UK seriously considering opt in policy for online pornography.

[drater]

www.dailydot.com/news/uk-internet-opt-in-porn/

Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? I hate the way that public figures are trying to make out that the Internet should be child safe. It's an adult place, with adult content, and if you want your kids to venture into it, you make them safe by using Netnanny or similar tools or by, and here's a radical idea, supervising them. You wouldn't (or shouldn't) go shopping in an adult store and expect to take your kid in there with you and have them cover everything so little timmy doesn't see some tittays, so don't let your kid meander round the Internet without some form of supervision.

Shouldn't it be a parents job to survey their children's internet use rather than a nanny government limiting it for everyone?

I love Rome Burns!

Empusa you are my new hero!

"Everyone who understands t'internets has explained why we can't make them a unicorn, & we're arguing pointlessly with...noise. "

This is true ... I think it might be more productive to just bang our heads against our screens.

Empusa that is brilliant!

Empusa

I'm afriad that I am going to steal your unicorn bit for one of my lessons :)

Love it.

Go ahead! Good to see that sleep deprivation seems to help me think

Edam what would help if parents didnt buy their children internet ready phones apart from putting them at risk for being robbed their is just no need my son has a phine it cost £5 and can only make calls and text

What else dose he need if somthing hapoens hes not going to need to email me is he ffs

Like i said people whose cildren get hold of porn are piss poor and what heppens when parents opt in and still dont moniter what their children do on line

You usually find these piss poor parents are the ones who have tvs in their childrens rooms with no idea what their watching

Instead of people blaming some boggy man internt porn thing why dont parents just grow a pair and moniter what their children are doing

Ay way its not just porn you have to be worried about my mate who is white is very worried about her younger brother who has been drawn into a very well know far right forum hes actung very strage her mmum had no clue he was hold up for months with his lap to talking to all sort of lunes about ethinc cleasning of the white race

Their are these weried emo kill your self sites all sorts pro skinny sites so much more than just porn

It has been the spate of sex attacks on young children by teens that has sparked this debate.

In one of the cases the teenage boy had accessed porn from the family's computer where he was babysitting and then went and raped the 4 year old, which gives us all something to think about, i think.

Most of the teens that come under the scrutiny of professionals because of this sort of behaviour don't have stable famlies, which is one of the reasons that they seek out inappropriate material.

Aside from the whole issue of cause and effect, in a case like the one you've mentioned, the opt in filter would be no guarantee at all of a different outcome.

• he could have seen porn which the filter failed to block
• the family could have opted in anyway
• he could have found his way round the block

The only way you could have guaranteed him not seeing porn is a system that
a) could not be changed (so no opt in/out)
b) could not miss any porn (only way to guarantee that would be a white list system, rather than a blacklist. So sites would be added to an "allowed" list, rather than blocking those from a "disallowed" list)
c) couldn't be got round (and there's that pesky unicorn issue..)

My MIL babysat for me last night (whilst I was out watching some damn fine goth bands ).

I told her the password to my laptop & have, today, uninstalled a right load of crappy games she & ds downloaded because they are respectively 76 & 8, & not terribly clued up when it comes to internet security.

Any other babysitter wouldn't be able to access to any PC or laptop in this house. Because they wouldn't have the password.

Strewth, it's not rocket science. You password protect computers & the router, & if you have family members who need internet access but are too young for unsupervised, unfettered access, you put a free, effective filter in place.

& if you don't understand this, because you don't know much about ICT, no shame there. But you need good advice, not a unicorn.

BirdsgottaflySun 02-Sep-12 23:32:28
"It has been the spate of sex attacks on young children by teens that has sparked this debate.

In one of the cases the teenage boy had accessed porn from the family's computer where he was babysitting and then went and raped the 4 year old, which gives us all something to think about, i think."

A few years ago it was computer games
A few years before that it was chucky (horror film)
Before that there was James Bulger (I can't remember if a causal link was ever found)
Heavy metal (school killings)
Rock music (school killings)

the list goes on.

From memory when music was prohibited in America the amount of road accidents went up. (might be an urban myth)

But in each case the state tried to ban what they concidered to be the causal link and they couldn't.

There was an entirely media-originated outcry about Chucky and the Bulger case, because one set of parents had the film and the murdering children might have seen it. There was no actual evidence that either or both child(ren) had in fact watched the film, or had in any way been affected by it.

Yeah, I remember claims that if you played certain Beatles tracks backwards, they were Satanists.

Pile of wank.

It has been the spate of sex attacks on young children by teens that has sparked this debate.

I disagree. In my opinion it's being driven by clueless armchair Mary Whitehouse wannabe's who think porn is the scourge of the earth and can be banished from the Internet by legislation.

In one of the cases the teenage boy had accessed porn from the family's computer where he was babysitting and then went and raped the 4 year old, which gives us all something to think about, i think.

Yes, it makes me think the boy in question was already deeply disturbed.

Most of the teens that come under the scrutiny of professionals because of this sort of behaviour don't have stable famlies, which is one of the reasons that they seek out inappropriate material.

So what you are saying is the root cause for seeking out inappropriate material is the lack of a stable family. In which case shouldn't we be concentrating on improving their family stability rather than demanding a magic unicorn?

I feel that a 'magic unicorn' should become one of those MN phrases...

"In one of the cases the teenage boy had accessed porn from the family's computer where he was babysitting and then went and raped the 4 year old, which gives us all something to think about, i think."

Yes, that hard cases make bad law.

HmmThinkingAboutIt

we could ask for a "magic unicorn" emote.

I worry about protecting my kids.

So far I have gleaned from this thread that any blanket restriction such as those used in Australia or UAE doesn't work

I run google in safe mode and my children do not have access to computers in their rooms or web enabled mobile phone.

Exactly Aboutlastnight.

So by using your common sense and without any requirement for a big brother solution you have very much safeguarded your children better than any filtering system can or ever do.

It's very difficult for a child to surf porn on the Internet if their parent is sat in the same room! At the same time you are also protecting against other forms of bad websites such as terrorism/extremist materials, gambling, violence and not to forget the most realistic problem you'll face....cyber bullying!

Fancy that....all done for free, without the need for fancy expensive filters and all because you actually give a damn about your kids!

There is a psychological causal link between what is viewed on screen and behaviour. It is well established.

I guess research is ongoing on the effect the availability of pornography has on the relationships of pre-pubescent and adolescent children. Certainly the themes of constant sexual availability of girls and women in pornography, viewed by children with no experience of relationships may well have an effect.

sorry x-posted niceguy - yes online bullying is a major problem and has specific psychological effects on children as there is no 'safe' place to go and they can revisit the bullying again and again.

Also MSN messenger, a policewoman friend had to visit a family a while ago as their young teenage girl had been sending explicit pictures to a man who claimed to be in his twenties but was actually middle aged and 'grooming' several youngsters.

You wouldn't put your 13 year old in a nightclub. I've no idea why parents do not monitor internet use.

Must admit I was all in favour of an opt in, until I read this thread and some of the informative and reasoned arguments against it.

Now I understand why an opt in wouldn't work.

Thanks MN for an informative debate (even if some of the contributors insist on burying their heads in the sand).

Yes, pendeen I'm afraid I have to agree. .

(damn you all for ruining my 'porn-be-gone' button dream.)

Still in favour of it on principle, but of those in the know say no....who am I to disagree? Fwiw, as a family we Do safeguard as has been detailed on here - and I have no intention of buying my children smart phones either - bur other parents do :(

A lot of self-righteousness and moralising around here. Many from a lot of seemingly uptight women who have yet to come to terms with their sexuality. Ok! Who get's to decide just what porn is? And why are these guardians of our morals any better than (say) a roadsweeper? When does highly erotic art, some of which is incredibly explicit, become pornography? And what kinds of things viewable on a porn site are any different from what you see in a medical textbook? What about sites containing violent images, or highly controversial viewpoints? Will we have opt-ins for these or any other genres as well? Where do you draw the line. The fact is, as China is discovering, the internet is virtually ungovernable. Another fact is that nothing in nature is 'dirty' it is only people minds and motives that are unclean.