News Porn to be opt-in only with UK's biggest ISPs

Nothing will stop young teenagers finding a way to look at boobs, when younger my internet connection was far too slow to even bother trying to watch porn online, but when there's a will there's a way!
I think if there was some way to hinder people accidentally stumbling across porn, when they are not actively looking for it, that would be fantastic, i'd imagine that would be when it would affect someone the most, when it's not expected or wanted.

 

Prolly just a DNS blacklist.
Change DNS, get pr0n.

 

As a parent myself I find this utterly needless. Sure you cannot monitor what a child is doing all the time but you can talk to them about things and check browser histories etc. Leaving them alone to do whatever they want on the net and ask that the government define what is acceptable is hardly parenting.

I don't see why other people should have to specifically tell their ISP they want to watch porn simply because other people are poor parents. Besides removing the ability to see porn at home won't stop them taking a laptop out to some free WiFi hotspot or to a mates house so it's a massive waste of taxpayers money and the ISP's time which could increase prices for all because it will appear unsporting to make the people who want the block to pay for it wouldn't it?

If people are really that worried about porn on the internet there's many other ways to block it already for the most part but nothing is full proof. Example, Imgur can host pornographic images as can many other image sharing site will they be blocked as well? What about images uploaded to forums or torrents or P2P networks. If a masturbating 14 year old wants it no amount of blocking legitimate pornographic websites will ever work.

TL;DR It won't work it's a waste of money and at the end of the day its the parents responsibility

 

Jesus F*****G Christ!
Don't want to wrap kid up in cotton wool? well that's exactly what this is.
Also seems pretty pointless, kids will find a way round it, almost since the dawn of time kids have found way's round what their parents try to stop them doing, so it wont make much difference.
How do they plan to stop all of them?
Hundreds of new Porn sites pop up everyday surely this is just going to encourage them to disguise themselves as something else to avoid being blocked?
Who is to say what is porn and what is education?
Why do I have to opt out, why can't they opt in?
This is such a crap idea being forced by overbearing lazy parents it's untrue, almost literally "the nanny state".
This is such a pile of s**t.
Rant over, for now.

 

True. Which is why it's the parents choice whether to opt into this of not. It's meerly a tool to allow parents to safe guard there internet connection when they're not at home.
Gone are the days when teenage children have a parent at home to supervise them all the time. People work all sorts of shifts these days. Nobody in government is forcing this on anybody.

Sure, parents should teach their children about sex etc when the time is right, and hopefully children will have been brought up with enough discipline and repect to obey their parents if they tell them not to look at porn on the internet.

I think we (the older generations) have to remember that porn is vastly different to what it was when we were teenagers. All that was available to us was the regulated mags available in the shops. The kind of things available on the internet can be very very extreme. There's a reson why sexual media has an 18 rating (not going into the arguements on whether that should be 18 or 16). When people are adults, they should me mature enough to understand that. But I can see why parents would want to prevent their children thinking that sort of thing is normal in every day life. I know my brother-in-law had to give his kids a stern talking to when he overheard them talking about women in a derogatory way.

As long as it's opt in and not being forced on anyone, I fail to see what there is to object to.

 

Isn't there already several Net Filter Software you can buy to block access to adult sites?

 

I'll have 2 WTF! packs please.

 

A pin system would be awfully abused, on a regular basis.

There is, actually, a difference. In the magazine instance, the government have said "The consumer needs to be 18" and it's down to the retailer to verify age and so forth. There isn't a government employee stood at the magazine rack deciding what they think is appropriate for the person selecting the magazines they want.

Online, yes, age verifications are harder - But to suggest that then it becomes the ISP's (The messenger, so to speak) problem to root out the underage viewers is ridiculous. It's the parents job to educate and discipline their child. It's not up to the government at that stage.

Parents (In general) need to stop being too busy and willing to "pass the buck", so to speak, and start interacting with their children.

QFT

My objection is that it's opt-out (As in, opt out of the blocking, not opt out of being able to view porn) and not opt-in. An opt-in thing would be fine, IMO, as that leaves the system available for those that feel they need it, and doesn't affect those that don't want/need the enforcement.

 

LOLS

Hows this going to work with page 3 of The Sun. Surely thats every lil boys gateway.

 

This story needs to be updated, BBC news has just said that it will be OPT-IN not opt-out because the ISP's said opt-out went too far and was boarder line illegal.

Which is a much better idea.

 

so how long does it take for a parent to learn how to set OpenDNS?? or just set URL filters on the router?

ignorant parents are worse than irresponsible ones.



Opt-out makes more sense. Opt-in surely is stepping on Net Neutrality?

 

On the news today they said when you sign up for a new account or renew an account with the top ISP's they will ask you if you want to use this protection software (which has been available for ages).

The ISP's said they couldn't force customers to have to opt-in to mature content as it would be illegal for them (the ISP) to do so, AND they don't want to be responsible for censorship. So from what I've heard you won't have to opt-in for mature sites, you will have to opt-in to have them blocked.

 

FFS. There are ways of limiting what is seen on your PC, thankfully the parents I saw interviewed monitored their kids access and had blocks in place on top of that.

We shouldn't start inviting censorship.

But yes, at present you will have to opt in to having your content censored. Censoring legal sites will be pretty much illegal.

 

I must had misunderstood. I thought it was opt in. If it is an opt out system then I do indeed have an issue with it.

 

Organ Donation = Opt-in
No Pr0n = Opt-Out

How is that far?

 

A tad harsh. Not all parents are tech savy. That in itself doesn't make them bad parents.

 

The news gave the impression that it was an opt out of blocking initially but it turns out it has to be an opt in to blocking as ISPs would be breaking the law otherwise.

 

Personally, this sounds like a good idea too me. While parents should take the responsibility for policing thier kid's internet use, it's a difficult task to stop any broadband connection becoming a porn funnel. This will just be one more tool to use; I don't think its the the start of mass censorship, it's just a response to customer demand to keep kids safe online. Of course, it's not going to be 100%, and really determined teenage boys will no doubt circumvent it via the methods discussed above, but kids are using the net at younger and younger ages, and while an 8 year old can easily google search for "boobies" he wont be running a openDNS anytime soon. To take it as a dissolution of our civil liberties is a little extreme - this isn't at attempt to take your porno access away; its to protect the more vulnerable, younger internet users, and on that point it has my support.

 

it only takes 30min of research to know that setting OpenDNS on a computer/router will block harmful sites.


the original BT story sounds like:
-oh, no, cars near school are dangerous, let's make traffic EVERYWHERE go at 20mph, unless specifically ask to go faster.
-mobile phone's microwave might be dangerous, let's make them so weak, they are pretty much useless. each user have to ask to raise signal level.

of course, the Opt-out is more logical and better. i fully support this implementation, good to see ISPs have their head screwed on. (unlike those parents at Mother's Union)



remember:

 

There is another side to this people seem to have forgotten, it's the blame game.. Once the measure have been put into place, if a child does work around the block or see some porn will this now give the parents the right to sue the ISP/ Government?

For any parent who is worried about the amounts of porn their child might be subjected to on their pc's there are several simple things they can do, like put the computer in a public area of the house (not the childs bedroom). Check histories, use OpenDNS buy 3rd party software. If the parents really are concerned there are options out there; all it takes is a bit of effort. This whole thing is lazy parenting, parents can't be arsed to parent their children and want the state to do it for them.

I love how the BBC are misreporting this, saying that the block will stop porn on Computers / Laptops and Mobile phones. it won't, it will only block the devices when they use that connection, wifi outside the house may or may not be blocked.