Censor-tive issue
Meanwhile, the Internet Service Provider Association (ISPA) seems to have taken the stance that it is up to parents to put their own blocks in place and censor the internet as they see fit as a way of protecting their children from stumbling across pornographic sites.
Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of ISPA told Auntie: "ISPA firmly believes that controls on children's access to the internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPs provide, rather than being imposed top-down."
He reportedly said IPSA will be discussing the options available with the government and emphasised the array of options that ISPs provide for parent to control internet access in the home, but one MP has previously argued that just 15 percent of parents can use such controls effectively.
Lansman reportedly said:"ISPs currently block child abuse content which is illegal and widely regarded as abhorrent. Blocking lawful pornography content is less clear cut, will lead to the blocking of access to legitimate content and is only effective in preventing inadvertent access."
The UK's largest ISP, BT told the Beeb that while it will happily cooperate in any discussion about protecting kids online, it reportedly said: "There are many legal, consumer rights and technical issues that would need to be considered before any new web blocking policy was developed."
Indeed it seems likely that some internet users may see the block as an infringement on their rights and freedom online.
Davies reportedly said that a wide-scale policing system of porn could soon also be used to monitor or censor pirated songs, films or TV shows, if successful.
"If we take this step it will not take very long to end up with an internet that's a walled garden of sites the governments is happy for you to see," he reportedly warned.
Jim Killock, chair of the Open Rights Group, which seeks to protect digital liberties, told Auntie: "This is not about pornography, it is about generalised censorship through the back door. This is the wrong way to go. If the government controlled a web blacklist, you can bet that Wikileaks would be on it."
However, there are some people that think censorship with the aim of protecting vulnerable people is an admirable concept. Miranda Suit, the co-chair of Safer Media, which aims to make the net safer for children, told Auntie that porn on the net is now ‘qualitatively and quantitatively' different from anything that has been accessible before.
Citing US think tank The Witherspoon Institute's research showing some young people are damaged by pornography, she reportedly said: "Children are becoming addicted in their teens to internet pornography. They are being mentally damaged so they cannot engage in intimate relationships."
Perhaps unsurprisingly the group backs the government's plans to block porn access ‘at source' as "what we are talking about is censorship to protect our children," said Suit.
