A Government consultation has rejected calls by campaigners for an automatic block on pornographic content. Instead, it will urge internet service providers to actively encourage parents to use parental controls.
The public consultation found 35 percent of parents were in favour of the automatic pornography block while only 15 percent preferred a default block with the option to ban other content as desired.
"There was no great appetite among parents for the introduction of default filtering of the internet by their ISP," concluded the study.
The idea of creating an automatic porn block stemmed from a parliamentary inquiry into online child safety led by Conservative MP, Claire Perry.
Rather than placing the responsibility for blocking access to adult content with the ISP, the study found that the majority of respondents felt children's online safety was up to the parents themselves.
As such the consultation adds that the Government will expect ISP customers "and particularly parents and children, have highly-effective, easy-to-use and free tools that facilitate children's safety online."
But while pornography was the type of online content parents were most concerned by, the study noted that children were more likely to be worried by the behaviour of others, chiefly in the form of online bullying -- something which a porn filter would not address.
"Default filtering can create a false sense of security since it does not filter all potentially harmful content," said the consultation. "There is also a risk from 'over-blocking' -- preventing access to websites which provide helpful information on sexual health or sexual identity, issues which young people may want information on but find difficult to talk to their parents about."
The NSPCC's Alan Wardle said the push for controls was a step in the right direction, however, "The best option to protect children is for adult content to be automatically blocked by internet service providers."
Nick Pickles from Big Brother Watch has previously stated, "web-blocking is a crude tool that does not prevent determined users accessing content. The broader consequences risk damaging legitimate businesses and undermining cyber security while further perpetuating the myth that this is an easy technological solution to a complex problem."
Image: Shutterstock
Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/17/porn-block-rejected
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