The United Kingdom looking at blocking porno by default

The British government is looking at asking ISP’s to block all pornographic websites by default.

According to information published in The Sunday Times and reported by numerous British web sites, the government of the United Kingdom will hold meetings with the three largest internet providers next month (British Telecom, Virgin Media, TalkTalk) to discuss the possibility of blocking by default all sites containing pornographic content.

This measure is planned to try and protect minors and swing control back towards the government. It no longer appears that they will be requesting subscribers to use parental control software but are instead looking at having "clean" Internet access for all - free of pornographic content.

Only if subscribers request access to such sites will they be able to view related content. They can select access to authorized adult sites or choose a connection type depending on a set of criteria (according to ages, for example).

For the moment this is only being floated as an idea, with partisans defending the adoption of an anti-pornographic position. But if discussions are not successful the UK government could decide to legislate such restrictions. No one is sure whether they are simply bluffing.

The British ISP’s association believes that such blocking would be onerous and technically difficult. There are also questions about blocking limits, the risks of over blocking and false positives.