Families get choice on blocking internet porn

Every household in the UK will have pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they choose to receive it, David Cameron promised yesterday.
David Cameron meets youth workers in Westminster before his speech on internet safety. Picture: PADavid Cameron meets youth workers in Westminster before his speech on internet safety. Picture: PA
David Cameron meets youth workers in Westminster before his speech on internet safety. Picture: PA

The Prime Minister said “family-friendly filters” would be automatically selected for all new internet customers by the end of the year – although they could choose to switch them off.

Existing computer users would be contacted by their internet providers and told they must decide whether to use or not use the filters, Mr Cameron said. The filters would apply to all devices linked to a home wifi network and across public wifi networks “wherever children are likely to be present”.

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He announced the measures in a speech to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in London.

The Prime Minister had already warned internet firms that they faced “legislative options” unless they did more to block child abuse images found using their search engines.

Family-friendly filters will be the default setting for new broadband customers by the end of the year and only account holders will be able to change them. Existing customers will be presented with an “unavoidable decision” about installing the filters by the end of the 2014, Mr Cameron said.

He said: “When it comes to internet pornography, parents have been left too much on their own and I am determined to put that right.

“By the end of this year, when someone sets up a new broadband account, the settings to install family friendly filters will be automatically selected. If you just click ‘next’ or ‘enter’, then the filters are automatically on.

“And, in a really big step forward, all the ISPs [internet service providers] have rewired their technology so that once your filters are installed, they will cover any device connected to your home internet account.

“No more hassle of downloading filters for every device, just one-click protection. One click to protect your whole home and keep your children safe.”

Mr Cameron said the UK’s main internet providers had agreed to automatically block pornography to every household by the end of the year.

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He said: “On public wifi – of which more than 90 per cent is provided by six companies – O2, Virgin Media, Sky, Nomad, BT and Arqiva.

“We have now reached an agreement with all of them that family-friendly filters are to be applied across the public wifi network wherever children are likely to be present,” he said.

“We are not prescribing how the ISPs should contact their customers - it’s up to them to find their own technological solutions. But however they do it, there will be no escaping this decision, no ‘remind me later’ and then it never gets done.

“And they will ensure it is an adult making the choice. If adults don’t want these filters - that’s their decision.”

Mr Cameron has set out a raft of reforms to protect children from “poisonous” websites that are “corroding childhood”, including subjecting videos streamed online in the UK to the same restrictions as those sold in shops.

Experts from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), which is set to become part of the National Crime Agency, will be given enhanced powers to examine secretive file-sharing networks, and a secure database of banned child pornography images gathered by police across the country will be used to trace illegal content and the paedophiles viewing it. The NSPCC welcomed the measures as a major improvement in child protection in the UK. Peter Wanless, chief executive officer of the NSPCC, said: “These measures are a big step forward in taking firm action to block legal adult pornography from young eyes. This isn’t about censorship, it’s simply about protecting children whilst allowing adults to do as they choose within the law.”Young minds are not developed enough to make grown up decisions about these issues.” Mr Cameron’s plans were also backed by internet firm TalkTalk, which launched HomeSafe, a network-level online security blocking system aimed at parents who want to filter web content.

A statement from TalkTalk said: “We take our responsibility very seriously and that is why we are now contacting our existing customers to ask them if they want to use HomeSafe, and we will be pre-ticking HomeSafe as on for new customers from the end of the year.

“We have already contacted half a million of our existing customers. 1 in 3 customers are choosing to turn on parental controls when offered the chance to, and currently this equates to 30,000 more homes week keeping their families safer online as a result.”