Guardian
October 11, 2011
The Daily Mail today reports plans for a new system for people to opt-in to internet porn when they sign up to a new internet provider. The Mail report, followed-up by the Guardian here, says that BT, TalkTalk, Virgin and Sky have all agreed the scheme. But how will it work in practice? Can you control the internet? And might it amount to government-sponsored censorship?
The analysis
I’ve just spoken with a press officer at TalkTalk who confirmed that rather than giving customers an option to opt-in to porn, it will actually be the offer of an opt-in to parental controls, applied by what she called a “whole home filtering solution”. She said:
“This is offering parents, as part of installation, a choice around whether to use controls or not. It will be an upfront decision they have to make. It’s certainly not blocking porn and people having to opt in. The internet service still comes as it does, it’s about giving parents a choice about using controls. We will ask every customer would you like parental controls?
This is called ‘active choice’ rather than an opt-in or opt-out. We are the only ISP that offers network level protection. We offer a service called Home Safe which works on the internet connection rather than setting up controls for each device in a home. This covers every device in the home.”
One Response to “Analysis: Government attempt new system to crackdown on internet porn”
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It’ turned up, in every day search results, which weren’t remotely sexual.
Very creepy at inappropriate times.