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British Conservatives Want to Block Web Porn

by Terrence O'Brien on December 20, 2010 at 11:40 AM

Web PornThe Conservative Party in the U.K. is pushing for ISPs to start filtering content at the source, blocking pornography by default. The plan is being promoted by Conservative MP Claire Perry and Communications Minister Ed Vaizey. Unsurprisingly, children are being cited as the reason for all the hubbub, as the party wants to protect British youngsters from being exposed to sexually explicit content on the Web. The proposed plan would not outlaw Internet pornography, but would make access to it an opt-in feature, requiring customers to explicitly request unfiltered Web content.

ISPs have countered that implementing such a system would be difficult, if not impossible. Trefor Davies, chief technology officer at Timico, told the BBC that "it's technically not possible to completely block this stuff." Filtering such content at the source would be unreliable and expensive to implement. And blocking legal content, no matter how offensive, is bound to run into trouble under current laws. Most in the industry believe that client-side filters, whether included as part of an operating system or with a suite of security software, are the best solution. They can provide more control to users who may want to allow particular members of the household access to the content, and, perhaps more importantly, require that parents and guardians take a more active role in monitoring and controlling how their children use the Web.

Tags: britain, censorship, ConservativeParty, politics, pornography, privacy, top, uk, web

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