Watch out, there’s a thief about

Once again in the land of the free we have to watch our backs, and just about everything else. The guardians of our morals who sit in Parliament are trying to curtail another and maybe in this age of the instant dissemination of information the most important of our freedoms, the freedom to look at porn on the internet, for it will NOT stop there.

GRUNT AND GROAN

Now you may not be an avid watcher of the grunt and groan films but this will also affect those interested in watching spanking movies or anything that our betters decide is questionable. Now, it could be argued that there are some things out there that we would be better off not seeing but let’s just stop and think; do we really want to give our politicians the right to ban what they don’t want us to see?

LADY CHATTERLEY

Those of you who are old enough will remember the Lady Chatterley trial, thankfully the outcome was a victory for common sense but don’t forget how and why the case was brought, the prosecution was ridiculed for being out of touch with changing social norms when the chief prosecutor, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, asked if it were the kind of book “you would wish your wife or servants to read”, maybe it won’t be long before the same case is being argued but with the words changed, “is this the sort of material YOU want the freedom to watch”. We all know that once restrictive legislation is adopted it has the nature to creep, it creeps into the most unexpected of places and pretty soon we will be letting them ban anything they don’t think we should see.

We have taken the article below from The Guardian Thanks to them.

“Internet service providers are to be asked by the government to tighten up on website pornography to try to combat the early sexualisation of children.

Ministers believe broadband providers should consider automatically blocking sex sites, with individuals being required to opt in to receive them, rather than opt out and use the available computer parental controls.

Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, is to meet internet providers, including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, “in the near future” to discuss changing the way pornography enters private homes, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed. The move is designed to protect children from being exposed to pornography on the net.

“This is a very serious matter. I think it is very important that it’s the ISPs that some up with solutions to protect children,” Vaizey told the Sunday Times.

“I’m hoping they will get their acts together so that we don’t have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the next couple of years.”

The action follows the success of moves by most British internet providers to prevent people inadvertently viewing child pornography websites.”

Now ministers want to see adult pornography controlled with similar technology, with sites blocked unless people specifically request access to them. Internet providers had said implementing the scheme would be technically difficult and cost too much. However, some now seem willing to implement the scheme voluntarily.

Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk’s executive director of strategy and regulation, told the newspaper: “Our objective was not to do what the politicians want us but to do what is right for our customers. If other companies aren’t going to do it of their own volition, then maybe they should be leant on.”

Virgin Media said that it had already implemented the technology on its mobile service, but said that parents can control what their children see at home and online. A BT spokesman said they had a “clean feed” system to stop access to illegal sites.

In a parliamentary debate last month, Claire Perry, a Conservative MP who has campaigned for tighter controls, said that 60% of nine- to 19-year-olds had found porn online, while only 15% of computer-literate parents knew how to use filters to block access to certain sites.

The MP said six companies – BT, Virgin, Talk Talk, BSkyB, Orange and 02 – streamed the internet to 90% of homes in the UK. Perry called on the government to put pressure on those companies to install default measures to stop children accessing pornography online.

WATCH OUT

Watch out, there’s a thief about and it’s your freedom they are going to steel, tell your ISP to keep their nose out of your business, tell them now before you cant because this is the slippery road to state control of what you can see and do on the internet. Easy to start with sex, all the usual suspects will jump on the band wagon all the old arguments will be drawn out and used. It really is quite fundamental though to our way of life that we do have the right, as adults to see whatever we want to see in books and on the internet.