from www.latimes.com – It looks like the British government might be on its way to blocking Internet porn on home computers.
In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, Ed Vaizey [pictured], the nation’s minister for culture, communications and creative industries, said he may ask Internet service providers to cut off access to Internet pornography sites.
The move, Vaizey said, would be designed to keep children from viewing the explicit material.
Users would have to individually request that providers lift the filter. Regulation, he argues, would be more effective than implementing parental controls.
Vaizey has already called a meeting with some of the largest broadband providers, including Virgin Media. Legislation, he said, is likely.
Critics told the Telegraph that such a block would be a bureaucratic mess, on top of being technologically impossible. Updated and thorough records of porn sites are unheard of. Screening for one site would likely obstruct other legitimate sites, they said, constituting a blow to free speech.