The UK’s Department of Education is currently holding a public consultation on parental internet controls, the results of which will influence the coalition government’s decision to implement an mandatory ISP-level content filter, designed to block pornography and other adult content. The consultation ends on Thursday, so there’s only three days left for you to make your voice heard.

The consultation follows Conservative MP Clare Perry’s report back in April, which advises that the government should control what UK internet users can and cannot see online. The report recommends a 12 months timeframe to roll-out an network-level filtering system, which is mandatory for all internet connections, and can only be opted out of by contacting the ISP directly.

“A network-level ‘Opt-In’ system, maintained by ISPs, that delivered a clean internet feed to customers as standard but allowed them to choose to receive adult content, would preserve consumer choice but provide an additional content barrier that protected children from accessing age inappropriate material,” the report concluded.

Opposition and support

Perry’s report failed to define what will actually constitutes pornography and also neglected to specify who would be in control of deciding what is deemed offensive and inoffensive. It also fails to address any of the technical issues around internet filtering and doesn’t provide any assurances over privacy concerns raised by UK activist groups such as BigBrotherWatch.

ISPs are naturally against Perry’s recommendation. The Internet Service Providers’ Association said such content filters are: “easy to circumvent, reduce the degree of active interest and parental mediation and has clear implications for freedom of speech.” The Conservative cabinet minster Francis Maude also expressed concerns over government intervention in the web. Even the prudish MumsNet was convinced to back away from supporting Perry’s plans.

Nevertheless, support for the content filter is well-organised. The biggest pressure group calling for Perry’s recommendations to be implemented is Safety Net, an organisation run by the religious group ‘Christian Media’. Safety Net has amassed hundreds of thousands of signators to its campaign and urging its members to join the public consultation in order to “protect children’s innocence online.”

Ineffective protection

But in order to protect children, the filter has to work effectively. As many have pointed out, from The Open Rights Group to MumsNet, such systems rarely work. Anyone who wants to watch porn can easily find ways to circumvent the block. This raises the possibility that the whole scheme will ultimately prove counter-productive, as it lulls parents into a false sense of security and stops them from implementing more effective ways to prevent their kids watching porn.

“Default filternets are awful. They block a wide range of innocent material; and nobody should be advocating broader and simpler censorship,” says Open Right’s Jim Killock. “All the independent evidence has pointed to giving parents simple tools and choices. There is no need to create network level censorship in the name of a porn opt-in.”

In fact, back in June, magazine PC Pro illustrated a simple flaw in ISP TalkTalk’s filtering system. All the magazine had to do was use Google Images to access pornographic content. “Although the sites hosting the images were blocked, we were still able to click on the thumbnail images in search results to see enlarged photos,” writes PC Pro. “Which ironically appear over the warning that the page has been blocked.” PC Pro also points out that TalkTalk’s filter is incredibly inconsistent, blocking sites like Flickr, but allowing access to sexual content on sites like Reddit.

Given a degree of cross-party support for Perry’s filter recommendations, and given the organised support from Christian groups such as Safety Net, there’s a real chance that UK online citizens could soon find themselves behind a giant content filter by default. Are you comfortable with the government deciding what you’re allowed to view online, even when they haven’t defined what type of content they want to block? Do you want to have to contact your ISP in order to opt-out of such filtering? Head over to the government’s consultation page and make your voice heard. You’ve got until Thursday!