Universal Porn Filter Coming to the U.K.

[Gone Rampant]

You know, when I was a kid my parents tried to shelter me. I couldn't listen to any music or watch tv shows or movies they didn't approve of. My parents also taught me the world was sunshine and rainbows, that you could do anything if you tried hard enough. You know what happened? I became a kind of social outcast because I couldn't relate to any of the kids my age - they were allowed to listen to music or watch things I couldn't. Then I failed at things I tried my best at - because I didn't have the connections or the exact qualifications or whatever. I stumbled in the dark for a long time trying to adjust to the real world after being taught lies for near a decade. And it was only after that -after I had learned the truth myself by having it beat into me by constant failure- that my parents turned around and told me how it really was (not that I hold it against them, kids don't come with manuals and they did what they thought was right. But still...). So to this man and all those who think like him: fuck you. This isn't the way to "protect the children", this is the way to cripple the children.

... I don't think I can that my Twitter motto for my backup profile @AwesomeRealisticLines (Fake, of course, but solid points).

 

[Little Duck]

This is kind of like saying "We don't like the number of boats that come across the atlantic, so we're going to build a 2 meter wall across the path where most come through."

I know I am not going to get my housemates to get the porn filter lifted. So I'll just do what all the pirate bay users do (the website the government also decided to block) Proxy all the way around it to the other side.

This is what happens when people think the conservatives should be in power.

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

As everyone has already mentioned, this is totalitarian bollocks hidden behind a veil of "for the good of the children" propaganda. It's like the late 90's-early 2000's all over again.

And what exactly do we mean by "rape porn," minister? Bootleg films of actual rapes? Fair enough. Or do we go further? What about stuff marked "rough sex" on Pornhub? That's rape roleplay! Shock horror! Consenting adults pretending to commit an illegal act? That's the exact same thing as committing it! And while we're at it, let's take down Corruption of Champions. Tons o' rape to be found there! Sure, it's a written fictional document made by a man with every right to do so, one whose legality is so readily recognized that he admits, on tax forms that go directly to his country's government, that writing it is his primary source of income, but what if the CHILDREN get on this site that has a popup warning you that if you're under 18 you're not allowed there (just like, you know, ALL OF THE PORN SITES EVER.) Must ban it! And hentai! Oh ye gods, children will be so influenced by this MEDIA THEY'RE ALREADY NOT BLOODY ALLOWED TO ACCESS AND WHICH ANY RESPONSIBLE PARENT/WEBMASTER IS ALREADY MAKING AN EFFORT TO KEEP THEM AWAY FROM that they'll spontaneously grow tentacles! And hey, why stop at the internet? 50 Shades of Grey is a couple hundred pages of nothing but rape barely concealed by dubious claims of consent! Take it off the shelves lest the children read it and grow up to be idiots who think that signing a contract gives random rich men free reign to sexually assault them! Which is... actually not a bad idea...

...

Sorry. Had a bit of an "Oh my god have I unknowingly been doing something illegal" moment last week when Fenoxo's blog was down and... I had to vent.

 

[themilo504]

I don?t think we need a universal porn filter, I do think that a porn filter should be an option for parents who don?t want their children traumatised by rule 34 to the point they consider sex evil, like me for instance.

 

[Caffeine_Bombed]

I'm all for blocking access to rape and child porn

I'm not.

Because I don't know what they mean by 'rape porn',and I doubt they know either.

Pretty much every 'rape porn' movie on the internet would be better described as badly-acted-and-unconvincingly-rough-for-the-first-few-minutes porn... but based on the way the government defined 'extreme' porn a few years ago I expect a vague and dangerously broad definition for 'rape' porn. If neither the government, nor the police, nor judges nor juries are exact in their definition then people will have their lives ruined when they go on the sex offender list and/or go to jail for possession of entirely consensual pornography.

Well I assumed it meant videos and images of drunk or passed out people being abused and/or videos depicting real rape victims.
I get what you mean about how this needs to be explained and controlled better but quite frankly, consensual and scripted or whatever, I wouldn't personally shed many tears for someone who gets their rocks off on that sort of thing.

 

[Andrew_C]

People with kids appreciate this, although they shouldn't rely on it.

In it's original form, you could have opted in to it and the ISP's would have been required to inform you of it's existence. Why make it on by default?

This is just the Faily Heil and company scaring up an issue where nothing existed. The same attitude that lead to the "Extreme Pornography" laws, which can leave you with a criminal record for reading manga or watching anime. Or indulging in S&M.

 

[geizr]

Personal responsibility and accountability have apparently become completely meaningless concepts. The idea of the parent actually being responsible and making an effort to ACTIVELY nurture and guide the child's behavior and upbringing seems to have been lost in the annals of antiquity.

I am starting to believe that whenever any politician says something to the effect of "think of the children!" my Bullshit Meter(TM) needs to be pegging all the way to the far edge of the red. Just about every time I hear this, there seems to be some Neo-Con power-play agenda going on in the background.

 

[cerebus23]

Isn't Cameron the guy who's butchering the UK's health system (NHS, I believe it's called) and who is also cutting funding for schools?

How the hell can he possibly say he's protecting the children with a straight face?

One can argue that cutting spending is helping your children and grandchildren not have massive crushing unmanageable debt that they will never ever be able to afford.

Or that throwing more money at systems that are inefficient, wasteful is not ever going to make then better just more inefficient and wasteful. One of the major lies of politics is tossing more money at something is ever the solution.

Everyone needs to tighten their belts period, with us having in the order of 17 trillion in debt over here, a 1 plus trillion massive health bill kicking in, social security and medicare going bankrupt to the tune of 4 trillion dollars, our midwest aquifers drying out at alarming rates, how will our children be able to afford anything when their tax burdens would need to be 100% to pay anything.

And that all utterly ignores the fact that our government will more than likely lose our IMF status soonish before most of that happens collapsing our goverment overnight.

Yes we all better get used to less government and the sooner the better, but on the flip side maybe we can cut back or eliminate that 40% federal tax burdenand let people keep their own money for health care and food and stuff people really need.

If we want to talk about real meaningful health care get the bureaucracy out of health care, enact tort reform where simple mistakes do not cost doctors massive amounts in malpractice insurance. Medicare and medicade paperwork, 20 hour plus work shifts and the insurance costs for doctors do more to skyrocket medical costs than anything.

 

[Riobux]

I can't wait for me to have to contact my service provider, and then they send a newsletter out to neighbours saying "oh, Mr May at number Y on your street has just disabled the pornography filter! You too can do it at X phone number!".

PORNOGRAPHY IS RUINING OUR CHILDREN!!

That's actually true. Porn addiction is a real thing. And every study about porn users so far had revealed that it can be quite damaging. I will refer you to this set of videos titled "Your brain on porn". It's very interesting and educational. And it will change your perspective on porn.

Let's filter computer games since they too have been shown to have a negative effect and can be addictive.

 

[Prince Regent]

But surely the social liberals won't stand for this. Personal freedom is one of their bullet points.Hell its the whole embodiment of the social liberal ideology. And I cant really imagine labour helping out the conservatives on this either, so how are they going to get it through parliament
Can someone that follows british politics better than me please explain this?

 

[luvd1]

You can tell there's an election brewing. Now stop piddling about Tory boy and get back to the economy you ineffective, creedless, vacuous, joke of a man. You make my blood run cold at the thought of your ineptitude.

 

[Kmadden2004]

So what are the chances that perfectly reasonable, non-pornographic sites that feature adult content get caught up in this universal filter?

Sites such as... say... deviantART?

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Okay, I am confused. Since when was porn considered something that would ruin a child? I remember seeing my first porn mag at the age of 7. I didn't become a mass murderer or serial rapist.

Really? Mine was at age 9. Thanks to my tiny child brain, I had no idea what was going on in the pictures.

As Heinlein once said, "Censorship is like telling a man he can't have steak because a baby can't chew it."

 

[deonte9109]

There might be a way to make it hard on the gov't.
Step 1: Opt for access to porn sites
Step 2: Create a folder on your computer labeled with the name Porn, CP, or some other potentially incriminating title
Step 3: Fill created folder with several Gbs worth of videos of Rick Astley or other troll worthy videos (make sure the videos are super long and are loops)

When the FBI ,or whatever is the British equivalent, search your computer somebody has to sit down and watch all of the videos from start to finish.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

So how long is it going to be before dave decides to add on other things he finds distasteful like maybe sites for other political parties, or protest groups.

I really wish i could afford to leave this fucking shithole of a country!

 

[Syan]

This political show is probably a smokescreen to introduce more ways to monitor internet usage in the UK now that the existing methods have been revealed and are surely partly illegal.

Should watch the lettering of this law very closely to see if the blacklist can be updated quietly in the future.

First porn to 'protect children'.
Next it'll be stuff vaguely to do with 'terrorism'.
After that it will be 'things that could cause offence'.

OH HAI CHINA, WE <3 U HERE IN THE UK.

 

[moggett88]

If David Cameron thinks having to make a phone call asking for porn is going to stop me, he clearly isnt aware of how much porn I consume.

Also, while I get that child porn is a horrible, horrible thing, I think there are more pressing issues in the UK - just counting my immediate family, weve been the victims of 5 attempted muggings in the last 5 years. How about doing something about that, Mr. Cameron?

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Another thing is how will this work (it likely won't) with social networking sites like twitter, tumblr ect there is porn on them to. Are people going to have to opt out of having them blocked to even if they use them for you know talking to people and not porn.

See that's what I'm worried about. What's going to happen to sites that host porn but aren't porn centric. Let's take reddit for example. Reddit has plenty of stuff that isn't porn, but it hosts a lot of subreddits that are porn-centric. Wonder if they'll block the whole site or what. Hell even youtube has some mature content, which while not porn could be considered more suggestive. Are they going to shut down youtube too?

Its more likely that sites like Reddit and Youtube who are not porn focused but do have some mature content won't be effected as the Tories and their advisers just don't get the internet and its nuances, and thus they won't of even heard of things like Reddit or Tumblr.

Then I imagine Reddit is going to be getting a whole new set of british users, and the filter will prove pointless. I'm curious to see if 4chan will be blocked.

Seeing as how 4chan is basically the headquarters of Anonymous, I doubt the block would be there for long.