Conservative MP calls for ISPs to filter porn

A Conservative MP has called for Britain’s biggest ISPs to apply cinema-style age ratings to pornographic sites.

Claire Perry, the MP for Devizes who was elected to Parliament in this year’s General Election, claims that unrestricted access to pornographic material has a “profound and negative” impact on children.

“Against a drip feed of sexualisation that promotes pole dancing as healthy exercise and high heels for baby girls, the availability of soft and hardcore pornography in our homes is damaging our children,” Perry writes on the Politics.co.uk website.

I believe that time has come to stop ducking and diving on an issue that is of enormous concern to parents, teachers and carers across the country

“I attended the Safer media conference and heard all the compelling evidence for this damage – study after study demonstrating that watching internet pornography contributes to seeing women as sex objects and increases sexual risk taking.”

Perry argues that ISPs should restrict pornography to adult users, in the same way as cinemas and broadcasters are forced to apply age restrictions, although she fails to specify exactly how ISPs should filter millions of different sites.

“I believe this is a red herring,” she says of the argument that it’s too difficult to filter internet content.

“While the content of the internet is indeed generated on millions of international websites, access to the internet is concentrated in the hands of a small number of companies,” she argues, pointing out Britain’s top six ISPs account for more than 90% of the market.

“I believe that time has come to stop ducking and diving on an issue that is of enormous concern to parents, teachers and carers across the country.

“We are ridiculed for raising it, barraged with information as to why the internet should be treated differently, bamboozled with the problem of international cooperation and told that it is no-ones responsilbity but our own.”

“I beg to differ and believe it is time, in my view, for Britain to take a lead on this matter and for the UK Government – with its commitment to family-friendly policies – to act,” she concludes.