Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

UK Pornographers Respond to Restrictive Filters with a New Website

Monica Wells | 19.06.2014 09:48

UK's adult industry members have recently raised some concerns about the performance of the Internet filters introduced by the Government.

UK's adult industry members have recently raised some concerns about the performance of the Internet filters introduced by the Government. Those filters can sometimes be inefficient in blocking adult content, argue adult industry professionals, who are themselves big fans of filtering the web for the purposes of parental restriction. They point out, however, that while legitimate content might end up blocked by mistake, portions of adult content might still be left unfiltered.

Chris Ratcliff, the managing director of Portland TV, a major adult content channel and broadcaster, said “There are better filters available than those offered by the ISPs which are also less prone to overblocking.” (Source:  http://recombu.com/digital/news/porn-industry-gets-behind-parental-controls-and-filters_M12803.htm)

Led by Portland TV, the group has launched their own website, xxxaware.co.uk, which serves as a source of information for parents interested in using tools for blocking and filtering online content. The website covers tools that work over a wide range of devices – from smartphones and tablets to PCs and game consoles.

The group points out: “There is no magic button that will protect your children from viewing pornographic or explicit material online. Even if a product did exist, kids use a variety of devices to surf the net and not all of these offers the same level of protection”.

The website is designed to meet the need of parents, who are often not as tech-savvy as their children, by granting them an understanding of the products and services, helping to make the most informed decisions about protecting their children from unsuitable materials. The site features simple, easy-to-follow instructions on how to set up parental controls on PC, Mac, tablet, smart phone, game console or smart TV. They promise that “each product will be road-tested by a real person who will fill you in on the pros and cons.”

As of today, three major ISPs (BT, Sky and TalkTalk) launched their parental filters, which have subsequently been proven to fail – the filters were blocking educational sites and leaving some adult content unfiltered. James Vincent from The Independent reports the following: “TalkTalk’s failed to identify 7 per cent of websites with adult content, but blocked content including the award-winning sex education site BishUK.com and Edinburgh’s Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre.”

“Sky’s filter blocked 99 per cent of the 68 adult sites tested, but also blocked six sites offering advice to individuals addicted to pornography. Sites blocked by BT’s filter included those dedicated to tackling domestic abuse (Reducing The Risk and the Domestic Abuse Helpline) and others that offered sex education advice.” (Source:  http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/abuse-support-and-sex-education-sites-blocked-by-isps-porn-filters-9015389.html?origin=internalSearch)

The government, on the other hand, is currently busy constructing the so-called “white list” of approved websites to counter overblocking. The chair of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, David Miles, said that although “the amount of inadvertent blocking is low […] if you are a charity and you deal with teenagers in distress that 1 or 10 matters to you."

Just as the group points out on their won website, there is no “silver bullet” for protecting children and young teenagers from viewing adult materials, but establishing device-specific targeted filters and educating parents is the best way to deal with the problem. The website gives several practical pointers to parents on both protecting their kids from unwanted adult materials, as well as on communicating to them well why certain things are inappropriate for their age:

“Young kids may stumble across unsuitable images by tapping buttons randomly. Older kids may hunt them out. Either way, if you want to do your best to shield your child from adult images and videos, you must think about how best to protect them.”
“If you install parental controls while your children are young, they will get used to the idea of restricted access and you will get used to putting these measures in place. With older children and teenagers, it is an idea to talk about what you are doing and why. Remember always make sure the controls are age-appropriate.”

“Not all products will be able to block all inappropriate material. Your kids might see something they shouldn't while using someone else's computer or phone so it's important you talk about what they may come across online. Also be aware that there are no parental controls on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.”

Just as it proves useful in other ares, education might be the key to successful campaigns against kids viewing adult content.

Monica Wells
- Homepage: http://www.sklep-intymny.pl/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech