U.K. Politicians Want to Ban Anonymous Porn-Surfing

[Michael McAllister]

The Tories are attempting to introduce legislation that would require adult websites to implement age verification mechanisms.  The intention here being to minimize the amount of access minors have to this content.  Websites that fail to do so would be shut down.  Think of the children!  Experts have warned the party that this would be particularly difficult to enforce.  According to Huffington Post UK, the party is committed to ensuring that such content is locked after "a recent Childline poll found nearly one in ten 12 -13 year olds are worried they are addicted and 18% have seen shocking or upsetting images."

 

The proposal would employ an ISP arbitrator which would enforce compliance.  Providers that fail to comply with the new regulations would be fined.

 

Sarah Green, acting director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: "We warmly welcome proposals to better regulate access to online pornography by young people.

 

Here's a thought.  Why not, as parents, monitor what your kids do online?  While I certainly agree that this type of material can impose negative viewpoints and/or give children a false understanding of what healthy relationships are, it should not be the government's job to monitor children.  Such legislation would be a logistical nightmare to enforce.  I'm not sure that they are aware that it is rather easy to lie on the Internet about one's age.

 

"Surveys have shown that more than half of young people have seen online pornography by the age of 14, and that many see it without even seeking it out as links are shared on social networks.

 

This is not surprising at all.  This is just a modern extension of what many teenagers have done in the past.  Am I being too dismissive?  Interested to hear your thoughts below.

[Guest]

Here's a thought.  Why not, as parents, monitor what your kids do online?  While I certainly agree that this type of material can impose negative viewpoints and/or give children a false understanding of what healthy relationships are, it should not be the government's job to monitor children.  Such legislation would be a logistical nightmare to enforce.  I'm not sure that they are aware that it is rather easy to lie on the Internet about one's age.

Agreed, its easy to setup a web filter in Bullguard (AV) and its up to the parents to decide

[Thorium19]

It's a load of bollocks this. It won't affect me, but it's the parents responsibility first and foremost, so they need to be educated in how to prevent their kids watching porn, and kids need to be taught better sex education and social responsibilities in school, something that has been incredibly lacking during my time in the education system.

[Comessy]

Lol let them try

 

There are too many ways around it

[AlwaysFSX]

"Shocking or upsetting images"

 

I guarantee you most of them weren't upset after what they viewed, unless they clicked on the wrong category of course.

[Guest]

"Shocking or upsetting images"

 

I guarantee you most of them weren't upset after what they viewed, unless they clicked on the wrong category of course.

 

^THIS!

 

There's even porn in movies... and in games... there's even a guide on how to do it in my biology book.

[chicksoup]

I completely agree that the parents have to inforce bans or restrictions like this, especially since it's so easy nowadays, but how do they want to take down non GB websites? There are just way too many websites to handle and new one popping out everyday. Also as soon as the kid is 13+ and he can use google he'll find a way to circumvent any website restrictions

[AlwaysFSX]

I completely agree that the parents have to inforce bans or restrictions like this, especially since it's so easy nowadays, but how do they want to take down non GB websites? There are just way too many websites to handle and new one popping out everyday. Also as soon as the kid is 13+ and he can use google he'll find a way to circumvent any website restrictions

The problem is there's too many dumb parents.

[Michael McAllister]

Yeah, thanks to the Internet, kids are learning about technology a lot quicker, so I have a feeling this proposal will just be an impedance to certain websites.  Will they classify educational websites that deal with human sexuality as porn?

[DeScruff]

"More than one in 10 children (12%) aged 12 to 13 have made or been part of a sexually explicit video." - What!?
That is a scary statistic that I find hard to believe. Watched porn I could totally understand, but no they are saying "have made or been a part of".

[chicksoup]

The problem is there's too many dumb parents.

I know, the other downside of regulating this, how would adults not have to log in or be prompted to some kind of age verification, I don't see any adults wanting to log in on a government website to access porn

[Klerk]

Good luck in implementing that. How the hell would they know the actual age of the person sitting behind the computer? It's a waste of tax payer's money if you ask me since I doubt on how they can effectively implement this.

[Sharp_3yE]

The government officials need to get out of parenting

[Toddwjp]

or you could just improve sex ed in the country and then theres no harm done,

 

plus parents already have all the tools to block them, and to be honest, why is children seeing porn so dangerous?? theres no arguments given by them its just that its "bad".

[Lolzious]

"Shocking or upsetting images"

 

I guarantee you most of them weren't upset after what they viewed, unless they clicked on the wrong category of course.

Plot twist: They're all gay

 

o_o

[mr moose]

The thing I have the most trouble with all this is that I want my kids to be able to watch let's plays and some youtube content.  How do you filter half of a website? especially when that website (youtube) has videos who's titles are not descriptive of the content.  E.G Warning NSFW link.  which I found by accident.

 

I agree wholeheartedly that it's the parents job and not the governments, but every day the internet gets more complicated and more convoluted and for non technically minded parents it will become easier to just ban it altogether than to seek out half measures to protect their kids.   This is going to lead into a messy debate where the most common sense answer is also the hardest to implement.

[Manny Calavera]

^THIS!

 

There's even porn in movies... and in games... there's even a guide on how to do it in my biology book.

biology book porn hahha

[Timopomer]

why is porn seen as an evil thing? its just like any other movie with a happy ending

[BloodySinner]

Someone should ban U.K. politicians. This is all kinds of stupid.

[Michael McAllister]

The thing I have the most trouble with all this is that I want my kids to be able to watch let's plays and some youtube content.  How do you filter half of a website? especially when that website (youtube) has videos who's titles are not descriptive of the content.  E.G Warning NSFW link.  which I found by accident.

 

I'm a little surprised that's on YouTube.  Did they change the Terms of Service or something?

[Aircooled Brain]

Its a good thing porn is being banned,bodies shown in porn are quite different and that does effect relationships.Young children think that silicon contoured stuff is what they want creating issue's. Altough parents should be the one censoring what their kids watch and not the government.

[silenthill_69]

this is going to get more & more in the next decade & the main reason is clearly obvious the internet has become the centre of all evil so you are going to see more legislation year after year.  

[AlwaysFSX]

I know, the other downside of regulating this, how would adults not have to log in or be prompted to some kind of age verification, I don't see any adults wanting to log in on a government website to access porn

I doubt they'd care in the first place.

 

Plot twist: They're all gay

 

o_o

The kids or the politicians?

[mr moose]

I'm a little surprised that's on YouTube.  Did they change the Terms of Service or something?

 

I have no idea, it just happened. And as you can see all the suggested videos on the side are just the same, so it's not like they were all uploaded at once.   

 

I genuinely don't know what to do, I want  my kids to have free access to explore the net,  but even some of the TF2 videos  are starting to get a little on the inappropriate side for their age.

[ManWithBeard1990]

In the end this is just another datamining campaign to see who's into what.