MP backs call for online porn filters

“For many parents the best way to improve their life-style is to get rid of the kids. In the past they would be kicked out to play outside. Today, buy them a computer and put it in their bedroom. ALL parents are aware of the risk that their kid will be watching porn. Many trust that their kid will do no such thing. Many couldn't care less.
Kids don't need to be on a computer for hours at a time so, if you have concerns, put it in a family room, limit time access and limit access to when someone else is in the room. As dibblebibble says BE A PARENT. Try and educate your kid too, but, nature being what it is.....!”

“Here's an idea - it's quite revolutionary too.

How about the parents actually do their duty and BE A PARENT!”

“Actually there was a case in Australia recently where due to admin error the police managed to block access for weeks to thousands of legitamate websites. Web blocking doesn't work (thankfully for those whose live in totalitarian regimes across the world right now). Hate to say to people but it's not up to society to look after their children, its up to them. Any law that intends to make censorship look pink and fluffy should be seen for what it is... A very slippery slope.”

“As has been pointed out, those porn filters tend to work by blocking content that has a pink skin colour. This happens to almost every email that I receive from Compassion in World Farming - photos of pigs in battery cages, you see.”

“What a very sad state of affairs when children have such easy access to porn in their developing years .”

“Tim - i've seen those filters and they're hopeless. We used to have it at a company I worked at, and it even blocked pictures of newborn babies!

Again, a technical solution is impossible, so moderation will always be reactive. Parents need to supervise their kids on the internet, much as they supervise whom their kids hang out with.”

“As other people have said...this is ridiculous. It's already done by a lot of web providers, including mobile internet, that won't let you see larger mainstream adult sites, and you have to opt-in. The problem with this is it often blocks sites which it *thinks* are pornographic but aren't...there was an incident recently where I wanted to access a website for a conference venue I was trying to get to and it blocked it because it thought it was an adult site.

But blocking every website from showing pictures or videos is impossible, particularly on social media. Just this morning, a friend on facebook has posted a picture of a penis for some reason. Possibly his mates messing around with him. But it's been up (lol) an hour now, and until someone flags it, it will stay there.

A couple of years ago the anonymous group uploaded porn videos en masse to youtube, often under false names (Justin Bieber music video, etc). With the amount of people who upload photos and videos to the web is impossible to monitor and vet every one, and some remained undiscovered for months.

The fact is that Facebook will NEVER have to approve every single photo before it is uploaded, you would need thousands and thousands of staff working to do that. That's just something we have to live with. Things like this will ALWAYS happen.”

“There are filters available that look for the percentage of "skin" colour within an image and when it reaches a certain threshold blocks the image, this has drawbacks as what colour or colours would you choose? Racist porn filters anyone?”

“This is nonsense. The photo in question was posted on a social media site, not a porn site. Unless this proposed filter stopped you looking at every picture on the internet unless a censor has approved it, it couldn't possibly do what he claimed. I agree with others here - this shows the disappointing ignorance of politicians on an issue that affects everyone. I voted for Richard Graham last time - if he supports internet censorship I will be very unlikely to do so again.”

“We'll probably see some sort of 'Porn Tax' raised by Mr.Graham's Party.
It's their usual answer to things they can't keep up with.”