This Christmas, All British People Who Want To Watch Porn Will Be Forced To Register For 'Strict,' 'Moderate' Or 'Light' Service With Their Internet Providers
The new law, passed by Britain's ruling Conservative government, is intended to protect children from accidentally coming across sexual material on the internet, and to generally ward off the "hypersexualization" that many Brits believe has overrun the country, not just in terms of adult entertainment but in marketing and media too.
But not everyone is happy about it. It's a mass exercise in
The actual filter requires users to select from one of three "levels" of internet censorship: strict, moderate and light. The Telegraph notes that the choice over sexual material is mixed in with choices over gambling, violence, smoking, and social media:
Those who opt to switch on the parental controls will have to choose between three set filter levels - strict, moderate and light. All three filters cover pornography, 'obscene and tasteless' content, hate and self-harm, drugs, alcohol and tobacco and dating sites.
Moderate and strict also block sites featuring nudity, weapons and violence, gambling and social networking; strict also blocks fashion and beauty sites, file-sharing, games and media streaming. Additional websites can be added to the list manually to be allowed or blocked.
Here is what they look like. You can see that BT's filter forces some odd choices. The "light" setting blocks "pornography" but allows "nudity":
BT
And this is TalkTalk's:
TalkTalk
Already, it has been discovered that the filters fail to block some types of X-rated material and inappropriately block health, education, and public safety sites, according to the BBC:
... BBC's Newsnight has discovered all the major ISPs that have launched full default filters are also failing to block hardcore porn-hosting sites.
Among the sites TalkTalk blocked as "pornographic" was BishUK.com, an award-winning British sex education site, which receives more than a million visits each year.
TalkTalk also lists Edinburgh Women's Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre website as "pornographic."
BT blocked sites including Sexual Health Scotland, Doncaster Domestic Abuse Helpline, and Reducing The Risk, a site which tackles domestic abuse.
It's all the Daily Mail's fault, according to Slate.
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