that paedophiles will just stop existing.

Lets take away our right to view what we want. Lets put firewalls and blocks on ALL the internet!


Maybe Orwell just got the dates wrong....

[The Don]

My favourite part of this is Cameron seems to think that no porn = no child porn (which is true) which then seems to mean (in his head) that paedophiles will just stop existing.

Lets take away our right to view what we want. Lets put firewalls and blocks on ALL the internet!


Maybe Orwell just got the dates wrong....

It's as if he thinks people use google or bing to find the sort of porn which he's attempting to ban. People use tor for that sort of thing so regardless of any restrictions which are put in place, people will find ways around it. I mean, it took me about a minute to find a proxy for the pirate bay after that was blocked. There will always be ways around it for the people who look.

[lawrawrrr]

It's as if he thinks people use google or bing to find the sort of porn which he's attempting to ban. People use tor for that sort of thing so regardless of any restrictions which are put in place, people will find ways around it. I mean, it took my about a minute to find a proxy to the pirate bay after that was blocked. There will always be ways around it for the people who look.

Surprisingly people do use google for that. Mark Bridget, the man who's been convicted of the murder of April Jones was found to have google searches of naked 5 year old and things. Gimme a few mins and I'll find the actual quote....

[-:Undertaker:-]

What absolute tosspot -repped me for making the point that after the government clamping down on other freedoms such as smoking, free speech, ID cards and spying - that this was to be expected and that if you supported any of the above bans or restrictions, you can't complain? would they like to tell me how they 'r nt rly da same r dey'? Have they never heard of the famous poem when it comes to state persecution or interference?


First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

If you support banning the activities of other people that you disapprove or or absolutely hate - then at some point or other, people will make a move to ban something that you don't hate/think badly of or even very much enjoy. Why? because we're not all the same which means that if we have an authoritarian government (like we do), at some point one of your valued freedoms is going to be banned. Now, do you understand that very simple concept? or would you like to challenge it out in the open for all to see? I dare you.

..anyway, what I really wanted to add to the discussion was this that came to me last night when I first heard this news - that, in political terms, I think this is simply Cameron trying to suck up to the social conservatives within the party after royally pissing them off with gay marriage being introduced. The irony is, as someone pointed out in the Telegraph comments, this is the same Prime Minister who only this week said that page 3 shouldn't be banned because of 'consumer choice'.

Dave is so hollow and believes in absolutely nothing, it's a wonder anybody can bring themselves to vote for him.

[myles]

all this because ur all scared you are not gonna be able to watch it. calm the frick down and get the real thing! jesus christ

[GommeInc]

Parents should parent. It's as simple as that. If children are supposedly viewing porn then it's the fault of the parents and the parents alone. As legal guardians, they should be watching their children rather than harming a reasonably safe industry. But alas, it's apparently easier to punish the majority for the irresponsibility of an ignorant minority.

[Mark]

Hopefully by the end of 2014 I'll live somewhere where I can dictate the ISP meaning I can OPT OUT of this nonsense ;)

[Ardemax]

all this because ur all scared you are not gonna be able to watch it. calm the frick down and get the real thing! jesus christ

You really are quite special. Don't pay any notice to the increasing number of freedoms being oppressed, nothing to see here...

[lawrawrrr]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10085921/April-Jones-murder-trial-Mark-Bridger-watched-clips-of-violent-rape-scene-before-abducting-five-year-old.html

The story I was talking about earlier!

[myles]

You really are quite special. Don't pay any notice to the increasing number of freedoms being oppressed, nothing to see here...
who gives a crap live with it

[-:Undertaker:-]

who gives a crap live with it

Azealia Banks should be banned for using foul language in her lyrics, the damage to our young is incalcuable.

[myles]

Azealia Banks should be banned for using foul language in her lyrics, the damage to our young is incalcuable.why u bringing her into it lol...

[FlyingJesus]

I believe it's called an example

[-:Undertaker:-]

This is doing the rounds on Twitter -

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BPxy6lTCMAAQavU.jpg

[Catchy]

i just think it's ridiculous tbh. what child doesn't watch porn? :S im sure most of us here at some point or other viewed porn under age and no harm has been done it's been the same for years and years even before the internet im sure kids used to steal their dads playboy mags to have a cheeky look?

[LoveToStack]

Block it the same way they "blocked" the sites hosting torrent / magnet links which everyone still downloads from daily via proxy?

I suppose it might stop computer illiterate baby boomers stumbling across an exposed breast and having to bring it up at their next neighbourhood watch meeting. Truth is that today's generation know how to work a computer. Via proxies or, if worst comes to worst, a VPN people are still going to have access to whatever they want online.

And to be completely honest, the only thing you can "accidentally stumble upon" in terms of pornography is going to be pretty vanilla. The majority of us can say we were all exposed to porn ~12/13 years old and it's not turned us into sexually depraved criminals just yet. This blanket ban certainly isn't going to affect the criminal stuff, child pornography and what not, that's still going to be out there and still going to be accessible across the Tor network. Any risque stuff is already eliminated automatically from any big search engine results via image hashing that Google has been doing for years.

[lucaskf390]

Parents should parent. It's as simple as that. If children are supposedly viewing porn then it's the fault of the parents and the parents alone. As legal guardians, they should be watching their children rather than harming a reasonably safe industry. But alas, it's apparently easier to punish the majority for the irresponsibility of an ignorant minority.
I Agree.

I'm not from UK but, I believe that internet users have the right to access the content they want, as long as within the law. This lock is useless in my opinion.

--

[xxMATTGxx]

Have they said how they are going to do this? Considering Tumblr has a lot of porn. Does that mean it will automatically get blocked?

[MKR&*42]

Although I don't care for the stuff, this is a completely ridiculous decision.

Why don't we just ban people from leaving their own houses at this rate, or let's just turn the UK into a place like George Orwell's 1984.

[xxMATTGxx]

Update: In his speech, Cameron detailed how the initiative would be applied to existing customers. "Following the work we’ve already done with the service providers, they have now agreed to take a big step," Cameron said. "By the end of next year, they will have contacted all of their existing customers and presented them with an unavoidable decision about whether or not to install family friendly content filters." Claire Perry, Tory Minister of Parliament and Cameron's adviser on the matter, told the BBC that existing customers who do not inform ISPs of their decision will have the "family-friendly filters" implemented automatically.

Thought I would post that from the article in the first post.

[e5]

Saw this on the news this morning. Gonna ruin an industry that makes a lot of money, but like people have said, lots of illegal stuff is sill accessible like torrents so I guess porn will be but the same way?

[Empired]

Have they said how they are going to do this? Considering Tumblr has a lot of porn. Does that mean it will automatically get blocked?
Oh yeah I didn't even think of Tumblr. Are they just gonna block Topless Tuesday and stuff or are they gonna block Tumblr altogether? This is way too complicated.. :(

[iBlueBox]

What actual control does the government / state have over the internet?

[MKR&*42]

What actual control does the government / state have over the internet?

I would say a great amount based on how strict it is in China, they can quite easily try to control what ISPs do but I'm not sure on the exact details on what they can/can't do.

Naturally I would presume almost anything based on this.

[Stephen]

I hope they don't make it too obvious that it's directed mainly at porn

"Family friendly filter" sounds like for kids but if they said PORN FILTER then my mum would probs be like OMG WAT A WONDERFUL IDEA

[AlexJRiley]

I signed the petition and told my mum when she gets the call say she wants it. A pornless fap is no fap at all.

[uniqueusername]

David Cameron is an idiot.

[peteyt]

The big problem is Cameron will be lying. He can put filters up and what not but people will find ways around them so really he's making parents think they are safe and have to do nothing. The real solution, get parents taught ICT skills even if just at a school, make sure they know the dangerous of the internet and way's to at least attempt to prevent and even monitor it. Making them think they are safe may back fire when the parents find their children have gotten around it.

The one thing I do agree with is the fix in the law that will make it illegal to watch/own rape porn as currently apparently it's only illegal for those who actually make it due to a loophole.

[Firehorse]

Time to start investing heavily in German VPN service providers I should think... They'll make a killing out of this.

[Daltron]

and underground it goes wooosh

[Stephen]

I think equilibrium perfectly sums up our country in 10 years time

[Southe,]

If a child stumbles across porn then its the parents fault. 1. they should be watching what there kids do on the computer and 2. there's many programs and features that can do all this so far.

Waste of time, money and effort. I can only hope Tories get booted from power soon.

[Reality]

Lol he's going to lose the next generation of voters then. xox

This guy is speaking the truth lmfaoooo

[Samantha]

It makes no sense, I don't need to access these sites, but my anti-virus has previously blocked the likes of HabboxWiki, imgur, Habborator for stupid things such as nudity, would that be classified as porn too? Also, wouldn't websites be able to disguise the fact that porn is on them - don't torrent websites get shut down pretty quickly, but a few new ones are up just as fast? It just seems like a half-hearted effort to make parents feel a little better about their children being on the Internet. Even with the filters in place they should be watching what they're on. Another idea, which is basically the same thing is parents can ask for help on how to block these websites - proxies and loopholes will still be there, likewise with the filter David Cameron is supposedly putting in place so what's the difference? At least parents may learn something then even if it is minimal.

[karter]

oh god this is terrible guys. stay strong everyone!!

[Bowie]

Everyone knows that the kids who end up on porn, are usually the ones who have sat there and searched for it.

[Stephen]

How will the rape porn law thingy work for graphic films which depict rape like a clockwork orange?

[GommeInc]

How will the rape porn law thingy work for graphic films which depict rape like a clockwork orange?
In theory that's not available to watch freely on the internet and if it is, the Copyright Law will vouch for that. However, due to the contradictory nature of this porn law, the fact pornography and scenes like rape in films like this exist and continue to exist would mean the Government should just ban these from sale, just for the sake of protecting a minority from this sort of material.

All in all, the porn opt-in law should just not exist, and the Tories who are meant to be anti-nanny state (but have never committed to removing such restrictions) are yet again proving why they should never have been voted in. Have ISPs block it upon request if parents want to block it, or ask ISPs to offer their customers advice on how to make the most out of anti-adult-content software. It's so simple and cheaper than pushing through a law which will cost millions :/

[Chippiewill]

To all those who have backed other anti-freedom laws such as the smoking ban, fatty foods ban, spying on citizens, ID cards, chipping, and fingerprinting - you just got served. I told you they wouldn't stop at just taking away freedoms that you happen to not engage in or dislike, and that they would come for yours too - and they have. Well done and fully deserved.

Under the same line of thinking we can justify citizens legally having nuclear weapons because we're allowed butter knives. CLEARLY a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

[Firehorse]

David Cameron is really all over the place with this announcement, it's a mess. You can really tell that he has done no research whatsoever.

He is arguing that it will stop child pornography, it's not even the same thing! Child pornography is already outlawed and should already be hard to obtain, it's already filtered by the likes of google and ISP's. Blocking ALL porn is a totally different matter.

You see these interviews http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401646 and it is so unclear what they're even talking about. They're getting two completely different entities mixed up. Legitimate porn is all consensual and it's the parent's responsibility to stop their children from having access to it. Child porn on the other hand is a completely different matter, a step too far.

I don't get where all this has suddenly sprung from. There's been no news about an epidemic of children accessing pornography.
It looks like our country will now fall in line with so many other countries that have porn outlawed, and notice that human rights aren't exactly top notch in most of those.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Pornography_laws.svg

[-:Undertaker:-]

Under the same line of thinking we can justify citizens legally having nuclear weapons because we're allowed butter knives. CLEARLY a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

Indeed. But I don't regard pornography or cigarettes as being on the same level as WMD.

[dbgtz]

David Cameron is really all over the place with this announcement, it's a mess. You can really tell that he has done no research whatsoever.

He is arguing that it will stop child pornography, it's not even the same thing! Child pornography is already outlawed and should already be hard to obtain, it's already filtered by the likes of google and ISP's. Blocking ALL porn is a totally different matter.

You see these interviews http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401646 and it is so unclear what they're even talking about. They're getting two completely different entities mixed up. Legitimate porn is all consensual and it's the parent's responsibility to stop their children from having access to it. Child porn on the other hand is a completely different matter, a step too far.

I don't get where all this has suddenly sprung from. There's been no news about an epidemic of children accessing pornography.
It looks like our country will now fall in line with so many other countries that have porn outlawed, and notice that human rights aren't exactly top notch in most of those.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Pornography_laws.svg

I partially blame Claire Perry, she sounds like an absolute nutter when it comes to this. She has no real source or backing to her claims and constantly spews out crap. I would comment on an exact example, but the article I was thinking of appears to removed any trace of her :P

[Chippiewill]

Indeed. But I don't regard pornography or cigarettes as being on the same level as WMD.
My point was to show there was a line, not that the line was WMDs.