New UK regulations for ISP porn filtering: good news for porn addicts?
The UK government is urging internet service providers to block all pornographic websites by default. Under the proposed plans, customers will need to contact their ISP and prove that they are over 18 in order to access porn.
According to communications minister Ed Vaizey “This is a very serious matter. I think it is very important that it’s the ISPs that come up with solutions to protect children. I’m hoping they will get their acts together so we don’t have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the next couple of years.”
ISPs are not amused
Most service providers are up in arms at the idea, explaining that the flood of sites and ways of accessing porn make it technically impossible. Civil rights groups are concerned that censorship at this level could too easily extend to blocking "inappropriate content" and anything else the government doesn't want you to see.
The resounding argument against these measures is that parents should be responsible for overseeing their kid's internet activities, and I'd completely agree. There are plenty of free and paid filters available to parents, including those offered by ISPs themselves.
But if ISP porn filtering does become a legal requirement, I don't have a major problem with that. It should provide a basic layer of helpful filtering for parents, but can't relieve them of responsibility. For those who want to watch porn, making a one-off call to their ISP isn't a major inconvenience. Also, every UK ISP already operates the Cleanfeed filter, a system developed by BT to block access to child pornography. The fact that the vast majority of internet users don't even notice is testament to its subtle effectiveness.
Possible help for people who struggle with porn?
Some commentators believe that the embarrassment of signing up as an internet porn user will help deter people from viewing. I'm not so sure; it's not an official porn-offenders register that's being introduced here. And most people already know that all their downloads are logged by their ISP and their searches recorded by Google. It's no incentive to stop.
So I don't foresee a great deal of impact on porn addiction. Voluntary filtering can be a useful tool as part of a recovery plan, but it's never a solution in itself. But by opting in, compulsive porn users will at least be more aware that they are opening up access for their families and kids. Just as porn viewer James comments in the Sun report, this might just be a useful reality check:
"My girlfriend has a child and, although we don't live together, there's no way I'd want the PC registered for porn access. However not opting in wouldn't totally stop my porn habit. I'm a consenting adult so I could buy it elsewhere. But it would be far harder for under-age users to access, and that's a good thing."
Porn Game Over is Jason's self-help plan for quitting the habit. Click here for a fresh approach to internet pornography addiction...
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7 comments
Unfortunately there are always ways round it
I've tried the porn blockers and filters that you can get for the PC and if you know your way around a computer and search engines you can always find a way round the sites that are blocked, believe me I've done it. I do think ISP's and governement should do more to help people block pornography but I just can't see a way of doing it.
Mixing Politics & Porn
Such comments by government ministers proves only one thing, just how totally ignorant MP's are of the sheer IT complexities involved. Technically of blocking internet pornography would be extremely costly for ISP's and that cost would make internet access far far more expensive for ALL ordinary users as the cost would be passed on to the customer. ISP's are only the provider of the pipes. Therefore why should ISP's bear of burden of responsability for what or how how end users do. This is like saying banks should all be responsible for how we make & also spend our own money? IMO money is a purely neutral medium (bits of metal, plastic, paper & electronic bits) and so is the ISP's pipes & connections. Therefore dont shoot the carrier of the message just because you dont the message. IMO if you want porn then you still have to actively search for it mostly and if you dont want to see porn images they can be avoided without to much difficulty. Unless your totally naive or a very very inexperienced web user.
Bring it on
If the Cleanfeed system already works to block child porn in the uk then it can be extended for other porn too.
the idea that parents can stop their children from viewing porn isn't always true. i have yet to find an end-user based web filter that cannot be circumvented with some know-how - something most kids have more of than their parents.
this may be a more robust solution, especially if parents can have a password/security question with the isp. or even better, have isp's offer a separate product that includes filtering so it cannot quickly be changed.
So, where next?
I am utterly disgusted that this website, which showed some beginnings of utility as a kind and open-minded forum focused on helping those in need, should so descend into puritanical prohibitionist illiberalism.
Far from following my initial inclination to lend a hand through my experiences herein, I should far rather leave Calvinism to those moronic enough to force their ways upon others without lending my tacit support.
There is no excuse for government - or any organisation -in vetting the activities and interactions of grown adults by their 'moral' preference. Where there is no harm done to others, there is a clear harm principle involved in dictating terms to others, and interfering beyond remit.
And quite apart from this, I wonder just how much 'help' it would do to part-criminalise the activities of those afflicted by habit and addiction beyond their control. People who need a way around this sort of nonsense will find their way there, but will likely have to visit sites and learn methods somewhat less legitimate than those they currently use.
Confused
I'll admit it... I'm totally confused by this one. Puritanical prohibitionist illiberalism?
So intrigued, I read through the thread again. There's my initial post (in a nutshell: government proposing that ISPs filter out porn sites unless customers opt-in, I'm ambivalent about it, perhaps it will help families with young children, censorship and filtering is not the solution to compulsive porn viewing).
Then a couple of comments: there are always ways around filters, filtering would be expensive and complex and isn't the right approach, bring it on if it helps parents. All fair comment, I would say.
Sorry - I just don't see the moronic Calvanism here. And despite all the hundreds of posts on this site about freeing ourselves from compulsive behaviors and positively moving forward, you've picked one that briefly touches on proposed ISP regulation and decided to be utterly disgusted. My mind boggles at this.
I think it would be a good idea
I really do, and I dont think cleanfeed is done by all uk ISPs as I thought it was a BT specific product to comply with the IWF. Some ISPs have also followed suite here but not all and BT actually allow you to opt out if you dont want it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanfeed_(content_blocking_system)
I agree that cost will be forced down to the end user even though the ISPs pay per meg they would probably trade off the content cost to the cost of filtering. I would like to see the default position much like any other content that is streamed into our homes. If we want it we enable it, either by cost or option and the government forcing the ISP to take the cost on.
Blaming parents is one thing but if you look at what a normal couple has to do to bring up a child in todays world then take into account the fact that parents seperate etc this can only help parents in knowing the Internet which is now a learning tool as well as social/media is by default clean of porn. I wish this would have been the case when I first ventured as I recall the big venture out before I could amass a stash. My parents are not literate in Computing and this trend is still out there for many parents who could be argued are having IT Forced on them. Of course there will be ways around and the buzz may come from just finding the ways around as apposed to the content but it has to provide a helping hand to parents up and down the country and if it saves anyone the journey I took I cannot see the problem. As a society we have laws that stop porn on TV and limited porn on our open airwaves so I dont get the angry point raised about words I cannot even spell but I would say that the Internet has provided a backdoor around these laws that the elected majority must agree with and the government and its stance on appropriate content so it has a responsibility at the very least to ensure the laws on broadcast are extended to the Internet. Given that they are planning to get the opt out part added too I see no problem other than ISP costs going up but if this is done right a Parent friendly ISP could be setup that blocks this content by default for a premimum which I would pay for right this minute. I have blockers on my PC and a web filtering ellement on my firewall but I can control this. I may not call my ISP out of shame and if I feel ashamed to call my ISP then it must be wrong.
Unfortunately, such a measure may be overdue
I am at heart a libertarian, but the more I learn about internet porn addiction, which I think has been under-reported and under-discussed in the last ten years, I think some sort of censorship is necessary. When I think back to my adolescence in the 1980s... it was quite a production to get to see hard core porn movies; you could get to this material, but it was unlikely you would have 24 hour access unless you had your own VCR. Porn was an occasional treat for many teenagers, almost a rite of passage, but it was hardly as mainstream as it is now, and there was nothing like the volume of material. Today, youngsters who couldn't buy Penthouse (or even a pack of cigarettes), or pay for their own cable/video on demand, can surf the web for a vast library of images and videos. What is it doing to teenagers?
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