Government wants ISPs to block kids seeing porn

 

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Posted on 19 Dec 2010 at 15:37

In yet another move to prevent anyone having to take any kind of responsibility, the government would like to see ISPs responsible for preventing pornography entering homes with children in them.

Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, has called a meeting with all of the UK's largest ISPs to discuss how pornography can be blocked at source.

The reason is certainly a reasonable one, designed to protect children from being exposed to sex at an early age, but there are several issues that would have to be dealt with before anything could happen. For starters, the new moves would see all internet connections censored at the host, with adults needing to opt-in in order to view certain websites.

Then, there's a concern over exactly which filtering list ISPs would have to use in order to be compliant with the rules. There's even a chance that the new measures would end up costing more. Despite any concerns, Vaizey wants to push ahead and make the ISPs responsible for the blocking.

"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," said Vaizey. "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."

Our problem with the introduction of a system such as this is that it imposes censorship on everyone without making parents take responsibility for their own children. What the government should be doing is promoting the use of free filtering services, such as OpenDNS.

Using this system it's possible for parents to filter which sites their kids can access. It's platform-independent with changes made at the router's end, so no software is needed and every device, from a PC to an iPhone, has its connection filtered.