UK govt to ask households to 'opt-in' to online porn, require ISPs to install filter
Civil liberties campaigner sees "mission creep", logistical problems.
According to a Guardian report, UK Prime Minister David Cameron is on the verge of announcing sweeping measures to combat internet pornography.
These include preinstalling a child porn filter on new PCs, and requiring households to opt-in if they want to access pornography.
ISPs will be required to install filters by the end of this year.
Mission creep
In New Zealand, the Department of Internal Affairs has filtering software that blocks access to known child exploitation sites. Although all major ISPs have installed the filter, it is a voluntary process with the decision left up to individual internet service providers.
Duriing a recent Ask Me Anything session with NBR ONLINE readers, Tech Liberty founder and Council for Civil Liberties executive committee member Thomas Beagle explained why he opposes a filter.
"On the technical side of things, the filter is only really useful for blocking access to particular pages and websites. It doesn't stop chat rooms, it doesn't stop secure web pages, it doesn't stop peer to peer file sharing... i.e. it's really doing very little to stop the trade in pictures of child abuse," Mr Beagle said.
"On the legal/rights side, I think that the filter is a worrying precedent. There's no law that defines what it can and can't be used for, and I fear that other parts of government or the judiciary will latch on to it for one hobby horse or another.
"For example, in Australia the Australian Securities and Investments Commission recently co-opted their filter to block some websites."
NBR staff
Tue, 23 Jul 2013
Tue, 23 Jul 2013
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UK govt to ask households to 'opt-in' to online porn, require ISPs to install filter
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