Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cameron Tells Pornography Websites To Block Access By Children Or Face Closure

Posted by samzenpus on from the won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-children? dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Prime Minister David Cameron says that if online pornographers don't voluntarily install effective age-restricted controls on their websites he'll introduce legislation that will close them down altogether. A recent Childline poll found nearly 10% of 12-13-year-olds were worried they were addicted to pornography and 18% had seen shocking or upsetting images. The minister for internet safety and security, Joanna Shields, said: “As a result of our work with industry, more than 90% of UK consumers are offered the choice to easily configure their internet service through family-friendly filters – something we take great pride in having achieved. It’s a gold standard that surpasses those of other countries. “Whilst great progress has been made, we remain acutely aware of the risks and dangers that young people face online. This is why we are committed to taking action to protect children from harmful content. Companies delivering adult content in the UK must take steps to make sure these sites are behind age verification controls.”

9 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. How? by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, precisely how again do they suggest sites verify ages? It needs to at least be proof against a minor with an adult's "borrowed" credit card, and it can't require sites to violate the law. This isn't a technical problem here, it's completely independent of the technology. If these politicians want the problem solved, they need to spend some time thinking about how to solve the problem. And yes, "make someone else solve it" is a valid option but only if having the sites apply that solution by making the politicians the "someone else" is also a valid option.

    1. Re:How? by MrL0G1C · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So, you're looking for porn, do you pick:

      Site A: In the UK which wants you credit card info.
      Site B: In Uruguay which is happy to show you lots of free porn, no questions asked.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    2. Re:How? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

      13-year-olds are quite capable of making their own porn these days.

      Using the cameras and networking hardware given to them by their own parents.

      --
      No sig today...
    3. Re:How? by dcollins117 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes. Use CC verification.

      Do you really think giving your credit card information to a pornography website operator (who in all likelihood is on the other side of the planet) is a good idea? I can't off the top of my head think of anyone less trustworthy. Maybe a crack whore or that Nigerian prince that keeps emailing me, but that's about it.

      It's up to parents to monitor what their kiddies are doing online, not Prime Minister David Cameron.

    4. Re:How? by mister_playboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The number of users smart enough to use torrents but not adblockers seems like it would be small.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  2. Parenting by toxygeneb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about instead of trying to introduce draconian inappropriate laws that will no doubt be misused to censor other sites the government properly fund the enforcement of existing laws? We already have very effective parental neglect laws and if a child as young as the Childline survey suggests is accessing pornography surely the parents are neglectful?

    --
    Equal Rights, Representation, Education & Welfare
    1. Re:Parenting by Xest · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No it's not even that. When I was a kid growing up in the UK before the internet we still encountered porn at that age - either left by builders in the building sites we used to dick around in, brought into school by that one kid whose dad creepily collected page 3 pictures from The Sun, or call girl leaflets with pornographic imagery on them that used to be left in phone boxes (remember them?).

      The fact is, kids will encounter porn, you could ban the whole internet and they still would, just like I did and everyone I knew at school did. Porn is everywhere, kids will see it. It's not neglect, because it's an impossible task preventing it. My parents weren't even remotely neglectful, they let me go out and play all by myself like every other kid of my age before this nanny state view where all kids can't leave their front garden without an adult nowadays up until the age of 16 or whatever the fuck.

      All that needs to be done is to make sure kids understand what it is and how to interpret it, nothing more.

  3. Just try it by Gaygirlie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Shutting down all online porn-sites in the UK? Yeah, go ahead, see how long the public is willing to play along; I predict quite an uproar. Besides, it wouldn't stop porn-sites from outside the UK anyways, so it would both upset a lot of people and yet be wholly ineffective.

  4. No, no, no by Cafe+Alpha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    they're trying to prevent what they're always trying to prevent:
    being blamed or losing their jobs when some nutcase parent gets upset.

    The purpose of policies is to be seen pretending to do something about fictional problems that have no solutions for the simple reason that some very loud people believe there's a problem.