Porn, why is nothing being done???

[Sews230]

Good afternoon peeps, those of you who are concerned about your children seeing porn might have heard that last November the government banned a big list of sex acts that could be shown in UK Porn:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-porn-legislation-what-is-now-banned-under-new-government-laws-9898541.html

Great, you might think, it's a start you might think, unfortunately you'd be wrong, the UK Porn industry is tiny and to view any of its content you have to pass an age verification process and have a credit card, not something that most children can do and why would they even try? If they really want to look at porn all they need to do is go to free "Tube" sites that have all the hardcore porn you really don't want to imagine, for free!!

I've been talking to a few computer geeks (an affectionate term) on my course and they tell me that nobody pays for porn anymore, all the porn people want is free and extremely easy to find, all the sex acts now banned in UK porn are there and more, rape, forced sex, choking, school girls, revenge porn etc, all on tube sites like Xhamster, youporn, pornhub, porn-spider (don't look at them unless you are made of really steely stuff, those sites are really repulsive).

What the government has done with these laws is like banning cigarettes whilst letting people stand on street corners giving them away for free, it makes no sense, when are they going to do something about the free sites??? Articles like this scare the bejesus out of me, what are these sites doing to our society, our children etc, I shudder when I think about my two looking at this stuff... www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/most-young-people-agree-that-porn-creates-unrealistic-views-of-sex--but-they-still-admit-watching-it-9679160.html

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/anne-robinson-watches-porn-for-the-first-time-he-could-really-be-pounding-some-pastry-10180656.html?icn=puff-3

In my opinion the government need to ban these sites, block them from entering this country (they are all from oversees) force the ISP's (internet service providers) to block people from seeing them, you might have heard recently that various illegal download sites (for films and music) like Piratebay have been banned in this country (following lobbying from big business), and while there are ways of getting around these blocks, what I'm told these bans do is make going to these sites a hell of a lot more difficult, and if you don't have the computer know-how you simply can't visit them anymore.

Now I know that this government is always keen to help big business but this is a more important issue than film and music copyright, this is about our children/nation being corrupted, children thinking that the attitudes displayed in porn are the norm, I heard on the new a few weeks back that it's common place for children as young as ten to send naked pictures to each other before they start dating, sickening, how has it been allowed to get this bad???

I'm new to this site but have heard in the past that it carries political clout, is there a way that I could start a petition to try and get something done about this issue?

Thank you for listening...

Wrt to children viewing it, I firmly believe that it is up to us as parents to supervise our children's Internet use.

That would be fine if parents did do this. However, a lot of parents don't. They are naive, or IT illiterate or simply don't care.

Children having access to explicit sexual content is a child protection issue. We don't simply say that it's up to parents to make sure their kids use a seat belt, because it's too important a safety issue. This should be too.

... just for those worried about teens at school. Home parent locks, it would vary. Hence educating and talking are vital.

Squeegle, I'd say that for very young children you can set up filters that only let them see a handful of sites that you approve of. Others may be able to advise on the specifics.

But for if your kids are older, and need internet access for school work, you're kidding yourself if you think you can block everything you want to.

How do you plan to stop your kids smoking/taking drugs when you aren't around - think of it like that. Teach your kids why this content might be harmful or upsetting to them. You need to stop them searching this content out. Not stop them accessing it.

It appears we're on different wave lengths completely, it's a bit like explaining earth to an alien so just like when you get stuck with the annoying person at a party I'm just going to edge away from you

You are worried about your children seeing porn at other people's houses so your method of resolving this is "...the government need to ban these sites, block them from entering this country". I analogised that calling for a ban on alcohol sales because some parents allow their children to drink under-age.

It seems, however, that rather than attempt to explain why you think my analogy might be flawed you are, instead, preferring to "edge away". Fair enough. Your choice. I'll take that as you accepting that my analogy is bang on-point and demonstrates a key flaw in what you are calling for and one that you are unable to counter.

anonsatsooma Don't for a second assume that I'm not computer savvy enough to know about proxy servers, yes you can access sites via that method, but it's not the exact site that was banned, it will be full of popups, adware and buggy, a far less smooth experience, proxy servers go down all the time too, yes there's a way around a ban but it's not as simple as you make it sound...

Noble Yes we do. It's the law - the cars are built with seat belts but the parents must use them and some don't sadly. It's exactly like that!
What we don't do is say families can't use cars that go faster than x mph because some parents are idiots who don't use car seats.

HowardTJMoon Nice try but I'm not biting...

Squeegle, this is a good place to start.

But there are no laws saying that computers must have a child setting which is always engaged when used by children.
That would be a start.

Ah Noble YY I misunderstood. A law like that and perhaps free training at libraries and children's centres would be great.

What odd threads you start, OP. It's almost as if you have articles to write...

SoupDragon If you think Child protection is an odd subject you're probably on the wrong site.

noble how would you police such a law in people's homes. Laws that are unenforcable and ignored just make people less law-abiding generally.

sews just be a good parent, problem solved.

Don't you think it is the parent's job to teach their child about porn and parent their child by having safeguards on the Internet rather than asking the government to ban it all together.

Millions of people use those porn sites and want them to stay and so how do you think you would get censorship passed through.

Sews the weird opinion that a legal adult thing should be banned because children exist isn't quite CP though. The pearl clutching tone might also be seen as a great trigger to get similar responses on an Internet forum so a newspaper think piece could "quote" what all mums supposedly think.
As we are on the topic of mis use of the Internet and people being suckered...

I work in CP as well as being a parent. I am a feminist and find aspects of adult entertainment problematic. But I really don't think "but what about the children!!" (to quote the Simpsons) is a reason for the ban because a good parent polices their Internet, speaks to their teenage kids etc. Just as they don't feed them booze and drive under the speed limit.
BTW the booze analogy hit the nail on the head. It wasn't edge away weird.

AGirlCalledBoB Those sites are illegal, fact, just because a lot of people use them it doesn't make them ok. I lot of people download films and music illegally, they are all breaking the law no matter how many people do it...

squizita If you think that a parent giving children alcohol is the same as a non tech savvy parent leaving their child unsupervised on their Ipad then good luck to ya! If you work in Child Protection then you'll should be behind this thread, your colleagues in the NSPCC are...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32115162

Yes parents need to be good parents I think the majority are, but this surveys findings show that it takes more than just parents alone to police children's Internet activities... Please everyone read and watch this article and see if it changes your view at all...

squizita Can I just reiterate, free Tube sites are illegal, they are the wild west of porn completely unregulated and breaking the law.

That article is stressing education and teaching a child about the harmful effects of porn, not at all does it mention the banning and censorship of porn sites.

So it is actually supporting what others have said, about teaching, and parents protecting their child on this thread and so is not going to change their view.

For me education is key, not censorship.

Howard, thanks

AGirlCalledBoB Yeah nice world we're living in having to teach children of eleven about rape because of porn "Children of all ages today have easy access to a wide range of pornography", I'd rather go for the two pronged attack good parenting plus making it more difficult for children to access porn.

But there are no laws saying that computers must have a child setting which is always engaged when used by children. That would be a start.

When Raspberry Pis are illegal, only criminals will have Raspberry Pis.

namechange0dq8 Nice idea!!

Carol, just because it is difficult to police whether parents are hitting their kids behind closed doors, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be against the law.

name not sure what your point about raspberry pis are. They can't download porn by themselves.