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15 years ago
So, once again our government is attempting to limit free access to the Internet, this time by proposals to block 'explicit' websites. Their justification? The age-old excuse of 'protecting children'. Here, culture minister Ed Vaizey is proposing to allow ISPs to block all pornography ever reaching our computers, and allowing an opt-in system to access such content. I fear that FurAffinity and macrophilia sites such as BigFurs (of which I am a constant regular) will come under this umbrella of pornography that shall be blocked.
Now, I'm sorry, but this seems to me to be a collossal waste of time. First, attempts to censor the Internet have always resulted in utter failure; websites will always sneak through the censors and hackers will always exploit loopholes. This is the same method they already use for dealing with child porn and guess what? Surprise! Child porn is still there, it hasn't removed the problem. Second, their justification of protecting the nation's youth is frankly stupid. The Internet is the new rock'n'roll, corrupting our children just like heavy metal and video games. This just seems to be a massive cover-up for what is essentially just poor parenting; if your kids are looking at pornography on the Internet you have only yourselves to blame. There are many parental control services available, or parents can simply supervise their children as they surf the Internet, or indeed just restrict their access altogether. Educating parents on how to effectively deal with the dangers of the Internet will be a damn sight more effective and less harmful that simply applying a sledgehammer to the problem.
It is utter arse of the highest order to do this. Yes kids accidently viewing boobies is bad, but you cannot blame the boobies for it and instead mature adults who wish to view said boobies are being unfairly punished for the poor parenting of others. This reeks of the nanny state, a nanny state which I remember the Conservatives had promised to remove. I can only hope they come to their senses, or the EU does something right for a change and blocks this on the grounds of freedom of speech.
Now, I'm sorry, but this seems to me to be a collossal waste of time. First, attempts to censor the Internet have always resulted in utter failure; websites will always sneak through the censors and hackers will always exploit loopholes. This is the same method they already use for dealing with child porn and guess what? Surprise! Child porn is still there, it hasn't removed the problem. Second, their justification of protecting the nation's youth is frankly stupid. The Internet is the new rock'n'roll, corrupting our children just like heavy metal and video games. This just seems to be a massive cover-up for what is essentially just poor parenting; if your kids are looking at pornography on the Internet you have only yourselves to blame. There are many parental control services available, or parents can simply supervise their children as they surf the Internet, or indeed just restrict their access altogether. Educating parents on how to effectively deal with the dangers of the Internet will be a damn sight more effective and less harmful that simply applying a sledgehammer to the problem.
It is utter arse of the highest order to do this. Yes kids accidently viewing boobies is bad, but you cannot blame the boobies for it and instead mature adults who wish to view said boobies are being unfairly punished for the poor parenting of others. This reeks of the nanny state, a nanny state which I remember the Conservatives had promised to remove. I can only hope they come to their senses, or the EU does something right for a change and blocks this on the grounds of freedom of speech.
