PM: online porn will be automatically blocked

Shona Ghosh Read more July 22, 2013

The government is set to announce that all households setting up new broadband accounts will have to opt out of network-level filters on adult content by the end of this year.

PM: online porn will be automatically blocked

In practice, that means that when customers set up their broadband for the first time, they’ll be shown a settings page for parental controls, with the box to use the filter pre-ticked.

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

It appears that the government has successfully persuaded at least some ISPs to change their filtering systems from “active choice” to “default on”, despite their opposition.

If there are technical obstacles to acting on this, don’t just stand by and say nothing can be done; use your great brains to help overcome them

The active-choice system would force customers to make a decision on parental controls, but the boxes wouldn’t be pre-ticked.

Cameron also said ISPs will force existing broadband customers to make an “unavoidable choice” about whether they want filters switched on or not, with ISPs contacting customers by the end of the year.

It isn’t clear which ISPs have actually agreed to Cameron’s proposals, with industry sources indicating last week that the UK’s leading providers – Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin and BT – would reject the measures.

A leaked letter to ISPs from the Department of Education last week also suggested the switch from “active choice” to “default on” was simply a matter of marketing and wouldn’t actually involve any changes.

Pressure over child-abuse images

In the same speech, Cameron is also expected to pile pressure on major web firms to increase their measures against illegal images of child abuse. For example, he wants search firms to post warning pages when users search for illegal content.

He will also announce that images depicting simulated rape will be illegal under new legislation.

“I have a very clear message for Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest. You have a duty to act on this – and it is a moral duty. If there are technical obstacles to acting on this, don’t just stand by and say nothing can be done; use your great brains to help overcome them,” he will say.

The firms will have until October to voluntarily block search terms on a blacklist maintained by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, or else face legislation.

“If in October we don’t like the answer we’re given to this question, if the progress is slow or non-existent, then I can tell you we are already looking at the legislative options we have to force action,” Cameron will say.

But privacy campaigners have slammed the measures as a “marginal help”, saying that banning search terms will do little to help child safety.

“Banning search terms seems unlikely to combat the serious activity, which is independent of search engines,” said Open Rights Group director Jim Killock. “It may help for casual searches, but this seems at best a marginal help, and certainly not worth a Prime Ministerial announcement, nor threats of legislation implying that this action is critical for child safety.”

Killock dismissed the announcement as a “press stunt”, noting that the Internet Watch Foundation already works with Google, Facebook and other firms to remove images of child abuse.

“These announcements risk being another case of blaming the commercial intermediaries – in this case search engines – because that is easier and cheaper than doing what is really necessary,” he said.