U.K. Govt. asks ISPs to block all pornography, unless users opt-in for adult imagery

The U.K. government is working on laws that will make the Internet Service Providers block all adult imagery and pornographic content on their networks, unless a subscriber specifically opts-in. This was announced by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who also said that the broadband providers have a “moral duty” to protect users, particularly children, but were "not doing enough to take responsibility". Mr Cameron wants to make it harder for pedophiles to access child sex images. Search engines like Google and Microsoft’s Bing have been directed to make search results compatible with the family-friendly filters.

BBC reports that the Prime Minister has mentioned specifics on how the solution will be implemented - family-friendly filters would be automatically selected for all new customers by the end of the year - although they could choose to switch them off. And millions of existing computer users would be contacted by their internet providers and told they must decide whether to use or not use "family-friendly filters" to restrict adult material. The filters would apply to all devices linked to the affected home Wi-Fi network and across the public Wi-Fi network "wherever children are likely to be present.

"This is, quite simply, about how we protect our children and their innocence."

From Mr. Cameron’s speech, it was clear that he is rather passionate about safeguarding children from content that was “corroding childhood”. He said, "I want to talk about the internet. The impact it is having on the innocence of our children. How online pornography is corroding childhood. And how, in the darkest corners of the internet, there are things going on that are a direct danger to our children, and that must be stamped out. I'm not making this speech because I want to moralise or scaremonger, but because I feel profoundly as a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come. This is, quite simply, about how we protect our children and their innocence."

It is not clear yet, as to how the Internet providers will respond to the Prime Minister’s interpretation of how to protect children from pornography going around on the Internet, but it is clear that they would not want to be seen as censors, blocking content.