Children viewing porn... will be controlled by parents!

The British government has taken proactive steps to restrict children from viewing porn by allowing parents to decide if porn sites will be blocked as standard during registration.

Internet porn is a step closer to be automatically barred from viewing as government proposes possible filtering systems. The first step towards restricting children from viewing pornographic material was initiated a year ago by broadband majors Sky, BT, Talk Talk and Virgin.

Children’s minister Tim Loughton said, “We have always been clear we would turn up the heat on industry if it did not make fast enough progress.But such filters can never be 100 per cent foolproof. There can never be any substitute for parents taking responsibility for how, when and where their children use the Internet.”

There are three possible filtering systems proposed by the government. First method is to block porn sites as standard and second involves a user permission whenever they connect to porn sites. The third method, a mix of the first two methods, is known as ‘active choice plus’ while blocking content as standard and then allowing users to unblock it at will.

Children now have greater access to the internet and this has not only increased the access of pornographic material but also other harmful content including websites showing suicide, self-harm and anorexia. The government has been working for the last couple of years trying to find out various filtering methods to control the content aimed for children.

Will the proposed filters help to control children’s porn addiction? Is it right to block content as standard?

More on this topic:
Government plans to restrict children from viewing internet porn
Facebook to open up to 13-year-olds under parental guidance