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BT, Sky, and Virgin Enforce UK Porn Blocks By Hijacking Browsers

An anonymous reader writes with this story at Ars Technica, excerpting: BT, Sky, and Virgin Media are hijacking people's web connections to force customers to make a decision about family-friendly web filters. The move comes as the December deadline imposed by prime minister David Cameron looms, with ISPs struggling to get customers to say yes or no to the controversial adult content blocks. The messages, which vary by ISP, appear during browser sessions when a user tries to access any website. BT, Sky,TalkTalk and Virgin Media are required to ask all their customers if they want web filters turned on or off, with the government saying it wants to create a "family friendly" Internet free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children. But the measures being taken by ISPs have been described as "completely unnecessary" and "heavy handed" by Internet rights groups. The hijacking works by intercepting requests for unencrypted websites and rerouting a user to a different page. ISPs are using the technique to communicate with all undecided customers. Attempting to visit WIRED.co.uk, for example, could result in a user being redirected to a page asking them about web filtering. ISPs cannot intercept requests for encrypted websites in the same way.

294 comments

  1. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They enforce the law by breaking the law. Sounds like a good plan if you want to piss everyone off.

    1. Re:Nice by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      It's a plan that works in many venues. If people reward them for it, who are we to argue?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What law was broken? No deception here, not happening on encrypted connections, instead of seeing the content you requested, you're forwarded elsewhere (to a new url).

    3. Re: Nice by jd2112 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This doesn't sound much different than the T&C redirect page when you use public WiFi.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    4. Re: Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      .xxx, .pg13, .r, .g., .unrated. Problem solved. These can be geo-specific domains that point to the sites in question, if acceptable to that rating. Different geo-specific domains in different jurisdictions.

      Yes, it means you need a domain in each jurisdiction where you want to be rated.

    5. Re:Nice by pla · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's pretty standard for providers to redirect to one of their pages when they need to bring something to a user's attention, or get user-input.

      Bullshit. I have never had my ISP hijack my connection to either communicate with me, or to get my input. They typically just include a flyer with my monthly bill (which I promptly discard, because I have zero interest in any relationship with my ISP beyond "I give you dollars, you serve up the bits I request").


      And it's not hijacking.

      I request page X. They serve me page Y that demands that I take some action before they'll let me get to page X. Tell me, AC, how do you define hijacking, if that doesn't do it for you? "Saaay, nice airplane you have here! For your own good, though, we just can't let it go on to Dallas until you give us all your jewelry and electronics".


      I do have to wonder, though - What will the UK nannies do if essentially the entire country opts out and says "Yeah, thanks, but we want our porn and violence, thankyouverymuch"?

    6. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some free pr0n services do not offer protected connections.

    7. Re:Nice by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      Ive never had a paper bill for internet services, not once in 20 years.

    8. Re:Nice by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I've never seen it done, and it would be a spectacularly bad idea. It might have been fine 10 years ago, when most HTTP traffic was to a web browser, but now a load of other apps use HTTP as the transport. Intercepting and redirecting one can cause problems locally and sounds like a violation of the computer misuse act.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    9. Re: Nice by danbob999 · · Score: 1

      This doesn't sound much different than the T&C redirect page when you use public WiFi.

      Kill it with fire!

    10. Re: Nice by KenHansen · · Score: 1

      It IS a hijack, but in the weakest way possible. People elect politicians, politicians pass a law requiring ISPs to ask every customer about filtering their connection. You request page A, ISP serves up page B, unless you previously answer the filter question. Page B does not pretend it is page A. Page B does not coerce customer to buy a new service, accept a new fee, etc. Given the reality of the law, how would you suggest ISPs comply with the law the politicians on behalf of their customers asked for? They have to ask, they can't default to either filtered or unfiltered access...

    11. Re:Nice by Barny · · Score: 1

      Typically, when doing such things, you check the user-agent.

      Their aim is to ask people a simple question. If the people had already replied to it they wouldn't get the page. If they select an answer they wont get the page in future. At worst it would be considered using a morally ambiguous technology to accomplish a neutral end.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    12. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " What will the UK nannies do if essentially the entire country opts out and says "Yeah, thanks, but we want our porn and violence, thankyouverymuch"?"

      Oh, you don't understand it.
      It's not about the opt-in, it's about the capability of detecting 'wrong' destinations and taking action based on that.
      If one can detect and filter out stuff the public does not want, one can trivially abuse it to spy on peoples behaviour and then act on that information.
      I wonder how long it will take the brits to realize they live in a fascist society. Maybe they just like being patronized into submission?

    13. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously you don't have AT&T. Even if you tell them you want paperless billing, you end up getting a paper bill the next month. They troll their own customers, and not just with their laughable "high speed" 3Mbps connections.

      dkj

    14. Re:Nice by Cyberdyne · · Score: 1

      I do have to wonder, though - What will the UK nannies do if essentially the entire country opts out and says "Yeah, thanks, but we want our porn and violence, thankyouverymuch"?

      That's almost precisely why this is being done in the first place. A Member of Parliament named Claire Perry saw a bandwagon she could jump on, using a tale she concocted about her daughter Googling for cookie recipes and getting porn instead, and used this as an excuse to hold a "hearing" on the subject. The hearing found that most parents were already aware of parental controls, had the option and chose not to use them; she took this as an excuse to push filters harder, demanding that ISPs make them opt-out rather than opt-in in hopes of boosting uptake. (Funnily enough, several of the people testifying at her "hearing" happened to be from companies involved in the filtering business...)

      Since the biggest four ISPs agreed to force all their customers to reiterate specifically that they still don't want filtering, hopefully this will be enough to stop these idiots pushing any harder for a while - albeit having forced them to flush money away buying in a filtering system most customers never wanted. My current (much smaller, tech-savvy) ISP is very much opposed to this nonsense, which is one reason I'm happy to be their customer - though unfortunately this has already drawn government attention (after which, they had to take on an extra member of staff and upgrade transit pipes to handle the increased demand - probably not the result the politician expected!)

  2. MITM legalized at last by gmuslera · · Score: 1

    But only if they are the ones doing it. Who watches the watchers?

    1. Re:MITM legalized at last by gnasher719 · · Score: 4, Informative

      There is no Man-In-The-Middle attack. The man at the end is cut off. Nobody tricking you into anything; just annoying you.

      And if you read the article, this only works for unencrypted connections where you should have known that anything can happen.

    2. Re:MITM legalized at last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about a massive denial of service? If I don't want to answer your stupid question, and I pay you to provide internet service, and you hijack it, you are denying me service and denying service to the website.

    3. Re:MITM legalized at last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No they're not, one session, one time. They don't block all connections and serve this page until you answer, you can completely ignore it.

    4. Re:MITM legalized at last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Who watches the watchers?

      Nobody ever does. Except maybe their victims but they have no say and are rarely even belived.

    5. Re:MITM legalized at last by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 2

      How is this denying service, unless you have some sort of extreme mental handicap that makes you incapable of making a simple decision? It that case, I wouldn't expect you to be able to use the Internet at all, due to being unable to decide what site to go to.

    6. Re:MITM legalized at last by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      how is my robot going to make a decision??

      suppose I am doing curl or wget?

      how am I supposed to 'decide' when the site I WENT TO is not the site I was DELIVERED TO?

      this is why ssl and vpns are the way of the future. letting the isp see what you do is never good. NEVER.

      "but I'm just going to xyz site? whats' the big deal?"

      if you have to ask, you will never understand. just trust us, if you don't get it: the spying will only get worse unless we go fully encrypted END TO END.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    7. Re:MITM legalized at last by pla · · Score: 1

      How is this denying service, unless you have some sort of extreme mental handicap that makes you incapable of making a simple decision?

      I have a contract that says "I will give you X dollars for Y bandwidth each month". And as many overwhelmingly one-sided ISP-favoring clauses as that contract does include, I can comfortably say that not one of them makes any mention whatsoever of "occasionally we'll intercept your session to ask you useless questions".

      As for "incapable" - My ability to answer has no relevance here - If I just don't want to answer their damned question, they can fuck right off, hmm?

    8. Re:MITM legalized at last by Stan92057 · · Score: 2

      Well i agree to a point maybe some people don't want the government to know they like to view porn or want the government to know what kinda fetish they have. Governments are known to break the law themselves in the name of "cough" national security . Me, i don't give a crap. yes i view porn, yes i jerk off, a few billion other men/women do the same thing so i don't feel special or different in any way.

      --
      Jack of all trades,master of none
    9. Re: MITM legalized at last by dhjdhj · · Score: 1

      Why to a point? While one may applaud your willingness to be public with your habits, you can't infer or argue that others should therefore feel the same way.

    10. Re:MITM legalized at last by statusbar · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Until relatively recently, these re-directions would adversely affect a debian/ubuntu linux system update procedure. A cron job would apt-get update and pull in new index files. Since the transport was not encrypted, the index files would not be what the apt system were expecting. It would store the content of the redirected web page instead of the proper index files into a cache and then apt-get update would be forever broken until you manually figured out how to delete the corrupted files someplace in /var/*/apt

      ISP's and WiFi Access points that do this redirection are the reason why HTTPS everywhere is a good idea.

      --
      ipv6 is my vpn
    11. Re: MITM legalized at last by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

      Why not? I'm not ashamed of what i do. I can see why people are untrusting of the Government and i can see why people would want filters. I don't blame either one this should be a choice not forced.

      --
      Jack of all trades,master of none
    12. Re:MITM legalized at last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Oh the irony. UK government using a MITM "man in the middle" attack to stop people from watching FMF "man in the middle" scenes. :D

      p.s. Do the girls still get to get off if nobody gets to watch? Will someone please think of those poor hot chicks?

    13. Re: MITM legalized at last by KenHansen · · Score: 1
      The law their government passed requires customers to answer the filtering question...

      BT, Sky,TalkTalk and Virgin Media are required to ask all their customers if they want web filters turned on or off, with the government saying it wants to create a "family friendly" Internet free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children.

      The alternative is to simply wait for the deadline in the law, then shut down every account that fails to ask the question the ISP is required to get an answer to by the deadline... That would lead to a tremendous number of upset customers, but your wget command would still function, until the deadline anyway.

    14. Re: MITM legalized at last by KenHansen · · Score: 1

      Only until you answer the bloody question your elected representatives REQUIRE you to answer before allowing access to the Internet. This isn't something ISPs chose to ask, and it only intrudes on your access until you answer the question - once answered, you are not interrupted again.

    15. Re:MITM legalized at last by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      That was a (reallllllly stupid) bug in Debian/Ubuntu, then. Making it that easy for an attacker to interfere with the update process in a way that leaves no sign of the interference is just plain moronic. Simply blocking the outbound request - about all an attacker can do when it's over TLS - would have been detectable as "hey, where's my update server go?" Allowing the attacker to manipulate the update list - I hope to hell they couldn't manipulate the actual updates, for example to supply outdated DEBs instead of ones that fix bugs - is nothing less than a security vulnerability in the OS. Maybe not a critical one (unless the update packages aren't sent securely) but still a vuln, and a terrible idea.

      Yes, your ISP shouldn't be intercepting your HTTP requests. But your OS should *never* be using plaintext HTTP for anything remotely serious.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    16. Re:MITM legalized at last by Barny · · Score: 1

      Except they aren't in the middle

      Man in the middle means to dupe both ends of the transaction that they are talking to each other correctly while injecting your own data into it.

      What they are doing is a redirect to another page that asks you if you would please answer this question so that, when the deadline arrives, they don't have to restrict/disconnect your service.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    17. Re: MITM legalized at last by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Others of course dislike you immensely. Specifically those who profit by the marketing and sales of all those products associated with mutual non-reproductive masturbation using various parts of the body and of course based around the qualities of your clothing, your car, the jewellery you provide, the quality of the restaurant, the quality of the hotel ie how much you are basically willing to spend on mutual non reproductive masturbation, so that you can brag about your success rate.

      If any government were actually serious about a safe internet for children they would create a parallel encrypted one which interconnects schools, from which unlicensed adults are excluded and that is supervised. Of course that is not what they want because of course very unhealthy commercial manipulative marketing targeted at children would have to be banned. What they really want to do is 'accidentally' ban political activist sites, news sites that tell the truth, labour sites and basically any site that challenges the power of major corporations.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    18. Re:MITM legalized at last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They don't checksum that shit? HTTP is far from immune to errors. The checksum within the protocol is rather weak, and for the most part, it's nearly-error-free nature comes from the underlying transports being nearly error free themselves, even though they aren't required to be.

      I learned this years ago trying to download an ISO from a friend over a flaky internet connection. We tried several times, and each time the file I received was in error, and it wasn't simply truncated, there were some random bytes within it which were in error. We eventually had to resort to using zmodem over TCP to get it to transfer correctly.

      Never trust HTTP to deliver error-free content.

    19. Re:MITM legalized at last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is this denying service, unless you have some sort of extreme mental handicap that makes you incapable of making a simple decision?

      I suppose that you would also support your power company in modulating power to their customers in order to get their lights to blink in morse code to deliver a message?

    20. Re:MITM legalized at last by Warbothong · · Score: 1

      It's ridiculous the number of times I've had trouble refreshing my IMAP client, connecting to Jabber, getting APT updates, etc. all with a perfectly valid Internet connection. If I happen to open up a Web browser to try Googling for a solution, I get a warning message about invalid certificates.

      It's only if I grant access to this invalid site that I see these stupid messages. I remember one was "Thanks for using our hotel WiFi", with an OK button. No questions asked, no "enter credit card details", no "please agree to these terms", just an attempt to be polite that's been getting in my way.

      Of course, it's probably my fault for using the Internet wrong. Maybe I should switch to a Web-app for my email, get a Facebook account to use their browser-based chat system and get system updates by manually downloading "update.exe" from random websites.

    21. Re: MITM legalized at last by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

      Merry Xmas to you and your family.

      --
      Jack of all trades,master of none
  3. Legal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If this is legal I can only assume it is also legal to hijack these companie's routers and servers. Right? If it is done in good faith. To protect children.

    1. Re:Legal? by robbyb20 · · Score: 2

      Not sure these really correlate well. What kind of hijacking are you implying? Do you own their network? How is asking someone to update their terms of service before browsing considered hijacking? I do think its baloney they even have to opt out/in for such a thing but I dont see how asking them their preference before continuing on is a problem.

    2. Re:Legal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems like about 80% of Slashdot users are stupid, entitled clowns who somehow think they have the same rights on other people's systems as the system owners do.

      It would be sad, but it's probably for the best that the smart people left because they wouldn't put up with Dice, and all the noise from people here who mistakenly believe they're intelligent, when they're really just arrogant and clueless.

    3. Re:Legal? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      There is precedent. GCHQ says it's okay to hijack servers and other equipment for national security purposes. Protecting children is often mentioned in the same breath as national security, so...

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Legal? by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      It seems like about 80% of Slashdot users are stupid, entitled clowns who somehow think they have the same rights on other people's systems as the system owners do.

      You mean like how these censorship-loving ignoramuses did when they got the government to issue transparent threats to ISPs so they'd implement their stupid filter?

    5. Re: Legal? by KenHansen · · Score: 1

      Required by law in UK, so yes, it's legal.

  4. Happened to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Set it up to no filter, prefer that I get asked instead of it being defaulted to on needing an opt out.

    Not that arsed they hijacked my session to do that.

    1. Re:Happened to me. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I'm curious about the security implications of them hijacking your session. And, more importantly, whether I get reimbursed if they fuck up and some critical account of mine gets abused.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Happened to me. by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Almost all ISPs have this ability. Hijacking plain HTTP is no big deal. You are doing critical account stuff over HTTPS, right?

      --
      Good-bye
    3. Re:Happened to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not a good thing even when it's done over HTTP. They are malforming the contents of the page. I cannot anymore trust the integrity of the data I am receiving.

    4. Re:Happened to me. by tepples · · Score: 1

      Then have it your way, with DNS and HTTP to all IP addresses other than your ISP's customer support producing "Connection refused". Would that be a better way to do it?

    5. Re: Happened to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't be silly: you could never trust plain http for integrity unless you owned all the hops between you and the server. You couldn't trust the web for data integrity 20 years ago. This is nothing new. When you need integrity/authentication, you need crypto. Period.

    6. Re:Happened to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're not, they forward you to a new url on their own servers, they're not injecting anything into your connection, they just say "stop, go here instead".

    7. Re:Happened to me. by tepples · · Score: 1

      Then they're injecting a Location: header into your connection.

    8. Re:Happened to me. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      this would not even happen if they were using a different DNS such as google, it only happens with their DNS server

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    9. Re:Happened to me. by shortscruffydave · · Score: 1

      Exactly. And on the page you're redirected to, you answer the question, and don't get redirected again. I really don't understand why people are making such a huge deal of this. It's like a T&C page that you see when connecting to public wifi.

    10. Re:Happened to me. by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2

      where will it all end, though? this does not, as they say, 'scale well'.

      suppose everyone who offers inet service wants to do the DPI redirect shit on you? "you cant get to this website unless you take our survey. what was the last car you bought? how much do you make? etc etc."

      I understand the free access portals even though I think its still a bad idea to have people 'login' to a free service. but this is your HOME service that you are now being filtered at, unless you 'respond' to this or that question of the day.

      that's unacceptable.

      it breaks automation (curl, wget, scripts) and sets a really bad precedent, overall.

      it reminds me of the traffic stops they have on holidays in the US. they stop every 'n' random car and give the driver a hassle, hoping to fish for something to arrest him on. this is really against the constitution (I realize the article is about UK but I'm not in the UK) and yet, we have let it pass 'for the good of the people' (deep sigh).

      same with this: its intrusive and a common carrier should just transport ip packets and nothing else! no filtering, no redirecting, no private local dns maps, no SYN resets, no dpi and no bullshit. just carry my packets - that's ALL we want from you.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    11. Re:Happened to me. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      You can't trust the integrity of data you receive via http anyway.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    12. Re:Happened to me. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      You're assuming that the connection that they redirect is a web browser. You might want to look at how many other apps poll things over HTTP periodically, and what they do if they don't understand the response (e.g. they expect a simple JSON response and they get a big blob of HTML). Even if it is a web page, what happens when the HTTP request that they hijack is a background AJAX request and not the main page fetch?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    13. Re:Happened to me. by Bengie · · Score: 1

      I also have the ability to look through people's wallets and purses when they're at my house, but it doesn't make it legal for me to start taking note or changing stuff in their belongings.

    14. Re:Happened to me. by HiThere · · Score: 1

      That's a good point, but you're missing the point that HTTP is not and never has been secure. It wasn't designed to be secure. If your software doesn't check what's received and validate it, then you software has a bad bug.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    15. Re:Happened to me. by robbyb20 · · Score: 1

      My thoughts exactly. OR, since it's required by law to submit your choice, they could always suspend your service till you call/log into account/ mail choice to the appropriate authorities. Yes, this whole thing is bogus but everyone getting their panties in a bunch because the page they visited redirected them to another getting the info straight away is redic.

    16. Re:Happened to me. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Do you know what the media and courts call people who damage computer systems by triggering bugs? Hackers.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    17. Re:Happened to me. by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Yes. And do you know what people call those who send important information over insecure links? Fools.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    18. Re: Happened to me. by KenHansen · · Score: 1

      the free access portals even though I think its still a bad idea to have people 'login' to a free service. but this is your HOME service that you are now being filtered at, unless you 'respond' to this or that question of the day. that's unacceptable.

      The people in the UK asked for it, their political leaders passed it, and their ISPs were left trying to figure out how to implement it... To them (the people in the U.K.) this is acceptable - dice, you know, they asked for it - literally.

    19. Re: Happened to me. by KenHansen · · Score: 1

      What if it is? Can't your application handle a failed HTTP request? They are capturing an unsecured HTTP request, that's all.

    20. Re:Happened to me. by cgimusic · · Score: 1

      As annoying as that sounds I actually think that yes it would. I would really like it if more ISPs did the same thing that mine did - if you try to opt for filtered internet they tell you to leave and find another provider.

  5. You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children"

    And I want a user friendly internet, free from governments, corporations, extreme advertising and other content inappropriate for ANYONE.

    Cameron, please, for sanity's sake: Stop talking. Or, better, stop breathing.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it wants to create a "family friendly" Internet free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children.

      No more streaming video like Netflix? Oh, well, guess the kids will have to get their violence the old-fashioned way - from TV.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2

      "free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children"

      There goes the new series of Game of Thrones...

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    3. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by devnulljapan · · Score: 1

      "free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children"

      And I want a user friendly internet, free from governments, corporations, extreme advertising and other content inappropriate for ANYONE.

      Cameron, please, for sanity's sake: Stop talking. Or, better, stop breathing.

      Sure wish I had some mod points to give you today.

    4. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Alain+Williams · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ".. other content inappropriate for children"

      Curiously they do not block web sites of places like http://www.catholic.org/, https://www.churchofengland.org/, http://www.jewfaq.org/index.shtml, http://www.islamreligion.com/ ... all purveyors of ideas that really screw kids up: make them feel guilty of normal feelings, make them do strange things, ... If they insist on a banned list it would be good to see this sort of site added.

    5. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Netflix is okay because it has age restrictions to keep kids away from nasty stuff. Presumably normal porn sites that also have restrictions are not blocked either, or is there a double standard?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      better filter out all bible sites, then. there is a lot of extreme violence (much of it by our so-called loving god!) in the OT.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    7. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      It's funny how, if that happened, most of these censorship-loving idiots would suddenly be against the filter, even though they always like to claim that it's 100% "voluntary" (nevermind government threatening ISPs to get them to implement it).

    8. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      better filter out all bible sites, then. there is a lot of extreme violence (much of it by our so-called loving god!) in the OT.

      And the news ...

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    9. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe if you didn't like the fucker you shouldn't have voted him in.

      You got what you asked for, a neo-conservative Nazi prick. Which is exactly what you deserve.

    10. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish that they put a filter for Facebook, Twitter and similar sites like we have done in our company, after much complaining the productivity has gone up around 20% ( only some commercials and people from publicity have access due to their responsibilities ).

    11. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I figured it's simply a matter of numbers.

      When one person says he's heeding the laws of his imaginary friend, you send him to the mental asylum.
      When a million or more do it, you call it religion and it gets governmental protection.

      Or, in other words, if one person does it, it's insanity. If a thousand do it, it's a cult. If a million does it, it's a religion.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    12. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

      Or, in other words: If voting could change anything, it would be outlawed.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    13. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Entirely depends on the company. In an IT-heavy company, blocking FB would probably LOWER productivity with all the people busy finding ways to get around the block. :)

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    14. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah, because the previous lot were sooo much better right? Vast database on every citizen (for ID cards to keep you safe honestly), 90 days detention without charge, an illegal Iraq war.... And the alternatives, let's pick UKIP, the so called "swivel eyed loons" who have a corrupt ex-MP who was drummed out of Parliament over a decade ago as a senior member looking to be elected next year.

    15. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      "free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children"

      Didn't I see just this morning something about some Brit (well, Scot, presumably, since it was in Glasgow) who was arrested for an "offensive tweet"?

      Sounds like par for the course for the UK....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    16. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Stargoat · · Score: 1

      WTF is wrong with the UK?

      Mario Balotelli, a black football player with a Jewish mother is suspended a game and fined 25k pounds for posting an anti-racist picture about a multicultural Super Mario.

      Luis Suarez was essentially forced out of England for using the word negrito while speaking Spanish because it happened to sound like nigger. (While John Terry was given a sentence of half the time for using the word nigger in English.)

      Crazy arse porn rules.

      A man is threatened with life in jail for swearing too much.

      And what the fuck is an Anti-Social Behavior Order?

      --
      Hoist Number One and Number Six.
    17. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      No one outside of his constituency voted for him, that's now how it works in a parliamentary system (he's a Prime Minister, not a President). His party received 36.1% of the popular vote, 23.5% of the votes of those eligible to vote. Non-voters were the largest bloc in the last election. Perhaps this time they'll realise and exert some influence...

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    18. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by ProzacPatient · · Score: 1

      When one person says he's heeding the laws of his imaginary friend, you send him to the mental asylum.

      I can't speak for the UK as I'm not familiar with British law but at least here in the US, where I live, the Supreme Court has ruled, in O'Connor v. Donaldson that you need to be proven to be a danger to yourself or others before you can be institutionalized by the state or anyone else and that being committed to a mental asylum is the same thing as imprisonment and that patients are entitled to legal representation as guaranteed under the sixth amendment, so really you can have as many imaginary friends as you want and not face unlawful imprisonment as long as those imaginary friends don't tell you to go break the law.

      You may not like the idea of people have an "imaginary friend" but the moment the government starts imprisoning people for doing so, because some people don't like that idea, we're on a slippery slope where the government can imprison and persecute people for any ideas they don't like (See Soviet Union, People's Republic of China). This is why religion is protected, and the moment you start working against the right of people to have religion you'll be fighting against your own rights.

    19. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Well, how about religiously motivated hate speech? If I go around and tell people that they should die 'cause my imaginary friend doesn't like how and who they fuck, think I will stay free for long?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    20. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      How?

      Tell me, please. How? By voting for Party B because Party A screws us over? Just to watch Party B screw us even worse, so we'll show them by voting for Party A next time?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    21. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by ProzacPatient · · Score: 1

      Well, how about religiously motivated hate speech? If I go around and tell people that they should die 'cause my imaginary friend doesn't like how and who they fuck, think I will stay free for long?

      It depends, and this is strictly my amateur legal opinion that shall not be construed as legal advice; if they are simply saying you're subject to judgement by their imaginary friend or some universal balance such as karma then their speech is probably protected under the first amendment, however if they are directly calling for violence against you or anyone else then the government has something potentially substantial to act on rather than just ideas but even in this case there may be nothing a liberty minded government can do until somebody actually acts on it; a good example might be "inciting a riot" where a person can basically say whatever he pleases but if his actions lead to a riot that threatens public safety then he can be potentially charged with a crime and convicted if the state can prove that person did so with malicious intent.

      It is worth noting that hate speech laws are themselves a slippery slope that threaten liberty because in some countries that takes things to an extreme just merely saying you don't like, not necessarily outright hate, something somebody does or a certain culture can be considered hate speech.

      Liberty comes at the cost of security but fear not for we have the 2nd Amendment.

    22. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Last election, Party C got a large enough share of the popular vote to get into a coalition government. Party D would likely do the same if they could get more than half of the didn't-vote crowd to vote for them next time.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    23. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      What about the bible? No gambling, but it has some pornography, some violent pornography, and a ridiculous amount of violence. Not to mention racism and sexism.

    24. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      You can vote for Party Z - one of the tiny little insignificent ones.

    25. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Party C is just Party A of tomorrow. It happened before, it's going to happen again. First-past-the-post election systems don't sustain more than two parties, and both of them have no interest to change the system.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    26. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I could also just jack off. Not only is it more satisfying, but I'll even have something to show afterwards.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    27. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Oh, ok. So it's ok for them to say their imaginary friend hates me, but if I go and say that usually people who heed the dictate of an imaginary buddy should probably consider seeing a shrink I get fucked over with "vilification of religious teachings"? Believe it or not, that is actually a legal term around here.

      Just in case anyone thought that only in the US the religious hold the rest of the state hostage. There's equally insane bullshit littering the law books in Europe. Separation of church and state, my ass!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    28. Re: You want a family friendly internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You keep electing the MPs that get him into office.

    29. Re: You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Me? Most certainly not.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    30. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually we are a IT-heavy company and did it by a good reason, the people where spending more and more time on it and the warnings did nothing, the problem was that some people where abusing the social media creating a bottleneck. Actually the drop in productivity had a snowball effect in the general productivity, our company policy is pretty lenient with the computer use if the use don't affect productivity and it was the first hard measure in 15 years, the people that complained where actually a very voice full minority (those people had a diva syndrome and are normally the only problematic). The other option was to fire those people but that had problems then we went with the block, now we had strict requirements about social media use for new recruits to prevent that.

    31. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To me, the real irony of the quote is what the statement implies about adults. Consider that 'a "family friendly" Internet free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children' more or less is saying that pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content ARE appropriate for non-children (ie, adults). Clearly, though, the whole notion of filtering the internet and "family friendly" when in most households half or more of the family are adults basically suggests Cameron believes that 'pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content' are 'inappropriate' for everyone.

      For certain uses of the word 'inappropriate', maybe that's true, but it seems pretty extreme equivocation to suggest that it's fundamentally inappropriate for adults. In fact, it's rather hard with stretching the use of the word 'inappropriate' or 'children' for the statement to hold. Even at a young age, children need exposure to at least the knowledge of gambling, violence, and other content that are deemed generally socially acceptable. That's the main reason fairy tales/holy text go into details about them to frame a child's growth into adulthood. By the time of preteens, sexual awakening more or less leads to some degree of exposure to things covered under the scope of pornography--and it's a major reason why they try to word in exceptions for biology books, possibly nudist magazines, etc so they don't look crazy. The only thing left is perhaps the "extreme" violence which like "assault" rifles ends up being such a matter of interpretation that it's almost entirely useless as a metric of anything--and the notion that extremes of violence should be specifically excluded as a point reeks of a certain lack of realization that gluttony or extremes of all sorts should really be banned, but then that too would be obviously crazy to filter out.

      In the end, it would seem obvious that the truly horrific stuff is already banned/illegal--regardless of any inherent respect of freedom of speech/thought (regardless of any lack of codification to the same)--and so we're left to the point that adults are in a position to never really be exposed to "inappropriate" anything unless by some accident of time/place or incompetence/inadequacy of police to seek criminal prosecution; at that point, reverting to a filter is actually trying to cover up for the police. And it's equally clear that parents should be responsible for children in their development and should be the ones to choose the standards by which "inappropriate for children" actually holds and at what level and at what time and in what way those limits are restricted; if parents are negligent and allow grossly "inappropriate for children" to occur, we already have Child Protection Services and using a filter to cover up for them is papering over a more fundamental issue.

      tl;dr Filters are, fundamentally, about censorship to make the government not look as bad while not actually fixing problems.

      PS - Yes, this is the internet, and no, no country has absolute jurisdiction to block all things they dislike or view as criminal. But, then, that's a good thing because it means only through treaty upon agreed things can the "extreme" stuff be removed and the rest can stay instead of leaving every country to have absurd Chinese Firewalls to more often abusively lie to their people than to actually deal with objectionable things. Besides that, I honestly await the day that any content I ever receive only to be so fundamentally horrific that it corrupts me or anyone else yet I'm unable to turn away or block my eyes if I am truly so offended. I mean, politicians and moral activists speak as if flashing patterns of light can behave like malware and rewire the brain in some sort of mass outbreak. If that actually worked, we'd all be dead by now through a lethal meme.

      tl; dr 2 - The world doesn't work like "The Ring".

    32. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      There is exactly one person in this whole wide world whose judgement about content and its appropriateness for me I will accept: MINE. There is exactly NO other person, organization, entity or being in existence that can successfully convince me that they should have any kind of say concerning my consumption of entertainment.

      Personally, I consider a whole lot of shit inappropriate for consumption. Most of daytime TV comes to mind. Almost 99% of music is right behind it. And guess what, I make that decision for myself that it is inappropriate. For ME. Everyone else, I certainly do NOT think I have the right to dictate what they may or may not see, hear or for all I care smell.

      That's THEIR decision. Not mine.

      And it for fuck's sake certainly ain't any politician's!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    33. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      all it requires here is a doctor (pretty much any one single person with a doctorate, not necessarily in medicine either) to say "He's mental!" and you're in a room with nice soft walls and wearing a sweater with really long sleeves before you have the chance to try and refuse the needle (which you can't under the mental health act).

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    34. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      I was denied the vote in the last election because my poll booth closed FIVE HOURS EARLY.

      I'm not the only one this happened to.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_...

      Highest turnout for thirty years?? Sure, half of them didn't get to fucking vote, though!

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    35. Re:You want a family friendly internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A Scot is a Brit.

  6. Big fucking deal, really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh my God your ISP is redirecting one web request to get an opt-in or opt-out from you, BIG FUCKING DEAL, my router does worse than this.

    Let's talk about how this is "hijacking the internet" shall we? Oh, I see we are.

    1. Re: Big fucking deal, really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if your router does worst than this, then your a clueless idiot. just because the govt told you it's ok, stop spreading that fud and telling everyone else it's ok. IT'S NOT!!

  7. Stoppit with this hysteria! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

    A handful of people have reported that the "would you like to enable parental filters" message crops up. It's onbe of those setup screensthat a lot if ISPs use for initial setup.

    Seriously, what's in it for the ISP to push these things? It makes their service less useful and costs the ISP money. Filtering requires servers to run the filters.

    Is it not possible, that perhaps the router was reset or something was changed at the exchange and that triggered the setup messag to appear? Click "no" and carry on browsing.

    1. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by PPH · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously, what's in it for the ISP to push these things?

      I'm guessing that the gov't is leaning on ISPs to get an explicit buy in/out of filtering per customer. So that later on, when someone in the household stumbles upon that midget porn site, no one can claim shock and offense.

      The down side (as others have pointed out) is that little Timmy might be the first one onto the family Internet connection one morning. And the "Do you want to watch porn?" might not get the response intended.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's not one pop up message that you can opt out of. It's connection interception and real-time redirection or alteration on a country-wide scale. Now the system exists it will be used to limit access to more and more sites, and to inject hostile javascript and god knows what else. In in 10 years the Chinese will be laughing at the UK's great firewall.

    3. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by tepples · · Score: 1

      The down side (as others have pointed out) is that little Timmy might be the first one onto the family Internet connection one morning.

      That depends on whether the householder trusts Timmy with the account's billing username and password.

    4. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      It's not a javascript injection. It's a browser redirect. It is one message that you can opt out of. You just say no, and it stops coming up. If you see it again then there's a fault with the system and you should contact your ISP if the fault keeps cropping up.

      And they've been able to intercept and redirect connections for years already. If you have a problem with cleanfeed than I'm totally with you on that, but people seem to be ignoring that mandatory system and whining about optional filters.

    5. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      They have a number of motives:

      1. Placate the screaming "think of the children (but not in that way)" Daily Mail reading crowd who are offended by the filthy internet.

      2. Build a National Pervert Database to give the police some extra leverage.

      3. Put internet censorship infrastructure in place, for when it is needed later. There is already Cleanfeed, but the rules for what goes on it are annoying, so they wanted a system that is easier to use (for them, as in they ask nicely and ISPs block stuff for them).

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Basically, the big 4 (BT/Sky/Virgin and Talktalk) are under a lot of pressure from the government to introduce these things. They've been told that if they don't introduce the IWF filter (the no oversight anti-childporn/-extremism filter) and their own optional porn filters then the government will pass laws requiring them on all net connections.

      However, because they were brought in voluntarily by the big players, there are still plenty of smaller ISPs that don't ruin your net connection. The biggest of these independents (and always comes up in these discussions) is Andrews and Arnold, but there are plenty of others. And with the way ADSL is set up in the UK, you can use any ISP almost anywhere in the country.

    7. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by GoddersUK · · Score: 1

      I'd have an issue here. I store most of my passwords in LastPass, certainly the infrequently used ones such as ISP details. Now if the ISP is bocking my internet access until I provide my password there's a problem... I can't get to LastPass to get my password without an internet connection... catch 22.

      It seems to me that the solution is not to interfere with the service they're providing to me, which is the service I ASKED FOR, in the first place. One can only hope the ISPs are doing this deliberately to piss off customers and create opposition to Davewall.

      (I *think* the passwords in the LastPass browser extension are supposedly available offline, but I've never tested this.)

    8. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "think of the children (but not in that way)"

      I've never noticed the double entendre in that phrase before, brilliant!

    9. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by GoddersUK · · Score: 1

      If you have a problem with cleanfeed than I'm totally with you on that, but people seem to be ignoring that mandatory system and whining about optional filters.

      I do have a problem with Cleanfeed, but I don't think you need to have a problem with Cleanfeed to have a problem with this.

      Originally, at least, all content blocked by Cleanfeed (theoretically, there are vast issues of accountability and due process; I'm using Cleanfeed here to mean the IWF watchlists, not the BT filtering technology which has been extended to other blocks, e.g. torrent sites, on BT's network) was already clearly illegal. On the other hand these optional filters are the product of the government beating the private companies with the stick of proposed regulation/legislation to force them to control access to completely and totally legal content in a way that their customers do not want. All the big players already gave the option of "network level" (apologies for the more or less meaningless term, but it's a favourite of Dave et al.) filtering to customers who wanted it.

      The government is trying to control access to a wide range of completely legal content (and it is the government, make no mistake) - that is what people are angry about. It doesn't matter if it's optional I shouldn't have to suffer the indignity of saying I want to view porn (regardless of the actual question asked that is how the question will be read in everybody's minds) to visit websites with, for instance, political viewpoints that aren't widely accepted (or, indeed, to view porn - whether or not I want to do that is nobody else's business, unless I voluntarily choose to make it so by raising the subject with them). Anyone who contracts an internet connection is a responsible adult (even if they then give access to that connection to an under 18) able to decide, without state interference, what they do or do not want to see/filter and what measure they need to take before allowing minors under their charge access. And anyone who follows UK news can no doubt see the day when having the filters disabled will be used as evidence in a kangaroo court trying someone for terror, paedophilia or just being a nasty pervert...

    10. Re:Stoppit with this hysteria! by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      A&A is pretty much the best out there, since they are in fact the only declared XKCD/806-compliant ISP in operation currently.

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    11. Re: Stoppit with this hysteria! by buchanmilne · · Score: 1

      Seems a bit silly to store the details you need to access the internet (in the case you router dies) only accessible when you have working internet access. Maybe you should store just those details somewhere you can access without the internet?

    12. Re: Stoppit with this hysteria! by GoddersUK · · Score: 1

      The online account username and password (i.e. billing and support; this is the one I store in LastPass and, since you only use it on the ISP's website I would never consider that I might need it when I don't have internet access) and the connection username and password (i.e. what the router uses to connect to ADSL) have been two separate things with every ISP I have been with.

      In fact I just checked my old ISP's support pages and they didn't even use login credentials for the connection for most of their customers (those on LLU exchanges): http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRV...

  8. Prohibitions do not work! by s.petry · · Score: 1

    Intentionally running a MITM attack against your customers aside, there is a huge problem with the legislation to begin with. There is a valid answer, and has been for quite a while, for people that want to keep their kids away from porn without the heavy handed Government regulation.

    Cybersitter and NetNanny are not for me, but if I had young kids I may use that type of service if I was worried about their access. These companies get paid to manage content for you, and are _completely_voluntary so don't impose restrictions on everyone. And if those services are not available in the UK, or not good enough in the UK, why not create the company and let the free market do the work? As bad as the US has become, I'm glad I'm not from the UK.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The filters are provided by companies similar to netnanny not the ISPs, they are running at an ISP level on an account to account basis.

    2. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Informative

      Intentionally running a MITM attack against your customers aside, there is a huge problem with the legislation to begin with.

      Yes. The fact that no such legislation exists. This is a voluntary ISP scheme

      Cybersitter and NetNanny are not for me, but if I had young kids I may use that type of service if I was worried about their access.

      Or you could use the service the ISP provides you with for free, that's easy to set up, available in the UK, and works with all network connected devices.

      These companies get paid to manage content for you, and are _completely_voluntary so don't impose restrictions on everyone.

      The UK ISP filters are completely voluntary as well.

      And if those services are not available in the UK, or not good enough in the UK, why not create the company and let the free market do the work?

      We tried. No suitable product became available. David Cameron pushed the market into providing such a service. The market obliged. If you really have a problem, you can always choose one of the dozens of ISPs that doesn't offer this service.

      As bad as the US has become, I'm glad I'm not from the UK.

      Why? You don't even have a choice of ISP in a lot of the US.

    3. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We tried. No suitable product became available.

      Which is pretty clear proof that pretty much no-one wants their Internet pre-censored.

      David Cameron pushed the market into providing such a service.

      And, last I read, something like 4% of people had chosen to have their Internet censored. They're probably the ones who clicked 'Yes' by mistake, thinking it meant 'Yes, I want the Internet, not Davenet'.

    4. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 2

      Which is pretty clear proof that pretty much no-one wants their Internet pre-censored.

      Only if the free market works perfectly. Given that 4% of customers have turned on the filters, clearly there was some demand for this. This is much higher uptake than any software solution, so evidently that was not the solution the 4% wanted, and this is.

      And, last I read, something like 4% of people had chosen to have their Internet censored.

      So, 4% of the customers wanted filters. 96% did not. We now have a situation where the 96% get what they want, and the 4% get what they want. Why is this seen as a problem? Why do you want to remove the choice from those 4%?

      They're probably the ones who clicked 'Yes' by mistake, thinking it meant 'Yes, I want the Internet, not Davenet'.

      Or maybe they wanted the filters. If not, I have little sympathy for people who are that stupid.

    5. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Slashjones · · Score: 0

      But they're mandated by the government.

    6. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Only if the free market works perfectly.

      The free market gives people what they want. If there was money to be made selling pre-censored Internet, the service would exist.

      But, no, you and Dave say, since the service doesn't exist, companies must be forced to create it, and the vast majority who don't want Davenet must be forced to pay for the few who do.

      Why do you want to remove the choice from those 4%?

      Those people are free to install filters on their PC or router, or find an ISP that will filter the Internet for them. You're the one forcing your 'choice' on the other 96%, and making them pay for other peoples' choices.

      And we know how this goes. We've seen it all before. When it turns out that almost no-one has switched from the Internet to Davenet, you and Dave will announce that 'The Internet is not safe for CHILDRUN!' and now the filter will have to be compulsory. Right?

    7. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Slashjones · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes. The fact that no such legislation exists. This is a voluntary ISP scheme

      David Cameron pushed the market into providing such a service.

      Right. He "pushed the market," and yet it's all 100% voluntary. More like coerced them with threats.

      Censorship is evil, and so is "voluntary" default on censorship.

    8. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by unrtst · · Score: 1

      As bad as the US has become, I'm glad I'm not from the UK.

      This isn't very different from what most US based ISP's do with DNS these days (go to a non-existent page, and they redirect to their own search/helper site). In the DNS case, it's somewhat difficult to disable (finding the URL where you can set it is difficult), and it will occassionally re-enable itself.

      I don't really like any of this crap, but it's been done for a long time and it's not *too* awful (once disabled, everything works as it should; more-or-less a one time setting). The way they get that answer is, IMO, wrong. If they need an answer, then use the contacts they have on record (email, phone, mail, etc), set a cut off date, and provide a default. This is a technical solution to a simple and easily solved problem (though, on paper, it may seem like the technical solution costs less, but now you've gotta run that thing indefinitely, and deal with the fallout and bad press and support for it).

    9. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Slashjones · · Score: 0

      Through very transparent threats, that is.

    10. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This is a voluntary ISP scheme

      Please remember that the mechanism by which the UK government has effectively blocked storys from the national press for vary many years is technically a 'voluntary scheme'. When the implied threat is great enough people will happly sell out other people's freedom.

    11. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by meta-monkey · · Score: 2

      It is odd they're so concerned, as it seems parliament was very, very unsafe for children...

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    12. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Free+Censorship · · Score: 2

      I don't really like any of this crap, but it's been done for a long time and it's not *too* awful

      This is how these things grow into bigger and bigger problems. When it gets worse, people will be saying, "Well, it's not *that* much worse." Power creep is slow, but it exists. We've already seen this with their stupid filters.

      And it's really sad that some people think this is voluntary when there are plenty of implied government threats to get ISPs to implement this.

    13. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      This particular filter isn't legislation.

      It's the threat of legislation. The government has repeatidly made it very clear that if all major ISPs do not voluntarily set up filtering, they will pass some form of law compelling them to do so. Faced with the prospect of having to comply with some vague and impossible mandate written by an MP who last used a router in woodshop class, they decided it would be better do so as was asked. Though they certainly dragged their feet over it as long as they can.

    14. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      So fucking what?

      If you don't want filters, say "No I don't want filters". If you don't want to be asked then use a different ISP.

    15. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Choice - censored

      No choice - not censored

      Which do you think I would pick?

    16. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The UK ISP filters are completely voluntary as well.

      Nope, Cleanfeed cannot be opted out of except by blocking it with something like a VPN.

      David Cameron pushed the market into providing such a service. The market obliged.

      He threatened to legislate, the ISPs decided to develop a crappy, ineffective token service to shut him up rather than deal with being legally required to do the impossible.

      If you really have a problem, you can always choose one of the dozens of ISPs that doesn't offer this service.

      Nope, Virgin Media is the only choice available to me. My BT line can only get a very unstable 1-2Mb/sec.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    17. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually since in the UK the porn filter is opt out, 96% off the people turned the porn filter off, the other 4% probably don't know how.

    18. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Free+Censorship · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So fucking what?

      You don't think it's a big deal when worthless government thugs coerce companies into implementing filters they didn't want to implement in the first place? You don't think it's a big deal that we're giving them all the tools they need to start censoring content they don't like, which they're already doing but for "nasty" content only? You don't think it's a big deal that they have all the names of the account holders who opt out of this nonsensical filter (and knowing governments, this will be put to use even if it's in the hands of ISPs)? You don't think the government threatening companies to do something and then pretending it's voluntary is a big deal? I do.

      I demand that all religious websites be filtered, because I find them harmful.

    19. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      You don't think it's a big deal when worthless government thugs coerce companies into implementing filters they didn't want to implement in the first place?

      If they just roll over then it was never a big issue in the first place.

      You don't think it's a big deal that they have all the names of the account holders who opt out of this nonsensical filter

      That's over 90% of their customer base. It's hardly worthwhile information.

      I demand that all religious websites be filtered, because I find them harmful.

      Seems fair. Get onto your ISP. Request a "religion" filter.

    20. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      You are presented with a screen asking you whether you want to enable filters or not. You have no choice but to see this screen. To opt out you click "no thanks". To opt-in, you click "yes please". If you can't work out what the two options do then I suspect that using a computer is beyond your abilities.

    21. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      We're not talking about cleanfeed. We're talking about the ISP's parental filters.

      You want to talk about cleanfeed? I agree with you. It's terrible.

    22. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      If they just roll over then it was never a big issue in the first place.

      Maybe not to companies looking to secure their bottom line, but it is a big deal when the government can just make threats as it pleases to subvert the democratic process and get companies to do whatever they want them to.

      A default on filter is simply intolerable.

      That's over 90% of their customer base. It's hardly worthwhile information.

      It's easily worthwhile. You don't need to go after everyone. Even if something is indeed popular, that doesn't mean it isn't a social taboo.

      Seems fair. Get onto your ISP. Request a "religion" filter.

      It will never happen, because these censorship-loving fools only want material they don't like blocked. And it shouldn't happen, anyway.

    23. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Maybe not to companies looking to secure their bottom line, but it is a big deal when the government can just make threats as it pleases to subvert the democratic process and get companies to do whatever they want them to.

      They were being threatened with the democratic process! The free press was promoting the idea. The Prime Minister suggested that the democratically elected government might legislate if they didn't roll over.

      A default on filter is simply intolerable.

      It's not default on! It's active choice! That's what the article is about. People are seeing the screen that asks if they want to enable the filters. They can literally do nothing else without making a choice.

      It's easily worthwhile. You don't need to go after everyone. Even if something is indeed popular, that doesn't mean it isn't a social taboo.

      If over 90% of the population do something it's not a social taboo!

    24. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      They were being threatened with the democratic process!

      Incorrect. Threatening companies into doing immoral things is immoral, unjust, and undemocratic. The "free press" isn't free at all, either, and oftentimes has an authoritarian agenda. The idea that a small group of whiners who support filtering should have so much influence is absolutely insane.

      It's not default on!

      If I can't access content without making a choice, then as far as I'm concerned, it's default on.

      If over 90% of the population do something it's not a social taboo!

      This is not necessarily so. It's all about perception. Lots of people can feel that something is bad all the while doing it themselves. We see this often with religion, where people continue "sinning" and trying to fight against basic urges.

    25. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      And one of the biggest problems is the government's ability to threaten the companies to get sites blocked. The censorship tools are in place, and this is not good.

    26. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, 4% of the customers wanted filters. 96% did not. We now have a situation where the 96% get what they want, and the 4% get what they want. Why is this seen as a problem? Why do you want to remove the choice from those 4%?

      So an extremely small minority of people now make everyone deal with some terrible traffic interception to verify that they do indeed want to keep getting the internet uncensored.

      The point is that that small minority could have taken alternative actions to filter their connections without causing all the trouble of this.

    27. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Incorrect. Threatening companies into doing immoral things is immoral, unjust, and undemocratic.

      What's immoral about offering your users more choice?

      If I can't access content without making a choice, then as far as I'm concerned, it's default on.

      So that means any setup screen is censorship.

    28. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      What's immoral about offering your users more choice?

      Threats by the government do not qualify as voluntary.

      So that means any setup screen is censorship.

      In cases like this, where they force you to answer whether or not you want censorship because the government threatened companies into providing filters that block things they don't like? Yes.

    29. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      I would not have as much of a problem with this if the government did not practically force companies to offer it and ISPs made it opt-in only (i.e. you have to call and specifically ask for it, rather than have this hijacking nonsense).

    30. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The UK ISP filters are completely voluntary as well.

      You sound extremely naive. The voluntary filter is not the problem. The problem is that you are REQUIRED to tell your ISP (and through them, your government) that you intent to browse nasty websites. That's not voluntary, and that's not free. That's a scheme set up specifically to feed a sex offender database, with methods for which no credible scientific foundation exist. And why? Just because they can. Because the general population have been so brainwashed with thinking that anyone who opposes government legislation is a conspiracy theorist that they can get away with it.

      Voluntary means going to a website and indicating that you wish to receive filtered content. This isn't it.

    31. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Taxing the 96% to cover the cost of hardware and man hours to maintain these filters, which just amounts to something similar to religion or out-sourcing parenting, seems to be an abuse of power. What's next, taxing people in health care to cover homeopathic "remedies"?

    32. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      And if those services are not available in the UK, or not good enough in the UK, why not create the company and let the free market do the work?

      We tried. No suitable product became available.

      That no suitable product became available proves that such a product is either unworkable or undesirable. Problem solved!

      David Cameron pushed the market into providing such a service.

      No, it's something that masquerades as such a service. The provided solution does not work properly. If you sold customers such a product, it would be returned as being unsuitable for the stated purpose, because the mission is impossible. That is why no one produced a suitable product: it cannot be done.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    33. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by cgimusic · · Score: 1

      But many ISPs already provided that functionality before the government mandated it and, if parents wanted it they were perfectly free to switch to an ISP that offered it.

    34. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by cgimusic · · Score: 1

      > The UK ISP filters are completely voluntary as well. No, they are not. Every ISP is required to offer this service and explicitly force customers to make a choice as to having it off or on. The only way to avoid implementing it is to tell customers who want filtered internet that they can't sign up, but if one of the major ISPs tried that Cameron would be closing that loophole pretty quickly.

    35. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      No, they are not. Every ISP is required to offer this service

      There's no law requiring them to. Only the largest ISPs offer this. The smaller ones don't. And if you don't want filtering then you can choose "No thanks", therefore the customer is not forced into doing anything except clicking "No thanks".

      if one of the major ISPs tried that Cameron would be closing that loophole pretty quickly.

      How? There's no law! Currently an ISP can just say "no" and if pressured tell people they can use a different ISP. It's unlikely that the government could even get this law through. The ISPs would actually be obliged to fight it and since the Lib-Dems mostly oppose laws to force this, it wouldn't become law unless Labour felt particularly puritanical.

    36. Re:Prohibitions do not work! by cgimusic · · Score: 1

      You are quite correct. I was under the impression that ISPs were required to implement this. It appears that Cameron simply pressured them into implementing it without passing a law requiring it.

  9. I'm not sure I understand by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Is redirection really that hard to defeat? Can I do it with my own hosts file?

    beetlejuice!
    beetlejuice!
    beetlejuice!

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:I'm not sure I understand by Motard · · Score: 1

      Why would you want to defeat it? Your ISP wants to ask you if you want filtering on or off. Just tell them 'off'' and be glad they asked before filtering your requests. Then you can go on with your life without and further redirections.

    2. Re:I'm not sure I understand by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      I believe the correct incantation is:

      APK!
      APK!
      APK!

      --
      Time to offend someone
    3. Re:I'm not sure I understand by itzly · · Score: 1

      Why do they even have to ask ? They could just as well announce that the filtering service is available, and point you to the ISP settings page where you can turn it on.

    4. Re:I'm not sure I understand by Motard · · Score: 1

      Why do they even have to ask ?

      From the summary:

      "Sky,TalkTalk and Virgin Media are required to ask all their customers if they want web filters turned on or off"

    5. Re: I'm not sure I understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fine.

      Are customers required to answer?

    6. Re: I'm not sure I understand by Motard · · Score: 1

      Fine.

      Are customers required to answer?

      I don't know, but I suspect not. But why in God's name would you not answer the question? It's an opportunity to ward off a possible future 'default' setting.

    7. Re:I'm not sure I understand by itzly · · Score: 1

      Then let me rephrase my question to "why are they required to ask ?" What, exactly, is the benefit for the subscriber compared to the benefit for the government ? How would the subscriber benefit any less from this filter, if it was off by default, and you can voluntarily go to your ISP setup page, and check the option to enable the filter ?

    8. Re: I'm not sure I understand by itzly · · Score: 1

      But why in God's name would you not answer the question?

      Plausible deniability. If the government accuses me of not censoring what they think is inappropriate material, I can deny ever having seen the option.

    9. Re:I'm not sure I understand by Motard · · Score: 1

      As I understand it, they are required by law. The reasons behind the law are not particularly relevant to them. For those, you would need to ask your legislative representative or research the history of the particular law.

      The ISPs only have to decide on the manner with which they comply. Personally, I'd rather they do it this way rather than, say, call me on the phone. My only problem with it is the page could be served to, and answered by, my hypothetical six-year-old.

    10. Re: I'm not sure I understand by Motard · · Score: 1

      Plausible deniability. If the government accuses me of not censoring what they think is inappropriate material, I can deny ever having seen the option.

      What?!?! That makes no sense. The government is requiring ISPs to offer you a choice of filtered or unfiltered internet. If the government ever accuses you of 'not censoring' because, say, you're looking at child porn (one of the only cases the public might be expected to self-censor that I can think of), they won't be using your response to a voluntary opt-in/out ISP feature to convict you. They'll use your actual traffic history.

    11. Re:I'm not sure I understand by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Not the Virgin one. You need to enter your Virgin password. That one you set when you signed up, and havn't actually needed to use in ten years.

    12. Re:I'm not sure I understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For once, I find myself in the unenviable position of admitting that APK may be on to something, although I don't believe that hosts files are the only tool necessary to deal with this issue.

  10. Ungrateful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Much of the will to make the internet what it is today has come from the perfectly understandable desire and curiosity to see porn*. These companies should know better.

    * - Not condoning in any way anything done with non-adults involved - this should go without saying, but not anymore, not as the world is today.

  11. Make your own fucking internet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Make your own little child walled garden and piss off already.
    If you want to be a lazy parent and not explain what things are, go right ahead. But you can fund it yourselves. Pricks.

    I can't wait till this shit explodes in the coming year or two and gets completely dropped.

  12. Brilliant idea by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Brilliant idea.

    Now instead of offering the parents an option to enable a porn filter, little Billy goes to a random kids website and gets asked "Do you want to watch porn?".

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  13. BAHAHA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Much like Australia being too full of prison convict spooge for violent games, it seems the British are too sensitive to acknowledge that sex exists. Again. Ah well, good thing you've elected people who know what's best for your intellectually inferior populace.

    1. Re:BAHAHA by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      Ah well, good thing you've elected people who know what's best for your intellectually inferior populace.

      Britain has three parties with insignificant differences. So at least voters have slightly more choice than America, where there are two parties with insignificant differences.

      Both Tories and Labour are censorious asshats. No-one knows whether the Lib Dems are the same, because they change policies as soon as they get any power.

    2. Re:BAHAHA by halivar · · Score: 1

      It's like you're not even trying. You're not a real European Parliamentary until you've got at least eleven parties with insignificant differences. Throw in some Christian Democrats, Democratic Christians, Republicans, Peoples' Workers Party, and Christian Democratic Republican Peoples' Workers Party, and you're starting to have real variety.

    3. Re:BAHAHA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As much as the Lib Dems should be criticised for compromising on tuition fees, they have been pretty consistent on civil liberties. They have repeatedly blocked the more authoritarian policies of the Tories.

    4. Re:BAHAHA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what about the Greens?

    5. Re:BAHAHA by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Spliters.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  14. Goatse filtering is a feature by tepples · · Score: 1

    It makes their service less useful

    Conservative parents might disagree. They see filtering as a "feature" that lets them use the web as a babysitter without running quite as much of a risk of exposing children to things that parents think their children shouldn't see without context, such as Goatse or Tubgirl.

    1. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      Conservative parents might disagree.

      Well, then why don't Conservative parents fuck off, do their own parenting, and not insist on foisting laws on the rest of us to keep care of their children?

      Outlawing everything you find personally objectionable or that you don't want your children to see if the mark of an asshole.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Conservative parents might disagree.

      They can turn the filters on. So the ISP provides a service that is useful for both those who so and those who don't want filters. The article is suggesting that the ISPs have a vested interest in tailoring their service for the smaller and more expensive of those groups.

    3. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by Sperbels · · Score: 1

      Because there are enough of these people to have government representation and therefore have the ability to impose their values on you, just as you have representation and have your "freedoms" imposed on them.

    4. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      Yeah, having things like freedom of speech being "imposed" on them must make them so sad. Maybe they should move to North Korea so they can feel better.

    5. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by Sperbels · · Score: 1

      I don't agree with it...but a lot of people feel freedom is good as long as it's freedom censored by them. Of course, that's not really freedom, but try to tell them that.

    6. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by itzly · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Since only 4% of the voters decided to enable the filtering themselves, that's an awfully small basis for imposing this kind of stuff on the other 96%.

    7. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by LVSlushdat · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Outlawing everything you find personally objectionable or that you don't want your children to see if the mark of an asshole.

      Actually its the mark of a statist/totalitarian masquerading as a Conservative.. Most *actual* Conservatives don't like those things, but we don't try to prevent others from partaking of them. All we ask is to not shove the fact you're doing these things in our faces.. Such as.. we believe homosexuality is a sin, but we don't give a damn what you do in the privacy of your bedroom.. Not to mention, most of us do NOT hate gays, we hate the sin.. BIG difference there.. Hate the sin, NOT the sinner... I suspect I'd have to classify myself as a Conservative/Libertarian... I believe in the motto "live and let live"...

      Bottom line: David Cameron is as far from a true Conservative as one of the old-line USSR dictators...

      --
      THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
    8. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by itzly · · Score: 1

      All we ask is to not shove the fact you're doing these things in our faces.. Such as.. we believe homosexuality is a sin, but we don't give a damn what you do in the privacy of your bedroom.

      How about showing normal signs of affection in public ? Do you have different rules in mind for homo/heterosexual couples ?

    9. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually its the mark of a statist/totalitarian masquerading as a Conservative

      Yawn, whatever. This is the same "no true Scottsman" crap, because there is no universal definition, and I suspect among themselves 'conservatives' can't agree on a definition.

      Hate the sin, NOT the sinner

      See, the problem is you still define it in terms of your own damned religion.

      So, I'll go with "hate the religious idiot, not the religion".

      Any 'Conservative' or religious person who wishes to outlaw stuff on the basis of their religion is worthy of as much contempt as the Taliban, and are little different in my opinion. They're just someone who thinks their religious beliefs should be entrenched in law, and who want reality to be defined in terms of their beliefs.

      But, unmistakably, a lot of people who are 'conservatives' (whatever the heck that means) are opposed to government restricting rights, unless it's to impose their own beliefs. And then they're totally fine with it.

      So, to exercise my freedom of speech ... to hell with your religion. You are free to believe what you like in private, but leave the rest of us alone.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    10. Re: Goatse filtering is a feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How bitter you sound, how angry. And yet so powerless. Tell me, how mad will you be when the noose will finally tighten and your precious internet will only deliver approved content? And there won't be any VPN left to use? Because that's what's going to happen. Get used to the thought.

    11. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      We just set up the computers in the more public areas of the house. Seems to have worked.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    12. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      it is absolutely fucking clear that that is not the case: Camoron [sic] left his fucking daughter in a PUB. Anyone else does that, the kid goes into care. Cameron? Gets a "And finally..." lafftrack on the ten o'clock news.

      Cunt.

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    13. Re:Goatse filtering is a feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take your concept of Sin and shove it were the sun don't shine I don't believe in your fairy tale friend in the sky. If enough people agree you should be told to go away and shut the fuck up . Your beliefs hurt other people when they are enshrined in law.

  15. But what's "gambling"? by tepples · · Score: 1

    with the government saying it wants to create a "family friendly" Internet free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children

    Would this exclude, say, a site containing a drawing of kids playing a gambling game with a toy gun?

  16. This message brought to you by Bing image search by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Bing -- because everyone forgets you can search for naughty pictures with us."

  17. Use HTTPS by mrflash818 · · Score: 1

    Use HTTPS. The article mentions:

    ISPs cannot intercept requests for encrypted websites in the same way.

    --
    Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
    1. Re:Use HTTPS by koan · · Score: 1

      I use VPN for all my browsing, not because of porn or things I want to hide, simply because I believe my ISP should be a dumb pipe, not reroute my 404's and they get enough of my money as it is with out profiting on my personal browsing habits as well.

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    2. Re:Use HTTPS by oodaloop · · Score: 1

      Great advice. What's the secure url for Slashdot again?

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    3. Re:Use HTTPS by tepples · · Score: 1

      The ISP can just drop all packets to the Internet on port 443 until the householder has confirmed his censoring preference.

    4. Re:Use HTTPS by Connie_Lingus · · Score: 1

      lol...no they can't, unless they want a total and utter customer service overload/nightmare.

      imagine all the people complaining when they can't connect to their financial institutions and e-commerce sites?

      --
      never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
    5. Re:Use HTTPS by tepples · · Score: 1

      imagine all the people complaining when they can't connect to their financial institutions and e-commerce sites?

      Do people likewise complain when they can't get to "financial institutions and e-commerce sites" on the local public library's Wi-Fi without first logging into the hotspot?

  18. HTTPS-only web by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We, as nerds, should be raising the bar and striving for a HTTPS-only web. The NSA wiretapping and ISPs injecting garbage into the data stream are good enough reasons already. Even HTTPS is not perfect, but it certainly would throw some extra endurance to those monsters. We want as many data channels as possible with end-to-end encryption.

  19. Utter waste of time. by Chayat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My brief experience with this was really rather annoying. the filters activated a couple of weeks ago. A bunch of websites (inc my porn) just gave 500 errors. I was not taken to a page to explain what was happening. I only realised that my Cameronwall had been activated when my friends confirmed that they could still access the sites I could not. I logged into my BT account, found the part where I turn them back off again and did so only to be told that it would take up to 24 hours for the change to take effect. Additionally my partner's Macbook started to give a range of weird errors when connecting to a variety of webpages. I'm not overly techy but it seemed our router was remembering the redirect and still using it for a bunch of sites (even though the block had been removed by this point) and the macbook was refusing to display the sites it was being redirected to because it had detected a suspicious re-direct.

  20. Hotspot by tepples · · Score: 1

    I'm curious about the security implications of them hijacking your session.

    How is a one-time HTTP hijack worse than a captive portal showing a click-through TOS page when you open your laptop in a restaurant with open Wi-Fi?

    1. Re:Hotspot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One is a private enterprise choosing to provide or not. The other is nanny-state interference and unconstitutional.
      --
      udachny

    2. Re:Hotspot by itzly · · Score: 1

      How is not hijacking HTTP any worse than doing it once ? My ISP just sends me an e-mail if they want to tell me something, or a real letter if they think it's important enough. Where's the need to mess with everybody's HTTP connection ?

    3. Re:Hotspot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      UK = no constitution, but agree, still nanny-state interference.

    4. Re:Hotspot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      UK has a constitution, it's just not written down in one document (plus amendments). See: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitut... for more information.

    5. Re:Hotspot by tepples · · Score: 1

      How is not hijacking HTTP any worse than doing it once ? My ISP just sends me an e-mail if they want to tell me something

      You'd be able to access your ISP's mail and its billing department. Everything else, such as third-party webmail and POP3 or IMAP connections, would be hijacked or blocked until the householder expresses a filtering preference.

      Where's the need to mess with everybody's HTTP connection ?

      To save on costs of fielding telephone calls from people who can't get through to any web site because they don't know where to go to express a filtering preference, and everything but expressing a filtering preference is blocked.

    6. Re:Hotspot by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Because that happens at a particular time when the operating system can special case it. Most desktop and mobile operating systems will now, before exposing the network interface, check whether an outgoing HTTP connection is hijacked and pop up a browser if it is. This prevents damage to sites and apps that poll HTTP in the background and expect well-formed replies in a particular format. Doing it randomly bypasses this protection.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    7. Re:Hotspot by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      They can't use that approach, because few people actually use the ISP-provided email.

    8. Re:Hotspot by tepples · · Score: 1

      Then what do people put in for the "Recovery e-mail address" when signing up for other-than-ISP-provided e-mail?

    9. Re:Hotspot by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      They ISP email account - which they'd better hope they never need to recover to, or else that they can dig up that piece of paper they stuffed into the draw some time back when Concorde still flew.

  21. Shame the no thanks button is broken with BT. by Maquis196 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The sodding "no thanks" button would just not work so you had to accept the request, then log back into the BT portal to disable it again. Then it finally went.

    What also finally went was my patience with BT, ordered my MAC code and migrating to Andrews and Arnold.

    BT, you lost a customer over this. Idiots.

  22. as someone having a religious objection to porn by gillbates · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I must say I've never needed a filter to avoid porn on the internet. I'm not sure why the government feels it must block access to something I don't wish to see in the first place, unless it ultimately has ulterior motives, intending to derail the free flow of information necessary for a participative democracy in the name of public morality. It's ironic that a government which recently ruled that health practitioners must refer patients for abortion in spite of their individual moral objections is now suddenly concerned about access to porn. I find it more believable that the ultimate goal is to restrict access to information embarrassing to the ruling party, using the ostensible reason of porn filtering to silence dissent.

    --
    The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
    1. Re:as someone having a religious objection to porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I must say I've never needed a filter to avoid porn on the internet. I'm not sure why the government feels it must block access to something I don't wish to see in the first place, unless it ultimately has ulterior motives, intending to derail the free flow of information necessary for a participative democracy in the name of public morality.

      You should rest easy. It's already being used to block non-conformist opinions. "Porn" is what politicians say. But what they actually think is anything that upsets the status quo. They view it as "extremists". Who are extremists? Well, there is the nuts in ISIL, but there are others, like pirate bay, or occupy movement, or opposition party political page. "Porn filter" means "blocking undesirable free speech, as deemed by Joe the Overlord".

      So when you laugh at the Great Firewall of China, remember, UK is no better.

    2. Re:as someone having a religious objection to porn by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Slight correction: The ruling is not that health practitioners must refer patients for abortion. It related to supervision of staff. There already exists a law which makes it quite clear that no medical professional can be required to be directly involved in abortion against their objections - the dispute was with middle-management staff, who are in charge of managing those who are directly involved. Minor difference, but important to get the details right.

    3. Re:as someone having a religious objection to porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's a good question, and it may be instructive to look at how these blocks came to be. AIUI it involved pressure from a very few very vocal (I'd say "hysterical") pressure groups that wished The Government Do Something because they're apparently entirely incompetent to do any such thing themselves. Such as getting a home network router that does the filtering, or getting internet service from an ISP that sells "filtered" internet access like those catering specifically to religious users, for example. No, the entire country must be filtered because, well, every family has children, no?

      Whether there are also ulterior motives, I cannot say, but I don't hold it beyond the British Elite to be simply really that moralistic and also stupid. Compare how English judges will pass Judgement, including sometimes long diatribes denouncing specific deeds in tedious detail.

      There is another angle and that is that there already was a country-wide filter in place, run by "the internet watch foundation", seeking to block child pornography but inevitably ending up blocking much more, including parts of wikipedia (and due to implementation details, slowing all of it and causing further collateral damage and confusion). This was promised to be the only thing to ever be blocked. Turns out that no, that was an outright lie, and the British aren't even stopping with porn, or whatever else they'll come up with as "unsuitable for children". The list of things blocked on behalf of the MAFIAA is growing steadily also.

      I would not at all be surprised if soon we'll see the first de facto, if perhaps not in name, blocking on political grounds. The first conviction for "terrorism" on the grounds of possessing a copy of the Anarchist's cookbook (which is mostly a joke, and moreover most of the recipes are outright dangerous for the would-be anarchist) was some time ago already.

      Also compare the (secret) blacklists in Australia and, of all places, Germany. I'm sure there's more blocking in ostensibly enlightened countries that I haven't heard of yet. That points to a possible "because we can"-motive, which I take as evidence that "because we can" is no longer a defensible reason to do anything: We simply can't afford the cost.

    4. Re:as someone having a religious objection to porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What you want to see on the internet stems from your freedom of choice. As we have all observed in the last decades, the internet has empowered a lot of people with access to information. This has curbed the power of the government. The government needs to retain power, and by limiting your everyday life and allowing you to believe that you have choices, leads you to believe that you are empowered, while in reality they retain their power. This is the very essence of life in itself, intertwined in the various degrees of technology that we have accumulated over the years.

      Think of an Alpha lion in a pride(government). There's only one. He controls what's going on, lionesses(most of the population) hunt for food and raise their cubs while beta males (those who seek their own ways against the 'law') end up following, being outcasts or killed.

  23. Hosts won't save you here by tepples · · Score: 1

    A hosts file has many uses, but defeating a captive portal isn't one of them. A competent captive portal will produce "Connection refused" on all ports of all other IP addresses until you've completed the authentication and preference-setting process.

    1. Re:Hosts won't save you here by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      The link mentioned IP and MAC address spoofing. I hope it is sufficient for circumventing that.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:Hosts won't save you here by tepples · · Score: 1

      Good luck. The modem rewrites the MAC on the way out as part of its data link duty, and either the modem or the ISP-owned router on the other side of it drops outbound packets that don't have the subscriber's IP address in the from field.

  24. Be careful what you wish for. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The ISPs hate this regulatory bullshit but know that the alternative doing this ineffective show of allegiance would be more draconian legislation.

    What you're seeing here is ISPs saying, "The government wants me to ask you this. Please feel free to tell them to fuck off. In fact, if you ignore our question - which we shall ask precisely once - we'll assume that's your answer. Please don't vote Tory next time. Or New Tory. Or Pound Shop Tory. Oh crap... Greens?"

  25. Entire adult industry adopts HTTPS overnight... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And the UK government blocks are rendered irrelevant.

    1. Re:Entire adult industry adopts HTTPS overnight... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, but the opportunity to opt-out of the filter is rendered irrelevant, likely gifting you with the filter, which, btw, unlike the opt-out page, can indeed be blocked completely inn HTTP or HTTPS, as opposed to successfully redirected.

  26. Filters by ledow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't have a filter on my bookcase.
    I don't have a filter on my movie collection.
    I don't have a filter on my video game collection.

    Why do I need one on my Internet connection?

    I work in schools. Nobody's ever really given me a satisfactory answer that doesn't include pushing parental responsibility to a third party.

    I'm with Virgin. They haven't asked me yet. The only time I've ever been asked such things is when I signed up to a mobile network and they asked me if I wanted to turn off the filter on the connection. Given that I work IT, the answer was yes. I want as few third parties between me and my service providers as possible, thanks. But the number of times I'll be using 4G to go looking for anything is going to be slim.

    By all means ask... but it would have been so much easier to not ask and let those who worry about it fix it for themselves.

    1. Re:Filters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What's your point? You cannot have the terrorist cookbook on your shelf, if you do, you go to prison if caught. You cannot legally buy it. So you have already been filtered. The "book" in question gives no more information than what you'll find in an A level chemistry book, plus a bit about where to pinch chemicals from.

      tldr; you've already been filtered.

    2. Re:Filters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You live a sad existence where text on a page is criminalised instead of actions. Thoughtcrime FTW!

    3. Re:Filters by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I work in a school too. There are three good reasons for the filter:
      1. We don't want some idiotic parent to sue us for traumatising their little angel.
      2. We don't want someone in law enforcement filing charges of child endangerment or something along those lines to boost their career.
      3. We want the little brats to actually do some work, not spend all their lessons playing Happy Wheels.

    4. Re:Filters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm with Virgin. They haven't asked me yet.

      Well, there's you problem right there. Virgins never ask, you usually have to persuade them into it. If you just sit idly by, you'll never lose that Virginity...

    5. Re:Filters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I don't have a filter on my bookcase.
      Yes, you do. I don't think it's currently active although it wasn't long ago that "SpyCatcher" was banned. Also, people have been prosecuted for having materials that describe the making of bombs - such books can be brought legally, it's only when you demonstrate some intention to use them that things get messy.

      > I don't have a filter on my movie collection.
      See all those little PG, 15 and 18 stickers? What do you think they're for?

      > I don't have a filter on my video game collection.
      As above. And they're only the ones you see, anyone got an original version of "Carmageddon"?

    6. Re:Filters by cgimusic · · Score: 1

      The Anarchist's Cookbook is not banned or illegal and can be freely purchased in both the UK and the US on Amazon.

  27. Can't get to 8.8.4.4 by tepples · · Score: 1

    DNS and HTTP to all IP addresses other than your ISP's customer support producing "Connection refused".

    this would not even happen if they were using a different DNS such as google, it only happens with their DNS server

    If all other IP addresses give "Connection refused" for customers who haven't yet expressed a censoring preference, then you can't even get to Google Public DNS (8.8.4.4 and 8.8.8.8).

    1. Re:Can't get to 8.8.4.4 by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      wow, that is above and beyond. at the company i work for, they will send messages to customers over the web in this manor, however only on their DNS.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  28. Being a stay-at-home mom is expensive by tepples · · Score: 1

    Well, then why don't Conservative parents fuck off, do their own parenting

    Because the cost of living has increased to the point where parents have to work instead of staying at home and parenting.

    1. Re:Being a stay-at-home mom is expensive by Free+Censorship · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Options for people who are afraid of everything in the name of children:
      1) Don't be a parent. Sometimes unexpected things happen, granted.
      2) Stop being an authoritarian mental midget and realize that none of this shit even matters.

    2. Re:Being a stay-at-home mom is expensive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      3) Stop being such a lazy cunt and turn on the kid-friendly filtering for your kids, instead of forcing it on everyone.

    3. Re:Being a stay-at-home mom is expensive by Free+Censorship · · Score: 1

      I'd honestly prefer they go with 2, because none of this material is harmful to begin with, and I don't want their poor children to be subjected to censorship. But I don't expect these people to be rational.

    4. Re:Being a stay-at-home mom is expensive by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Which is clearly total fucking shit. I have a single income household and I'm paying all my bills on time. I'm also living in a small house because I can't afford a nicer one, because the cost of housing has been heavily pushed up by all the dual-income families that receive tax breaks and cash from the government to encourage them to continue a dual-income lifestyle that I just can't fucking afford.

      The cost of living doesn't force them out to work, the greed for a lifestyle that I have to subsidise but can't attain encourages them out to work.

      Just fucking stay at home with the children you shouldn't have fucking had and do everyone a favour.

  29. Interesting by koan · · Score: 2

    I see a small percentage of the population complain about something, and if they come off as being on the side of a society approved message ie; "porn is bad" then they can get their way, an inordinate amount of power for a small whiny percentage of the population.

    While I understand that parents don't want their young children watching anal fisting porn, it's troubling parents choose to allow others to be responsible for that control.
    I see this a lot, parents complaining about the need for more controls and laws to protect their kids, shifting the responsibility from personal to societal.
    Or is that just the media using a "society approved" "we care about the children" propaganda message?

    Did you know the CIA says it only takes %3 of a population to effect change, what does that say about the other %97?
    Erica Chenoweth wrote an interesting paper on this, she found that for peaceful change, it took a larger percentage of the population to get involved, closer to %5 or higher, but for a violent change a smaller percentage is all that was needed, recall the CIA percentage I just mentioned?

    She also found that peaceful change lasted longer and had better results than violent change, gives you an insight into how and what the CIA is about, hence so many "student revolutions" in foreign countries that end poorly and destabilized regions.

    Personal responsibility is a sign of a mature person, and a mature society, increasing laws, regulations and societal pressures is the opposite.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:Interesting by Connie_Lingus · · Score: 1

      I see a small percentage of the population complain about something, and if they come off as being on the side of a society approved message ie; "porn is bad" then they can get their way, an inordinate amount of power for a small whiny percentage of the population

      bingo! we have a winner...

      --
      never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
    2. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you can't argue or reason with this type of person. You know the type - they would read through your entire comment there, not understand it, and then say "so you want children to be watching porn?"

  30. Sounds like a PC Caliphate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The UK have become so politically correct. I remember when ol' Blighty was an amazing place to live and work. Now? Not so much.

    - The police in the UK cannot even kick down the doors of muslim suspects because they might interrupt their prayer and offend them.
    - The UK porn filter is stupid and easily routed around
    - The UK is so politically correct, that over the next couple of years, UKIP will make great gains -- beyond the by-elections already made
    - UK citizens are sick and tired of the nanny state, sick and tired of muslim immigrants re-writing social mores, dictating special foods in schools, halal this, halal that...

    The UK better wake up and fairly quickly. Political correctness is a disease of the highest order.

    CAPTCHA: subsume

    1. Re:Sounds like a PC Caliphate by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I'll give you 2-4, as I live in the UK. I'd like a citation on 1 though. For one, Muslim prayers are regular as clockwork.

    2. Re:Sounds like a PC Caliphate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Family are police. The effing muslims always claim the police are "interrupting" their prayers and other BS whilst they are home. It's all bollocks, of course. They need to go back to Turdistan or wherever the hell they're from. England is going to look exactly like the movie "Children of Men", but w/o the sterility -- as the effing muslims breed like caged rabbits.

  31. HTTPS everywhere. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'Nuff said. Using an unencripted connection? You are fucking BEGGING for it to be hijacked.

  32. When every site gives "Certificate error" by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    How are you going to actually your HTTPS-only web sites when every single site you visit gives "Certificate error" until the householder has confirmed his censoring preference? This happens on open hotspots in hotels and restaurants, for example. The answer to "Why is HTTPS Everywhere preventing me from joining this hotel/school/other wireless network?" in the HTTPS Everywhere FAQ recommends visiting an HTTP-only site first in order to be redirected to the login page.

    1. Re:When every site gives "Certificate error" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, there could be a DHCP extension for that. "Limited Access -- The network wants to first ask you the following question: blah blah". After answering your preference, network access would be opened for your IP address.

    2. Re:When every site gives "Certificate error" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How

      dunno

    3. Re:When every site gives "Certificate error" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We don't know, but a corner case like that should not devalue the importance of going with HTTPS.

  33. The impossible task by kheldan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ..with the government saying it wants to create a "family friendly" Internet free from pornography, gambling, extreme violence and other content inappropriate for children

    Point #1: You do not 'own' the entire Internet
    Point #2: It's not up to you to 'clean up' the Internet
    Point #3: It has been proven over and over and over again that 'net nanny' and other censorship does not work
    Point #4: Governments will subvert any censorship technology for their own propaganda and agenda purposes, destroying the original (misguided) intent
    Point #5: Regardless of whatever you're telling your citizens, you likely will end up discriminating against people who don't want your filtering
    Point #6: Ultimately your efforts will fail, for reasons of Point #3, and because people will always find a way around it regardless.

    ..and finally, not a 'point', but just my personal opinion on the matter: I think any government that engages in censorship are a bunch of fucking assholes who don't deserve to be in power. Leave the Internet alone and let people decide for themselves what they do and do not want their families and themselves to encounter or do there. Police UK-hosted sites against outright illegal activity or content? Yes. Make moral decisions for everyone else? Hell, no.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  34. Subscribe to Slashdot to get HTTPS by tepples · · Score: 2

    Subscribe to Slashdot and you'll see the secure URL.

  35. Yes or no, the answer is simple by phorm · · Score: 1

    If I don't say "yes", the answer is NO. Period.

    1. Re:Yes or no, the answer is simple by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

      If I don't say "yes", the answer is NO.

      Then they'll ask the question the other way. There have been lots of articles about the importance of wording questions for voting day, and the number of times that "no" means "yes" because the question is worded "do you want to PREVENT xyz" rather than "Do you want xyz".

  36. It's over. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Net is dead. There's nothing we can do now, if ever. It was fun while it lasted.

  37. DVR pops up an ad when I want to watch a recording by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

    ... because that's obviously the least convenient time and I'll be most annoyed and most likely to ignore it! Oh, no, wait, I bet their logic is "that's the time I'm definitely sitting there and watching". Either way, I press "exit" and go on. It's annoying to get ads on a service I'm paying for (as opposed to ads on broadcast TV, that's just the way it is).

  38. Today it is porn, tomorrow it is your political vi by master_p · · Score: 1

    It will not be long that the UK government will choose to put any site they do not like into the black list.

    In a few years time, the internet will contain government-approved material only.

    If you want to read an opinion that is different than the government's, you will not be able to without turning the filter off.

    If you turn the filter off, then you might be flagged as a terrorist.

    The sad part in all this is not what the governments are trying to do though...it is the people's reaction. There is a largs percentage of people willing to accept tyrrany. This thread is full of them...look at all the posts that downplay the signifance of this filter equating it to wifi hotspot login...

  39. It's an election year in the UK in 2015 by hughbar · · Score: 1

    Enough said. I nearly made the 'l' an 'r' but I must think of the children, as Dave Camoron the suppository salesman has said.

    --
    On y va, qui mal y pense!
  40. blacklist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I assume that the ISPs in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have a blacklist of pornographic websites? I think some parental filters in the United States of America use a blacklist that is updated frequently.

    OpenDNS also operates a blacklist of pornographic websites, I think.

  41. Welcome to the nanny state. by azav · · Score: 1

    Cover the UK with cameras and now forbid what you are allowed to watch in the privacy of your own home.

    Fuck Cameron. Seriously. This is insulting.

    --
    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  42. Eat My Bitstream by allquixotic · · Score: 1

    Step 1: Pray that the foundational assumptions of state-of-the-art crypto remain true (no P=NP or quantum computer cracking nonsense, please).

    Step 2: Rent/buy/lease/colo a VPS or dedicated server in a country that respects users' freedom and doesn't tamper with their network connection.

    Step 3: Set up a VPN on said server.

    Step 4: Use the latest crypto algs you can get your hands on; apply security patches aggressively; and watch out for notices of weaknesses.

    Step 5: Use the VPN on absolutely every device you own: at work, on your phone, on your home router, etc.

    Step 6: ???

    Step 7: Eat My Bitstream! No more ISP interference.

    IMO Step 1 is the shakiest, but it's all we've got for now.

  43. Bad Technique, Good Goal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is not censorship; it is a free choice. If you are calling this censorship, please go grow a brain.

    While i think this is a poor way to put the choice in front of their users (as the first to get to that redirected page may easily not be the billpayer), i can respect the effort to make it easier to protect children without forcing censorship on everyone. Like it or not, the science is clear that porn can be both addicting and destructive, particularly to those whose brains are still developing. So, just like we try to restrict children's access to nicotine, alcohol and other brain/body damaging inputs, we should at least be making some effort to protect stupid kids from porn. The government finds it worthwhile to bar 13 year olds from walking into strip clubs and porn shops, so it only makes sense that they should make an effort to keep those kids off of porn web sites too (which are generally worse than strip clubs).

    Yes, we all know that such prohibition is never perfect. Kids still get cigarettes and alcohol and porn anyway. Perfect enforcement of any law is never an option. So our inability to enforce this perfectly is not a valid critique of the effort.

  44. Hosts *may* work in 1 case (DNS redirect) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Redirection by DNS When a client requests a website, DNS is queried by the browser. The firewall will make sure that only the DNS server(s) provided by DHCP can be used by unauthenticated clients (or, alternatively, it will forward all DNS requests by unauthenticated clients to that DNS server). This DNS server will return the IP address of the Captive Portal page as a result of all DNS lookups. In order to perform redirection by DNS the captive portal is using DNS poisoning to perform a man-in-the-middle attack. To limit the impact of DNS poisoning typically a TTL of 0 is used." from (your source) -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

    Since the DNS *is* "poisoned" (redirected), hosts SHOULD work... since via hosts, you're not even USING DNS @ ALL & thus, bypassing it...

    Care to comment?

    It works for many things, & DNS poisoning's one of them (ONLY thing I'm NOT "dead up sure of", is the fact you have to hit a "portal" & validate there, 1st - would the firewall redirect take over, redirecting you to DNS then? Sounds it - however, as YOU of all people know, hosts can BYPASS DNS ENTIRELY, normally, by not using it @ all for host-domain name translation to IP address... hence, my point here).

    Interesting & DIFFERENT/UNUSUAL case here - so, I'd like your feedback in fact.

    APK

    P.S.=> I.E.-> So, by bypassing DNS entirely as hosts can (never making requests to it), or possibly, using a *DIFFERENT* DNS server (in your IP stack settings + router)... apk

    1. Re:Hosts *may* work in 1 case (DNS redirect) by tepples · · Score: 1

      Since the DNS *is* "poisoned" (redirected), hosts SHOULD work

      That'd be true if DNS poisoning is the only layer that a provider uses to corral users into their captive portal. But based on my own experience with captive portals, that's rarely the case. Say you have 123.45.67.89 www.example.com in your hosts file. Any HTTPS connection to 123.45.67.89:443 will produce either "Connection refused" or a certificate error. Any HTTP connection to 123.45.67.89:80 will produce a Location: redirect to the page for expressing filtering preferences.

  45. Thanks & IMPORTANT question.. apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apparently, by being "sucked in" to their portal system in the 1st place *IS* the problem from what you're saying but... see my 'p.s.' below!

    Then from your explanation, the website has "control" of you via redirects via DNS in the case I pointed out (which IS key per my p.s. below).

    You seem confident though, per your explanation & apparently experience also here (don't have any myself & *IF* I did with that type of site? I'd stop using them, personally...).

    APK

    P.S.=> Still, seems rather "odd" that WHEN I DON'T MAKE *ANY* DNS REQUESTS @ ALL, that they could stop me thus (unless the redirects you noted have a 'default' to redirect when you don't use *ANY* DNS @ ALL!

    Pertinent quote is this one:

    "In order to perform redirection by DNS the captive portal is using DNS poisoning to perform a man-in-the-middle attack"

    THAT IS THE "KEY" HERE (since hosts DO get you around std. DNS poisoning - by NOT using DNS whatsoever for host-domain name resolutions to IP Address).

    THUS - IMPORTANT QUESTION:

    HOW CAN THEY DETERMINE *IF* YOU MADE DNS REQUESTS @ ALL IN THE 1st PLACE? Especially when you DON'T make any (as hosts allow you to do) to get past/keep you safe from, dns redirect poisoning as the quote above notes...

    apk

    1. Re:Thanks & IMPORTANT question.. apk by tepples · · Score: 1

      seems rather "odd" that WHEN I DON'T MAKE *ANY* DNS REQUESTS @ ALL, that they could stop me thus

      That's because a proper captive portal will MITM not only every DNS request on port 53 but also every HTTP request on port 80, no matter to what IP address, and block connections to unapproved IP addresses on all other ports. So even if your machine produces no outgoing packets on TCP or UDP port 53, the captive portal still grabs you when your machine opens a connection on port 80.

    2. Re:Thanks & IMPORTANT question.. apk by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      We need magic bunker buster packets to blast through their firewalls. Well, at least I can think of one good use for viruses and worms now. Instead of DDOS we should create a DGOS (Dynamic Guarantee Of Service), something impossible to block. Gonna require wireless though, not much you can do when they decide to drop anchor.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  46. This is how they express an opinion by Fencepost · · Score: 1

    "As Prime Minister David Cameron announced, we are required to ask ALL of our customers by the end of 2014 whether they wish to opt in or out of filtering of materials deemed offensive by the government's approved third-party monitors. As we have not yet received a response from you to our previous inquiries about this, we are now required to take additional steps to ensure that you have seen and responded to this question."

    Or at least that's how I'd phrase it.

    --
    fencepost
    just a little off
  47. Comcast was doing this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Comcast was doing this to me in an attempt to "upgrade" my modem to one of their wireless hotspots. Why browsing a site a msg was injected into my browser along the lines of "You need to upgrade to enjoy the fullspeed of the internet". After a couple of days they stopped.

  48. JSON? by GNious · · Score: 1

    How do the ISP know that they are not intercepting a RESTful GET request, and interrupting up some application?

    1. Re:JSON? by danbob999 · · Score: 1

      They don't care. Just like those idiots configuring public WiFi hotspots requiring us to open a web browser and visit a random web page. They don't care if it breaks email/chat/whatever until you've used your web browser.

  49. Fuck Richard Branson and all his "Virgin" bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I bet most of you don't know that Branson is gay.

    True story.

    He sucked my cock in a bathroom in a bar in Hong Kong.

  50. I'll have it, then by Sketchly · · Score: 0

    If anyone really doesn't want their porn, I'll have it.

  51. protecting children from reality? by alienzed · · Score: 1

    The only thing children need protection from are people who think they know what children need protecting from.

    --
    Never say never. Ah!! I did it again!
  52. oh, so it isnt rapey rape by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So blackmailing someone to have sex with you isn't rape because she technically consented. Not like that rape rape that's really bad so blackmail rape is A O K, gotcha.

    1. Re:oh, so it isnt rapey rape by robbyb20 · · Score: 1

      Huh?

    2. Re:oh, so it isnt rapey rape by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Were you born stupid or do you take pills?

  53. Re:Today it is porn, tomorrow it is your political by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but no one is using the filters in the first place! so that going to be a lot of flag terrorists! so no the internet will not have gov approved material because no one will be using the filters!!! look it up only 4% are using it! check your facts before posting plz

  54. Re:Today it is porn, tomorrow it is your political by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    stop fearmongering and check out how many are using the filter and you will see why many are not that worry, how can the people on the internet only read government approved material if most in the UK have there filters off? and its a fact to that most have turn the filters off check out the offcom report about it, also the filters are opt in not opt out meaning you have to turn the filters on to have a censored internet, its clear to me you dont understand what your talking about and only care about your own ego and saying people are accepting the tyrrany when that is not true at all. also saying this thread is full with people like that is highly offensive just saying

  55. American conservatives like to say... by Will_Malverson · · Score: 1

    The dark night of Fascism is always descending on America, but it always falls on Europe.

  56. Who checks who's answering? by Ambient+Sheep · · Score: 1

    I'm on BT and I got asked. Once, just once. I said "no filter", obviously.

    Thing is, how did they know it was me, and not my 12-year-old daughter?

    OK, so I don't HAVE a 12-year-old daughter, but the point remains. Anybody could have been at the PC when it asked the question; there was absolutely no check whatsoever done on the identity of the person clicking. Just a simple "Yes"/"No" choice. It could have been me, could have been my (non-existent) wife, could have been any of my (non-existent) kids, could have been the next-door neighbour come to check something while their internet is down, could have been my aged Mum, could have been anybody.

    I guess the ISPs really aren't interested in anything beyond enforcing the letter of the government's request.

  57. Theres another way by gregory5369 · · Score: 0

    I know for a fact that Virgin Media have the ability to call the phone number of the account owner to ask them something, considering this is an automatic system wouldn't this make more sense?

  58. While enforcing porn blocks on the Internet is fine in my eyes, I don't care for anything like that anyway but is that why virgin keep adding 'additional features' onto my bill when I know there is no way I watched them and there's no one else in the house?? Take it off the Internet, put it on customers bills instead?

  59. Encrypt your telemetrics... by SharpFang · · Score: 1

    If your road surface state sensor stations start submitting their measurements to a page asking them if they want to view porn or not, it's time to beef up the hardware so that it can use SSL... Oh, it's not BT's cost, not their problem. And if people crash on icy road because the info board displayed the last available measurement "Road:Dry" when it iced over, it's surely not the telcos that will go to prison.

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  60. Re:Today it is porn, tomorrow it is your political by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    It will not be long that the UK government will choose to put any site they do not like into the black list.

    That's how it is now. The "porn" sites are on the list, but the religious sites aren't, and their works are much more harmful to children, least because they include material which could be considered pornography under the government's own guidelines but primarily because of all the violence with specious justification.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  61. Downloaded way too much bongwater already by almondo · · Score: 1

    This will backfire like a well fed big dog that hasn't been out all day. If you railroad people to use your broken, half-baked, unreliable networks and render our highly reliable self-contained devices that we pay for inoperative, well what is to stop us from promoting our machines to be APs with your MAC, your AP name and a big path to nowhere while we drink Long Island Iced Tea in your bar and surf 4G on our Note 4? Go ahead, block my phone too. Maybe you want to call your bankruptcy attorney to discuss your business model first. I was in a Sheraton last week that could not come up up with 2.5M down or get above 80Kbps up on $10 a day "10Mbps premium" service. I took the laptop out in the hall and wandered around too. The pipe was fried everywhere. If my MiFi AP had been blocked and my ability to work affected as a result the whole chain would have earned red-tag status on the extended stay far away plan. Some people just don't think things through.

    1. Re:Downloaded way too much bongwater already by almondo · · Score: 1

      I don't always post under the wrong article but when I do I drink Dos Equis before, during and after posting.

  62. I.E. - it checks the IP address requested by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: & *IF*/when it gets one that's not "hardcoded" as acceptable (OR from a list of "acceptables") - in any event, use a site like that & you get what you get (I get it).

    * Like I said earlier though, it's NOT something I'd end up using myself personally (the site doing it, that is).

    APK

    P.S.=> Let me guess: This is LARGELY a combination of clientside script-driven work (like in "registered 'luser'" accounts here) as well @ these "captive portals" in combination with server-side mechanics you've described.

    (Let me know please when you can - this isn't one I am familar with as to what's going on in it, both client AND server-side, mechanics-wise... thanks!) apk

    1. Re:I.E. - it checks the IP address requested by tepples · · Score: 1

      in any event, use a site like that & you get what you get (I get it).

      In a lot of areas, it's either the monopoly cable ISP or expensive satellite Internet with a far smaller monthly data quota.

      This is LARGELY a combination of clientside script-driven work (like in "registered 'luser'" accounts here) [...] Let me know please when you can - this isn't one I am familar with as to what's going on in it, both client AND server-side, mechanics-wise

      The server knows which subscribers have expressed a filtering preference. It also knows which modems' MAC numbers are associated with each subscriber's account. So packets coming from a modem on a "don't know whether to filter" account don't go to the Internet at all. There's no "client-side scripting" about it; the closest thing is how the server intercepts requests on port 80 to all addresses, so that when you open your browser to the start page for the first time on this connection, you get an HTTP response whose Location: header points to the filtering preference page.

  63. You haven't finished asking for service by tepples · · Score: 1

    It seems to me that the solution is not to interfere with the service they're providing to me, which is the service I ASKED FOR, in the first place.

    The only reason they throw up this page is because in their mind, you haven't finished ASKING FOR service. Until they know what specific kind of service you prefer, namely a filtered service or an unfiltered service, they don't provide any service.

    1. Re:You haven't finished asking for service by GoddersUK · · Score: 1

      The service that I prefer and the service that I signed up for are not the same thing. They might not know what I prefer, but they sure do know what I signed up for (the internet, which in the absence of any qualifiers, means the whole, entire internet). I would prefer that the ISP considers me capable of instigating changes if I decide that I want to change the service, rather than treating me like an incapable 3 year old.

  64. Aha/Wait a second (thanks for fast reply) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, this ISN'T some website, but rather a way of getting online period? The "filtering preferences" sound like a javascript mechanic to me (like having a registered account here on /., which DOES use javascript - pretty much/almost).

    (Again - see subject, & thanks for your fast replies...)

    APK

    P.S.=> This sounds like, for example, an AOL type website (and internet access "complete package") - right? You use them as BOTH an ISP and as a gateway to getting online (if so, NOW it all makes sense)... apk

    1. Re:Aha/Wait a second (thanks for fast reply) by tepples · · Score: 1

      So, this ISN'T some website, but rather a way of getting online period?

      Correct. It's an ISP that offers an option for censorware as a service to its customers. When you first sign up, or when the ISP first rolls out censorware in your area, it captive-portals all packets until the householder completes the setup of the connection. In this case, completing the setup includes deciding to turn censorware on or off. Some parents will want it; other subscribers won't. Public Wi-Fi hotspots do something similar to ensure that each user has seen the acceptable use policy.

      Again - see subject, & thanks for your fast replies

      I'm a bit more "stateless" (in the computing sense) than some other Slashdot users. This means I'm not disposed toward ad hominem attacks; I instead take each post on Slashdot as I see it. And you've shown yourself to be reasonable, even if you're a little verbose, and even if at times you've appeared to claim that the hosts file is a panacea.

  65. Can YOU show me where I claim that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See my subject-line: That hosts are a "panacea"? I never *ONCE* have!

    * Hairyfeet made that mistake, & so did BarbaraHudson/TomHudson - & neither could show proof of it in my literally stating "hosts are a panacea" or *anything remotely* like that...

    E.G. (that I have stated, for instance): Hosts won't work vs. BGP exploits -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Yes - I *am* COMPLETELY reasonable - it's trolls around here that aren't (especially when I ask them to show me, for instance, that hosts do less than adblock AND that hosts do what they do, less efficiently than adblock OR that hosts are effective vs. DNS issues) - however/again: Hosts do *NOT* "cure it all" (nothing does) but Hosts ARE an effective defense, a speedup tool, they aid reliability (vs. downed or dns poisoned/redirected dns servers), & hosts even add anonymity (vs. dns request logs) - but I've NEVER, *EVER* said hosts "cure it all"... apk

    1. Re:Can YOU show me where I claim that? by tepples · · Score: 1

      even if at times you've appeared to claim that the hosts file is a panacea.

      I never *ONCE* have!

      You don't claim that. Others have accused you of claiming that, and that's where they pick up misconceptions. The hosts file is one layer, and in-browser policy add-ons are another layer to pick up anything bad that slips past hosts.

      hosts even add anonymity (vs. dns request logs)

      This use of hosts essentially treats it as a DNS cache. But you still have to make DNS requests after the cache period expires to see if the record has changed. Otherwise, after the site you're trying to access has moved to a different IP address, you'll likely end up hitting the server of the attacker who has snagged that same address.

  66. Good to see you realize that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ 32/64-bit updates favorite sites overcoming that & makes them faster via local in-memory IP address resolution from host-domain names... safer than DNS for a LONG time (& no need to call out to remote DNS = faster + secured vs. redirection).

    It works, using less (moving parts complexity + room for breakdown OR exploit, less electrical power, CPU cycles, & RAM than other "so-called 'solutions'" that toss on all of that, including added messagepassing overheads + operating from a less cpu serviced ring of privelege, usermode, vs. hosts in kernelmode).

    This *IS* how I use & take advantage of it since it's a native part with LESS moving parts, doing more with less too, to the point of raising its default priority in the register for even MORE speed from it, plus VERY rarely calling out to DNS period (sub 4% of the time per my router logs analyzed - I do stick by favorite sites a lot, since imo, they're better than others).

    However, as to DNS: Now, but when I do call it as I don't ATTEMPT to "cache the entire internet" here locally, in hosts?

    It's to OpenDNS, BOTH in my router + IP stack settings for that, & it's patched vs. the Kaminsky flaw (99.999% of ISP DNS aren't), uses DNSSEC to its upstream updaters, & is filtered vs. threats!

    (There's MY way of overcoming having to use adblock which doesn't do its job fully by default anymore, crippled as it is, & doesn't do a FRACTION of what hosts can for more speed, security, reliability, & yes - even anonymity... Plus, hosts do all that, with less + more efficiently by far).

    P.S.=> Lastly/FINALLY: Per my subject-line - I don't enjoy others attempting to put words in my mouth I never said - glad to see you're clarifying that now... & words put into someone's mouth, hey - nobody likes it (seriously, who does?)

    ... apk

  67. annoying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm with virgin and this happened a few months ago to me.
    I have a script set up downloading a webpage containing my IP address then emailing it to me if it's changed - the webpage request was hijacked and I ended up being emailed the parental guidence webpage! It's a good thing virgin don't change your IP address very often or I could have been locked out.