UK's block on internet pron: what do you think?

[MindFragged]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401076

David Cameron's recent proposals basically suggest a further shift in onus away from individuals and onto ISPs and search providers when it comes to monitoring the content of the internet. Regardless of whether or not you think such proposals are workable or indeed necessary, what do you think of this? Where should the responsibility for what we see on the internet lie, and why? Are there cases where it is acceptable for a government to dictate to ISPs what they can and cannot provide?

edit: bear in mind these proposals don't block ISPs from providing adult content outright, merely that they block it by default, and have adult content as an opt-in.

I'm guessing most people on here will be internet libertarians and therefore against regulation from the outset, but then again we may also have some concerned parents or individuals who have the safety of young-uns at heart.

I myself can't really make up my mind - hence this topic. That minors are having their expectations of and attitudes towards sex warped by the ubiquity of internet pornography is pretty well documented, if not completely established (or at least, from what I have read, maybe you guys have something else to offer?). However, I think that asking ISPs to sort it out is tantamount to placing the blame on them, and I'm not sure that's fair either.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Well, let's just put aside all the obvious bullshit this brings, and focus solely on the so called "young-uns". Everyone reaches that age when girls/boys suddenly aren't icky and have cooties, but can be genuinely attractive. Once that age is reached, sexuality begins taking effect. One of the ways to relieve any sexual tension during the teenage years is, indeed, pornography. Take that away, and suddenly you have a nation full of sexually annoyed/frustrated teenagers who may turn to getting laid themselves (which could bring its own plethora of problems, teen pregnancy chief among them) or even, heaven fucking forbid, sexual offence. Banning porn would only bring far more problems than solve any. That kind of regulation should be kept to the parents, and no one else. All this will do, by my reckoning, is piss everyone off and cause above mentioned problems occur. I think it's time people accepted the fact that, yes, pornography does have valid uses in our world. No, it is not evil.

 

[4RM3D]

What worries me the most is that in order to fully block porn you need some serious sophisticated filtering system. Which is going to cost a lot of money and resources. And more often that not, anything that even has a potential to be porn is being blocked. This will cause a lot of issues. Even for those not interested in watching porn.

Also, is the ISP going to block torrent sites and stuff like that by default? Because most of the porn can still be easily obtained from those sites.

Simply put. It is not possible to properly filter out all porn. The filters will be broken.

End result: government wasted millions of dollars on something that is never actually going to work in the first place.

Do we really need such extreme measures? I think it is overkill and in the end will achieve little.

But hey, it's the idea what counts, right?

 

[tomtom94]

(As someone who lives in the UK, it's going to be very difficult to come out in support of this without seeming like a proper creep).

Every time David Cameron has asked the ISPs to block something thus far (Pirate Bay and firstrowsports), they've failed.

All this will do is drive up costs for the ISPs as they attempt to do something they have no business doing and in so doing drive up broadband costs.

But hey, as long as someone is thinking of the children...

 

[mokes310]

Obviously, England has not heard of VPN's. More to the point, this is a sad day for my fellow surfers in the UK. Here's hoping a more level-headed PM will come out and reverse this in the near future.

 

[shootthebandit]

I think Dr. Cox puts its perfectly


I dont see why adults of age cant do what the fuck they want. If you have a sprog its your job to look after the little shit not sit them in front of a computer all day

 

[Andy Shandy]

Dr. Cox really does put it best


But yeah, it's going to work about as well as getting them to block TPB and FirstRowSports did. That is to say it didn't.

Also I did get an admittedly immature chuckle out of the thought that they are going to get a company called Virgin to block porn.

 

[teqrevisited]

It's just a bid for some good PR. It wont accomplish anything and will probably cost more than it's worth, but that's politicians for you.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Time to download TOR or some shit. Y'know, where the actual child pornography is. And drugs. And motherfucking hitmen, just to access some porn. Which has been around for quite some time.
Yeah, so now normal, horny, people are going to be exposed to that sort of disgusting shit.
Also, the Tories have just guaranteed a loss at the next general election.

 

[Doclector]

Well, I always knew Cameron deserved to die, so this doesn't change my opinion on him one bit.

However, it does add to the long list of reasons.

For one, we all remember how crap the filters in school were. You need to look up a horror film review for an essay, but they've blocked "bloody disgusting" a popular source for such things, on the asssumption that it's porn. Meanwhile, jimmy at the back of the class is watching some hardcore porn on a site the filter's never heard of, likely infecting the system with a virus in the first place.

For another, well, I'm 22. I'm a virgin. Of course I watch porn, I'd dare say it's crucial to my wellbeing. I'm actually getting a little worried that I may actually go insane at some point in the future if the supply is cut off. Sure, you can "opt out" but who wants to have that conversation with their flatmates, or their parents? And since when has calling your ISP to get anything done been easy?

People can insult, and make jokes all they like, but at the end of the day, these things need an outlet. It's only healthy.

 

[shootthebandit]

Now is the time to download as much as you can and create a "wank bank". Then you can set yourself up as a black market porn trader like the guys that used to come round pubs selling dvds (now they just sell drugs)

 

[Eduku]

Their arguments for doing this sound very similar to the whole 'video games corrupt children' thing, so yeah, it's garbage.

It's just a bid for some good PR. It wont accomplish anything and will probably cost more than it's worth, but that's politicians for you.

Ha, I highly doubt that pissing off every male in the UK is going to be good PR.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Not like there's something called a VPN, something that can easily fool the connections into thinking you're from another country. If it works for Netflix and TPB, it'll work for this. I still think we shouldn't let the government do shit like this, censorship is one of the worst ways to solve a problem outside of genocide.

But hey, nobody here'll do anything because we're all too apathetic to give a shit.

 

[elvor0]

Yeah this is total bollocks. I'm all for cracking down on paedophilia, but this is ridiculous, it's not going to stop any paedos, because they will assuredly just opt out, and most of them are likely going to be quite good at disguising their on-line actions in the first place. We're poor enough as it is, without wasting money on some crummy nanny filter.

The government sometimes does need to do stuff for the people, but this isn't one of those occasions, everyone knows you can get net filtering software, if you're so worried about little Timmy accessing porn, then do it yourself, it's fucking easy. Don't ruin it for the rest of us because you're such a lazy ass parent.

Nevermind the fact that it would be impossible to successfully block all the porn anyway, which even if you block the main ones (Brazzers, Naughty America, etc), there's shit tons of it out there. Where does Hentai fall into this anyway? I've got no qualm with the stuff myself, but if you're trying to explore your sexuality you wanna start with the vanilla stuff, as well...I wouldn't recommend some of the more hardcore hentai and furry stuff out there as your first exposure, that isn't good for ya.

I mean fuck me porn is porn, but have you seen some of the news paper headlines we have in Britain? This is a country where the news papers gladly display naked women and we have headlines glorifying the fact that it's only X more days till "hot bit of crumpet #17726" is legal to fuck or wank over without feeling guilty. I mean that's fucking sinister. At least porn is mostly full of consenting adults doing their thing.

 

[tomtom94]

Nevermind the fact that it would be impossible to successfully block all the porn anyway, which even if you block the main ones (Brazzers, Naughty America, etc), there's shit tons of it out there. Where does Hentai fall into this anyway? I've got no qualm with the stuff myself, but if you're trying to explore your sexuality you wanna start with the vanilla stuff, as well...I wouldn't recommend some of the more hardcore hentai and furry stuff out there as your first exposure, that isn't good for ya.

This is the major point I think, whatever you get you're never going to get everything, and if you base it on some automated filter then you're going to end up blocking a load of stuff you don't need to.

Part of the issue is David Cameron has claimed that pornography is "sometimes extreme" (which, incidentally, I don't think people can deny) - so is the solution really to block the vanilla stuff as well? If hentai comes under this ban, then what about rule 34 fanart? What is "pornography" (for example, does ecchi or however it's spelt count?) and what is safe for kids to look at?

Also, Mr Cameron, are you going to ban page 3 girls or is it just the internet that is evil and corrupting our children?

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Yeah this is total bollocks. I'm all for cracking down on paedophilia, but this is ridiculous, it's not going to stop any paedos, because they will assuredly just opt out, and most of them are likely going to be quite good at disguising their on-line actions in the first place. We're poor enough as it is, without wasting money on some crummy nanny filter.

The government sometimes does need to do stuff for the people, but this isn't one of those occasions, everyone knows you can get net filtering software, if you're so worried about little Timmy accessing porn, then do it yourself, it's fucking easy. Don't ruin it for the rest of us because you're such a lazy ass parent.

Nevermind the fact that it would be impossible to successfully block all the porn anyway, which even if you block the main ones (Brazzers, Naughty America, etc), there's shit tons of it out there. Where does Hentai fall into this anyway? I've got no qualm with the stuff myself, but if you're trying to explore your sexuality you wanna start with the vanilla stuff, as well...I wouldn't recommend some of the more hardcore hentai and furry stuff out there as your first exposure, that isn't good for ya.

If it's a word filter then won't the porn sites that are actually there to make money just use less explicit words to get around it, thus making the risk of a child finding it much bigger. It's very hard to stumble upon midget BBW fetish porn, but it would be quite easy to stumble upon small person overweight unusual porn. What about stuff that isn't really porn, but could be? Would you have to ban all images of actors/actresses from movies in sex scenes?

 

[kurupt87]

Porn isn't dangerous, social media is.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Nevermind the fact that it would be impossible to successfully block all the porn anyway, which even if you block the main ones (Brazzers, Naughty America, etc), there's shit tons of it out there. Where does Hentai fall into this anyway? I've got no qualm with the stuff myself, but if you're trying to explore your sexuality you wanna start with the vanilla stuff, as well...I wouldn't recommend some of the more hardcore hentai and furry stuff out there as your first exposure, that isn't good for ya.

This is the major point I think, whatever you get you're never going to get everything, and if you base it on some automated filter then you're going to end up blocking a load of stuff you don't need to.

Part of the issue is David Cameron has claimed that pornography is "sometimes extreme" (which, incidentally, I don't think people can deny) - so is the solution really to block the vanilla stuff as well? If hentai comes under this ban, then what about rule 34 fanart? What is "pornography" (for example, does ecchi or however it's spelt count?) and what is safe for kids to look at?

Also, Mr Cameron, are you going to ban page 3 girls or is it just the internet that is evil and corrupting our children?

That is a point, what is "extreme". Would simulated BDSM or fetish porn be counted under extreme? If so, then that would piss off a large number of people since that kind of porn rarely ever actually harms people. What about gay porn? Does it basically mean anything but straight, vanilla sex in the missionary position for the sole purpose of pro-creation?

 

[elvor0]

Nevermind the fact that it would be impossible to successfully block all the porn anyway, which even if you block the main ones (Brazzers, Naughty America, etc), there's shit tons of it out there. Where does Hentai fall into this anyway? I've got no qualm with the stuff myself, but if you're trying to explore your sexuality you wanna start with the vanilla stuff, as well...I wouldn't recommend some of the more hardcore hentai and furry stuff out there as your first exposure, that isn't good for ya.

This is the major point I think, whatever you get you're never going to get everything, and if you base it on some automated filter then you're going to end up blocking a load of stuff you don't need to.

Part of the issue is David Cameron has claimed that pornography is "sometimes extreme" (which, incidentally, I don't think people can deny) - so is the solution really to block the vanilla stuff as well? If hentai comes under this ban, then what about rule 34 fanart? What is "pornography" (for example, does ecchi or however it's spelt count?) and what is safe for kids to look at?

Also, Mr Cameron, are you going to ban page 3 girls or is it just the internet that is evil and corrupting our children?

That is a point, what is "extreme". Would simulated BDSM or fetish porn be counted under extreme? If so, then that would piss off a large number of people since that kind of porn rarely ever actually harms people. What about gay porn? Does it basically mean anything but straight, vanilla sex in the missionary position for the sole purpose of pro-creation?

BDSM is already illegal here in the UK, or at least possessing images of it is(as it counts as "extreme porn", performing it is a bit hazy, I know there was a case a few years back where they tried to charge some man with assault for quite a while, despite both their claims to the contrary that it was purely consensual and sexual, he was cleared eventually, but a few years before that there was a similar case with the court ruling that the consent of the "victims" meant bugger all and because what they saw scared and confused them they continued to press charges in the interests of "moral decency".

Nevermind the stuff that most of your bondage/BDSM porn you get with your big companies, really isn't that bad. I've seen that shit, pathetic limp wrist action, padded..paddles, soft furry cuffs. Ptsh! No ones in pain or being dominated there at all! I call shenanigans!

And yeah, I guess gay porn might be under threat actually. I mean...there's some pretty hardcore anal stuff going on there, even with your standard "vanilla gay" sex, and that scares some people, in case children find it and suddenly turn gay.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

BDSM is already illegal here in the UK, or at least possessing images of it is(as it counts as "extreme porn", performing it is a bit hazy, I know there was a case a few years back where they tried to charge some man with assault for quite a while, despite both their claims to the contrary that it was purely consensual and sexual, he was cleared eventually, but a few years before that there was a similar case with the court ruling that the consent of the "victims" meant bugger all and because what they saw scared and confused them they continued to press charges in the interests of "moral decency".

Nevermind the stuff that most of your bondage/BDSM porn you get with your big companies, really isn't that bad. I've seen that shit, pathetic limp wrist action, padded..paddles, soft furry cuffs. Ptsh! No ones in pain or being dominated there at all! I call shenanigans!

And yeah, I guess gay porn might be under threat actually. I mean...there's some pretty hardcore anal stuff going on there, even with your standard "vanilla gay" sex, and that scares some people, in case children find it and suddenly turn gay.

Really? I didn't even know that. Fuck this country is so ass-backwards, I'm moving out as soon as I get the chance. So anyone with a fetish that they were born with is automatically a rapist and a criminal if they wish to view someone tied up? If someone wants to save a picture of a 25 year old women on an official pay-site with handcuffs on they're automatically a pedophile rapist? We're the same country that banned lolicon, rule 34 of things like The Simpsons and MLP and more so I guess "not real" and "simulated" aren't in our government's vocabulary. Way to increase rapes and sexual assault by making consensual and simulated rape and sexual assault illegal, whilst doing fuck-all to punish people who watch and distribute things like CP because they know how to get round shit already. Bravo Cameron, you deserve a medal.