Pornographic websites will be automatically blocked by Internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK unless the account holder chooses to opt in, Prime Minister...

Pornographic websites will be automatically blocked by Internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK unless the account holder chooses to opt in, Prime Minister David Cameron announced today, according to the BBC.

As part of new measures aimed at protecting “the innocence of our children”, Online search engines such as Google and Bing will be required to block illegal content. Filtering Software will be applied by ISP’s to both new and existing customers by the end of 2013. They will be automatically on if you switch to a new company, but you’ll be contacted by your existing provider to ask whether you want to turn it on, reports the BBC.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre are to be given greater powers, including the ability to examine file-sharing networks, but the exact extent of this surveillance has not yet been fully announced. A database of banned images depicting the sexual abuse of children will also be used by police investigators to track paedophiles. This is further to a parliamentary inquiry last year which recommended stronger filters to block pornography, including opting in to see adult sexual images.

Mr Cameron warned that access to online pornography was “corroding childhood” and the Prime Minister also called for some “horrific” internet search terms to be “blacklisted”, meaning they would automatically bring up no results on internet search engines. He told the BBC he expected a “row” with service providers who, he said in his speech, were “not doing enough to take responsibility” despite having a “moral duty” to do so. He also warned he could have to “force action” by changing the law and that, if there were “technical obstacles”, firms should use their “greatest brains” to overcome them.

In theory, this move should allow people to stop their children accessing pornographic imagery on any device they pay for, as long as it was registered in their parent’s name. Exactly how ISPs and phone networks will decide what is classed as pornographic and what isn’t (that’s not really difficult, is it?) and how they’ll prevent users from getting around the filters, is yet to be announced.

You can read the Prime Minister’s full speech here

[Image via digitaltrends]

SOURCE:http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/online-porn-to-be-blocked-in-the-uk-unless-you-opt-in-50011774/