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| British Government Abolishes Freedom of Speech |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2011-10-11 15:22:36 |
| "BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin will be asked to offer customers the option to block adult content during subscription According to new measures to be announced by Prime Minister David Cameron, online pornography watchers will have to place a special request with their Internet Service providers (ISPs) to watch pornographic or sexualised content online. The prime minister is holding a summit at No.10 today with 30 media and retail executives, including broadcasters, magazine editors, trade bodies and advertisers, said the Daily Mail. Cameron is expected to announce the crackdown after Mothers Union charity chief executive Reg Bailey submitted a report on the matter after six months of study." The fact that this can happen in Great Britain just goes to show how brittle concepts like freedom of speech really are. Where people in the Arab world fight for the kinds of freedom we have, we in the west just hand them over to extremists. Un-frakking-believable. Any British folk in here? How on earth did you guys let this happen? |
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| My understanding of this proposal... |
| By PhilPotter on 2011-10-11 15:53:51 |
|
...is that this will only apply to new subscribers of the various ISPs. Existing consumers will not be forced into admitting they watch porn - also, as mentioned in the article, the choice will be presented at the time of subscription, not afterwards. There is no suggestion of this being a special list that the government will have instant access to - it will be individual to each ISP, and subject to data protection legislation. Having said that, it could be argued this is a slippery slope. All they will probably do is offer a more restrictive DNS service which is trivial for any knuckle-shuffler to override anyway. As a British person, I am not awfully worried about this current proposal, although I do agree it sets a worrying precedent. Edited 2011-10-11 15:54 UTC |
 - Score: 3 |
| Um? |
| By TheIdiotThatIsMe on 2011-10-11 15:58:05 |
|
I read through the article linked, and I don't see much in the way of surrendering freedom of speech. Mostly what I'm seeing is that children age 15 and under can't be "brand ambassadors (not sure what exactly that is), can't be used for peer to peer marketing campaigns, and that ISP's will have consumers opt-in to access adult material. I don't see anyone of already legal age's ability to view adult material being limited in any way. Have we really reached a point where we are up in arms over having to click a checkbox under account settings or during signup that allows us to view adult material? All it does it make access to a certain part of the internet *optional*, not restricted. This could be very useful for parents, businesses, public computers, etc. I honestly don't see much difference between this and optional software and services that already offer this. |
| - Score: 3 |
| Comment by SunOS |
| By SunOS on 2011-10-11 16:01:55 |
|
From what I've read this will only apply to new subscribers on an opt in/opt out basis, obviously that doesn't make it any better, nor does it give any indication of where blocks might be applied tomorrow but it's not being forced on every current internet subscription at present. As for how did this happen? Unfortunately that's the typical state of matters in the UK, if the media doesn't cover it, no one is any the wiser. One look at Cameron will tell you that his wife wears the trousers in their household and given their "oh so holy" attitude you can bet that she's right onboard with the whole Mother's Union, MumsNet crap. Anyhow, total futile bullshit. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Um? |
| By brucedjones on 2011-10-11 16:01:56 |
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I would just like to clarify that this system is opt-in, as in, if you want adult content to be blocked you have to opt-in. Those people who dont opt-in will have unrestricted service as usual. Whilst I appreciate that OSnews publishes many informative articles in the interest of protection of the freedom of expression, this freedom has not been removed in the UK. could you please alter this rather sensationalist headline to reflect the truth. edit: third parties have been offering this service for years, move along people, nothing to see here. Edited 2011-10-11 16:03 UTC |
| - Score: 5 |
| Only to be expected |
| By bloodline on 2011-10-11 16:05:57 |
|
The British government is a total joke, rocked by near constant scandals since being elected and showing that the Conservative party are nothing but a buch of self serving arseholes... People who have no experience of money, other than running to daddy to pay for the restaurant they've just trashed*, running a country? You couldn't make it up! I had to opt-in to watching porn on my iPhone as O2 decided to block this in 2009... Altering your DNS had the same effect, but it was simple enough to click "yes I love Pr0n" on the O2 website (though it did require credit card varification). *this is true, search for "Bullingdon Club"... Bunch of wankers :( |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[2]: Um? |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2011-10-11 16:08:08 |
| Read more carefully. Adult content will be blocked - unless you specifically tell your ISP you want access to it. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[2]: Um? |
| By boofar on 2011-10-11 16:10:19 |
|
Consider this: A leaked list of subscribers who have opted out (or neglected to opt out) of the ability to access porn is not very interesting. On the other hand, a similar list of people who have opted *in* would be real juicy stuff. I wonder who you could find on that list. Politicians? Memebers of the "Mothers Union"? I wonder what your tabloid press would be willing to pay for something like that... (edit: typo) Edited 2011-10-11 16:11 UTC |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE: Only to be expected |
| By PhilPotter on 2011-10-11 16:14:11 |
| Haha glad someone mentioned the Bullingdon Club. Amazing how the free press barely ever brings this issue back to the surface... |
| - Score: 2 |
| Way out of hand... |
| By leonalpha on 2011-10-11 16:14:46 |
| Oh God, this is getting way out of hand. So apparently, having to click on a button to unblock content that would otherwise be readily accessible to my children equates to handing precious rights to ILLUMINATI extremists who are getting ready to kill us all in about 6 years time? Is that it? Sigh |
| - Score: 3 |
| So do we.. |
| By Kivada on 2011-10-11 16:16:46 |
|
Watch some Brit girls in solidarity of repealing this draconian measure? I'll load up the Karianna Dietrich, Sahara Knight, Holly Dee, Roxy Jezel and of course Kelly Stafford. |
| - Score: 3 |
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