Public Internet to be Censored as Suitable for Kids…Cameron set to ban anything remotely adult from public internet networks

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See article from telegraph.co.uk

The Prime Minister is to announce a Government-backed censorship rules which will mean that all adult themed content is blocked in public spaces such as cafes and railway stations where children are likely to be present. Cameron said: We are promoting good, clean, WiFi in local cafes and elsewhere to make sure that people have confidence in public WiFi systems so that they are not going to see things they shouldn’t. Talks have been taking place for months between ISPs and government officials over the new censorship rules. It is not clear whether the internet firms will automatically impose the restrictions on access — or whether it will be the duty of shops and other public areas used by children to bar adult content. Industry sources said that the decision on whether to automatically restrict access in hotels could prove a more contentious issue.

Turning the Internet Off at Night…David Cameron appointed Claire Perry as his personal Mary Whitehouse. Now she gives a couple of clues about what she is working on

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See article from blogs.spectator.co.uk

One of Perry’s big themes is empowering parents to be able to take back control of a space she feels adults have largely ceded to our children . It’s clear that she sees leaving a child to their own devices in the online world as akin to leaving a child to wander through a city alone at night, and it’s time for parents to take back control. She said: People say it’s so difficult to keep our kids off the laptop. There is a router. You control the wifi. So put it in your bedroom, for example, and switch it off when you go to bed, and then the household is internet free all night. It’s common sense, people are like, wow, somehow they just don’t think. It’s like locking the doors, it’s like making sure the blind cords aren’t hanging into your child’s cot. This, I think, if it’s a problem for you, you’ve got the power to change it. Beyond reminding parents of their own responsibilities, Perry is working on a filter to keep children safe online. The plan is for a filter that checks the age of the child browsing, rather than her original call for all users to opt-in to accessing adult content on their computer, which a government consultation rejected. All public wifi will have an automatic block on adult material. …Read the full article

Blocking Dodgy Stats…Daily Mail publish a low key article about the failure of their ‘Block Online Porn’ campaign

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Thanks to Therumbler & MichaelG See article from dailymail.co.uk

The Daily Mail wrote: Ministers were accused of betraying parents last night after they ruled out an automatic block on internet porn to protect children. The Department for Education said expert advice was against an automatic block, which would force those wanting access to online porn sites to contact their Internet Service Provider (ISP) to opt in . Instead, as the Daily Mail revealed last month, ISPs will simply be asked to actively encourage parents to switch on internet filters if children are likely to be using computers in the home. Then a little mathematical bullshit creeps into the Daily Mail (or perhaps NSPCC) interpretation of the statistics. The very best statistic in the entire consultation for the Daily Mail argument was that 35% of parents support the default internet blocking idea. From the government response: There was no great appetite among parents for the introduction of default filtering of the internet by their ISP: only 35 percent of the parents who responded favoured that approach. There were even smaller proportions of parents who favoured an approach which simply asked them what they would like their children to access on the internet, with no default settings (13 percent) or a system that combines the latter approach with default filtering(15 percent). In fact the 15% mentioned was from a separate question, and the parents in this 15% almost certainly agreed with the default blocking so were already counted in the 35%. And yet the Daily Mail effectively double counted the 15% to incorrectly arrive at that statistic that 50% of parents supported website some flavour of website blocking. Presumably they then contacted the NSPCC to comment on this supposed 50% statistic: Confirmation of the decision, slipped out on the DfE website without fanfare, came despite evidence from the Government’s consultation that half of parents back an automatic block on internet porn. Some 35 per cent of parents responding to the consultation backed the opt-in system, with a further 15 per cent wanting it imposed with additional controls. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said the Government’s proposals did not go far enough. Alan Wardle, of the NSPCC, said: The best option to protect children is for adult content to be automatically blocked by Internet Service Providers. Given that half of the parents who took part in the Government consultation wanted this option, we are concerned their views have not been heard. The Daily Mail also published an article on the subject by Labour PC extremist Harriet Harman. And as MichaelG asked: was she the only person they could find who supports their North Korean approach to state internet censorship? See the article: Children pore over sexual images as their parents watch Downton in the next room… yet ministers do nothing by Harriet Harman

Claire Perry and the Daily Mail Blocked…Government announces that public consultation on parental internet controls came out strongly against the idea of default website blocking by ISPs

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See article from guardian.co.uk See The Government’s Response to Public Consultation on Parental Internet Controls [pdf] from media.education.gov.uk

Ministers have stepped back from forcing telecommunications companies to filter websites for online pornography after parents rejected the idea in a government-sponsored consultation. A report released by the department for education and the home office instead said that internet service providers will be asked to advise and steer parents towards making an active choice by offering software that blocks out pornography and self-harming sites. The decision follows a 10-week public consultation process. David Cameron had indicated as recently as last month that he wanted firms to follow the lead of TalkTalk, which was the first big name internet service provider to introduce network-level filtering of websites for its customers. The report, released with little fanfare, said: It is… clear that in accepting that responsibility, parents want to be in control, and that it would be easier for them to use the online safety tools available to them if they could learn more about those tools. They also want information about internet safety risks and what to do about them. There was no great appetite among parents for the introduction of default filtering of the internet by their ISP: only 35% of the parents who responded favoured that approach. In fact the figures for all those that responded to the consultation showed: 14% in favour of default ISP blocking 85% opposed to default ISP blocking 1% unsure. The campaign for greater curbs against online porn had been led by the Tory MP Claire Perry, and was followed up by the Daily Mail. The industry pointed out that Perry’s plans were unworkable. The Government will now go to work with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to help parents with the knowledge and tools required to provide flexible and workable parental control.

Howes About That Then?…Nutter bill to mandate an internet porn blocking option receives a 2nd reading in the Lords

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See article from dailymail.co.uk

Elspeth Howe has launched a Lords private member bill obliging Britain’s ISPs to impose a block block on all pornographic images along with any websites that reference porn or anything else considered adult. The bill would bring in a system whereby adults will only be able to see porn if they specifically opt in after a strict age verification check. The legislation faces opposition from Liberal Democrat peers, who argue that the proposed system is not the best way to protect children online. Howe, an independent Crossbench peer claimed the bill was needed because of the dangerous effect that sexual content was having on relationships between boys and girls. She said that access to porn was giving children the wrong idea about relationships and could lead to teenage boys treating girls as sex objects. Her Online Safety Bill , received its first reading earlier this year but it is now receiving a second reading which is the first chance for debate. The legislation only has a chance of becoming law if it receives the support of ministers. Only when the Government grants enough Parliamentary time to debate a private members’ bill does it have any hope of passing into law.

Only Drizzle from Sky…The Cloud Public WiFi service will be censored for children

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Thanks to Nick See article from cable.co.uk

Sky has announced that its public Wi-Fi service, The Cloud, will begin blocking adult related content as standard from October. The move means shops, venues and other commercial buildings covered by The Cloud’s network that want a children’s internet service will have their wireless broadband filtered automatically. Lyssa McGowan, Sky’s brand director for communications products said: We believe this will give parents the peace of mind that when their children access content over Sky networks outside the home, where we can’t offer individual parental controls, they will be similarly protected as when in the home. The Cloud will be the first Wi-Fi operator in the UK to take this step.

Petitioning Against Choice…Government ‘consultation’ on blocking porn closes

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Thanks to Nick See article from bbc.com

The one sided consultation into whether UK internet users should have to opt-in in order to access adult content has now closed. The response forms provided by the government were only relevant to parents and ISPs. Presumably the government didn’t want to hear any negative comments from anyone else caught up censorship scheme. Over 2,000 responses had been submitted by the eve of the deadline, the Department for Education told the BBC. Proposals for an opt-in system are supported by several MPs, but fiercely opposed by internet rights campaigners. Internet service providers (ISPs) have also voiced concerns, favouring instead an active choice system. This method, already in place at several ISPs, prompts a new customer to choose if they want anything vaguely adult to be blocked out by their provider. The findings of the consultation are due to be published later in the year. A nutter petition signed by about 110,000 people demanding internet companies block access to hardcore pornography as a default setting to protect children is being handed to the Government. Strangely such a system has never been on the table. The current ISP systems block a much wider range of material: hardcore, softcore, and even just textual information about adult topics. Peers, MPs and church figures are among those who have signed the Safetynet petition demanding ISPs be made to compulsorily block access to pornography on computers, mobile phones and tablets, organiser Premier Christian Media (PCM) said. The petition, written as a letter to Jeremy Hunt, the previous Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, claims one in three 10-year-olds has “stumbled upon pornography online” and that youths aged 12 to 17 are the largest consumers of internet porn. MP Claire Perry told the BBC: We quite happily accept watersheds on TV and we are happy to accept adult films sitting behind PIN systems on satellite channels. Somehow when it comes to the internet, all bets are off and the onus is entirely on the consumer. Continue reading the main story Porn plans However, the petition has been criticised by some campaigners for citing surveys with small sample sizes. In particular, a statistic claiming that one in three under-10s had been exposed to pornography online was taken from an issue of Psychologies Magazine in 2010. The magazine had surveyed a group of 14-16 year olds at one North London school, asking them if they had seen porn before the age of 10. Any organisation that quotes statistics based on a once in a life time occurrence and then presents them as if this was regular usage is certainly telling porkies. Ms Perry distanced herself from the bollox statistics presented with the petition. That is their number, she told the BBC, referring to campaign organisers Safermedia, which was a small scale anecdotal study.

Update on Censorship…Jerry Barnett, chairman of the Adult Industry Trade Association, speaks of how censorship is having a negative effect on the adult economy

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See  article from  aita.co.uk

Jerry Barnett speaks of three main areas of censorship affecting the adult industry: 1) ATVOD Over recent years I have attempted to track regulations that may affect the UK adult industry. ATVOD’s rule 11, which specifies that web sites are responsible for age-verifying users before any hardcore still or moving images can be displayed, is a source of major concern. I have made representations to ATVOD that this regulation is punitive to UK businesses as it is not possible for a web site to implement such a mechanism without losing the bulk of its customers. Furthermore, since this only applies to businesses based in the UK, it has no effect on availability of adult content anyway — this regulation seems to be designed solely to drive UK adult businesses either offshore, or out of business. ATVOD’s response to this has not been sympathetic — they repeat the mantra that they are protecting children while ignoring the simple fact that these rules do nothing to reduce the availability of easily accessible adult content. My position is that the right approach to this is for the industry to use proper labeling technologies and ensure that parents are empowered and educated in how to block adult content if they so wish. Driving the UK adult industry out of existence would simply destroy the chance of any self-regulation. I am currently taking legal advice on whether these regulations can be challenged and feel there are several grounds on which to challenge them. 2) Internet filtering Claire Perry MP (backed by the Daily Mail) is pushing for the ISPs to filter out adult content at the connection level. I’m strongly opposed to this approach for several reasons — as are a number of free speech organisations, not to mention Google. I have met with some anti-censorship organisations that are opposing the filter and will continue to meet with more. It appears an alliance against the plans is building. There are several problems with network-level filtering: Do we trust the government to decide what is adult ? The experience in other online censorship exercise shows that the list of blocked sites will grow over time. The filter in Australia was extended to cover all sorts of material that the religious right objected to. We know that many people who legally enjoy adult content would not switch off the filter (for a variety of reasons — confidentiality, embarrassment, etc.) The filter would be easy to get around. It’s likely that teenagers would find out how to avoid it while their parents are left with a false sense of security. It takes control out of the hands of parents and puts it into the hands of a nanny state that makes moral decisions about what adults and teenagers should choose to look at. 3) Obscenity The Michael Peacock obscenity trial, in which he was found not guilty, seems to have undermined the case for obscenity prosecutions and for certain censorship decisions taken by the BBFC. However, the CPS and BBFC have stated that despite losing the prosecution the guidelines remain the same. There is an opportunity to challenge the BBFC and CPS guidelines and it is likely that lawyers will take up this opportunity later this year. I believe this will be beneficial both for the industry and for free speech, and will be supporting this action.

How Pornography Hijacks the Nutter Mind…Claire Perry wheels in the nutters to preach to MPs about the sins of porn

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See article from dailymail.co.uk

The Daily Mail introduces its latest propaganda piece: Children are being scarred for life by stumbling across internet pornography before their brains are able to cope with it, according to a leading neuroscientist. Dr William Struthers told MPs that in eight out of ten cases, youngsters come across hard-core images by accident. If they are between nine and 14, when their bodies are becoming sexually mature but their brains are not emotionally developed, early exposure can lead to lasting damage including withdrawn behaviour and acting out what they see onscreen. Dr Struthers was speaking at a House of Commons seminar sponsored by Claire Perry, the Tory MP who wants to block web porn from computers unless adults opt in. Dr Struthers, associate professor of psychology at Wheaton College, Illinois, found that research subjects were able to recall the first images of porn they ever saw in remarkable detail even though they could not remember images they had seen more recently. He said that impact was profound because although the hypothalamus, the region of the brain which controls sexual development, is preparing the body for sexual maturity, the higher thinking regions of the brain are not developed enough to deal with viewing extreme sex. I wonder if the MPs were informed about where Dr Struthers is coming from. Wheaton College introduces itself on its website as follows: Welcome to Wheaton College—a community of grace. As an academically rigorous, four-year Christian liberal arts college and graduate school, we seek to honor Jesus Christ with mind, soul, body, and strength. We praise God for your interest and pray that in some way your contact with Wheaton College will serve the sacred purpose expressed in our historic motto: ‘For Christ and His Kingdom.’ —Philip Ryken 88, President Wheaton College is an explicitly Christian, academically rigorous, fully residential liberal arts college and graduate school located in Wheaton, Illinois. Established in 1860, Wheaton is guided by its original mission to provide excellence in Christian higher education, and offers more than 40 undergraduate degrees in the liberal arts and sciences, and 14 graduate degrees. Dr William Struthers has written a book titled Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain. The promotional book description reads: Pornography is powerful. Our contemporary culture as been pornified, and it shapes our assumptions about identity, sexuality, the value of women and the nature of relationships. Countless Christian men struggle with the addictive power of porn. But common spiritual approaches of more prayer and accountability groups are often of limited help. In this book neuroscientist and researcher William Struthers explains how pornography affects the male brain and what we can do about it. Because we are embodied beings, viewing pornography changes how the brain works, how we form memories and make attachments. By better understanding the biological realities of our sexual development, we can cultivate healthier sexual perspectives and interpersonal relationships. Struthers exposes false assumptions and casts a vision for a redeemed masculinity, showing how our sexual longings can actually propel us toward sanctification and holiness in our bodies. With insights for both married and single men alike, this book offers hope for freedom from pornography. Amen.

What Can We Do About Crappy Website Blocking?…Open Rights Group and LSE publish report about the poor implementation of internet blocking in the name of child protection

Read more Internet News at MelonFarmers.co.uk

See article from openrightsgroup.org See Mobile internet censorship: what’s happening and what we can do about it [pdf] from openrightsgroup.org

A new report from Open Rights Group and LSE Media Policy Project reveals widespread over-blocking on mobile networks, helping to demonstrate why we shouldn’t accept default-on adult Internet filtering Today we’re launching a new report called Mobile internet censorship: what’s happening and what we can do about it, which is a joint publication with LSE Media Policy Project. The report is about how mobile operators’ child protection filters work. It shows how systems designed to help parents manage their childrens’ access to the Internet can actually affect many more users than intended and block many more sites than they should. It reveals widespread overblocking, problems with transparency and difficulties correcting mistakes. We argue that mobile operators need to offer an active choice, be far more transparent and open, and provide easier ways to address errors. More broadly, the report helps emphasise that the neo Mary Whitehouse campaign for default blocks, led by Claire Perry MP is calling for the wrong solution in looking to default on filtering. The lessons from mobile filtering suggest fixed-line Internet filtering should concentrate on users and devices rather than networks, be properly described as parental controls (because the content blocked is far broader than adult sexual material) and above all involve an active choice, not be set by default. Without that guarded approach, seemingly simple, laudable goals such as protecting children through technical intervention may have significant harmful and unintended consequences for everybody’s access to information. Blocked.org.uk The report is based on reports of inappropriate blocks provided to our website Blocked.org.uk through January to March. These were cases where sites or services were blocked that should not have been. Working with a small group of volunteers, we received over 60 reports, including personal and political blogs, sites for restaraunts, and community sites. Here are some examples: Biased-BBC (www.biased-bbc.blogspot.co.uk) is a site that challenges the BBC’s impartiality. We established it was blocked on O2 and T-Mobile on 5th March. St Margarets Community Website (www.stmgrts.org.uk), is a community information site created by a group of local residents of St Margarets, Middlesex. Their mission is simple – help foster a stronger community identity. We established it was blocked on Orange and T-Mobile on 8th March. The Vault Bar (www.thevaultbar.co.uk) in London. We established that the home page of this bar was blocked on Vodafone, Orange, and T-Mobile on 6th February. Shelfappeal.com was reported blocked on 15th February 2012 on Orange. This is a blog that features items that can be placed on a shelf. ‘Tor’ (www.torproject.org). We established that the primary website of this privacy tool (meaning the HTTP version of the Tor Project website, rather than connections to the Tor network) was blocked on at least Vodafone, O2 and Three in January. La Quadrature du Net (www.laquadrature.net/en). The website of this French digital rights advocacy group was reported blocked on Orange’s Safeguard system on 2nd February. La Quadrature du Net has become one of the focal points for European civil society’s political engagement with an important international treaty called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The block was removed shortly after we publicised the blocking. …Read the full article