Dear Dave is at it again. Sometimes I worry about our PM’s priorities. Not content with his earlier insistence that UK ISPs must introduce “family friendly (read “porn”) filters”, our man in No 10 now wants to “see age restrictions put into place or these (i.e. “porn”) websites will face being shut down”.
El Reg today runs a nice article about Dave’s latest delusion. That article begins:
Prime Minister David Cameron has declared himself “determined to introduce age verification mechanisms to restrict under 18s’ access to pornographic websites” and he is “prepared to legislate to do so if the industry fails to self-regulate.”
It continues in classic El Reg style:
The government will hold a consultation in the autumn, meaning it will be standing on the proverbial street corner and soliciting views on how to stop 17-year-olds running a web search for the phrase “tits”.
and further notes that Baroness Shields (who is apparently our “Minister for internet safety and security”) said:
“Whilst great progress has been made, we remain acutely aware of the risks and dangers that young people face online. This is why we are committed to taking action to protect children from harmful content. Companies delivering adult content in the UK must take steps to make sure these sites are behind age verification controls.”
To which two members of the El Reg commentariat respond:
I give it 5 minutes after the “blockade” is put in place before someone puts a blog post up explaining how to bypass said blockade.
and
Re: 5 minutes
“I give it 5 minutes after the “blockade” is put in place before someone puts a blog post up explaining how to bypass said blockade.”
I can do that now & don’t need a blog.
Q: Are you over 18?
A: Yes
Someone, somewhere, in Government must be able to explain to this bunch of idiots how the internet works. Short of actually pulling the plug on the entire net, any attempt to block access to porn is doomed to failure. China has a well documented and massive censorship mechanism in place (the Great Firewall) in order to control what its populace can watch or read or listen to. That mechanism fails to prevent determined access to censored material. If a Marxist State cannot effectively block free access to the ‘net, then Dear Dave has no chance.
Unless of course he knows that, wants to fail, and plans his own Great Firewall in “reluctant” response.