Any thoughts on the porn ban?

how, not who

You could do what the Chinese do and shut your entire country off from it and run a national intranet, if that's what you want?

And even then, many people in China know who to get around the censorship.

ISPs don't host porn. Your isp (internet service provider) is the means by which you access the internet, the same as the people you phone aren't in any way connected with your mobile service provider.

In theory, sites can be blocked, but it's ridiculously easy to get around that (look at examples from countries where internet censorship is a major thing), and can actually make a problem worse, not better. See my post above.

It's the internet. It was developed by the US military to survive a nuclear war.

You could do what the Chinese do and shut your entire country off from it and run a national intranet, if that's what you want?

The problem is the demand, not the supply.

I don't think sites can be blocked, that's not how the internet works.
ISPs can block certain sites, but there are work arounds.
Look at all the Pirate Bay proxy sites out there.
Pirate Bay is blocked, yet mirrors are easily accessible.

Massive fines for ISPs that host this shite?

I don't believe that nothing at all can be done...

The state can only regulate sites that are hosted within the UK, obviously, the UK government has no power to control what happens outside the UK...

What? You're saying the sites can't be blocked?

The state can only regulate sites that are hosted within the UK, obviously, the UK government has no power to control what happens outside the UK. They also have limited power to control the content of private communications.

The government have done this because they want to be seen to be doing something, even if that something is at best pointless and at worst has the potential to make things worse.

Can't they pass a law which at least makes the end user have to pay.

A lot.

Then tax the buggers to the hilt?

You can try to regulate the ISPs, but that way all sorts of censorship problems lay. It's Prohibition, and the record there is that it can increase demand if done crudely.

Porn is the new Drugs. Politicians falling over themselves to look 'tough' by addressing the supply when the real problem is the demand.

The usual politicians' response to technophobia with technoignorance.

You cannot block a person from viewing material online. You can only block an account. If you have an account, you can allow anyone access to it, or they can hack into it and pretend to be you.

This will also lead a lot of men to stop using the registered sites and go dark rather than have the fact they are a registered porn consumer on their records.

Stupid Stupid Stupid

It isn't a porn ban it's a porn block, and it's a terrible idea.

The verification is going to be run by a company that owns several major porn sites - the industry is being asked to police itself.

It won't stop children seeing porn away from porn sites, so they will still be able to see it on SM, by IM, by email.

And there is no way to stop them accessing via the dark web, where they will see material that is even more graphic than that which is on the internet, and there they will also be exposed to other really nasty content - eg: drugs, torture

It simply will not work, but it will lull some parents into a false sense of security so won't protect children at all. A better idea would be for parents to actually parent, and monitor/restrict how and when they use the internet.

Lula,yes girl!It is most definitely a cancer!!
It's good to hear another woman say this.