About a month ago, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron ordered all domestic Internet service providers to implement what he called “family-friendly filters” to keep children from seeing pornographic images on the web and to prevent paedophiles from accessing child porn.
But in actuality, what people are finding is that the filters are blocking access to sex-education websites, as well as those that offer tips on sexual health and porn addiction, while failing to block access to some hardcore porn sites as well as websites such as Reddit, which has adult content.
According to a report from BBC “Newsnight,” the ban was inspired by Christian organizations who encouraged British lawmakers to make the changes, since 9 percent of the Internet is comprised of adult sites, and five of the top 20 websites in the U.K. are porn or adult websites.
Since “porn” is reportedly the most frequent search term on Google, British lawmakers wanted to do something to eliminate this “danger” to children by attempting to block all porn sites.
But Adrian Kennard who founded and runs Andrews & Arnold Ltd, which is a smaller U.K.-based Internet service provider, said that whether people like it or not, the porn industry is a legitimate industry.
Regardless of any Internet service providers personal opinions on the filters or the porn industry, the providers were instructed to implement the filters this past July by Cameron.
Among some of the websites now blocked is BishUK.com, which is an award-winning sex education website run by Justin Hancock, who has worked on young people’s sexual health projects and given sexual advice to youth for more than 13 years.
Other “pornographic” sites that have been blocked include the Edinburgh Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Center, Sexual Health Scotland, Doncaster Domestic Abuse Helpline, and Reducing the Risk, which is a website that focuses on helping people escape domestic abuse situations.
While at least three of the four major Internet service providers in the U.K. said they are working on the problem, others are turning to other programs to bypass the porn filters such as Go Away Cameron, since unlike typical parental filters, these porn filters are incorporated into the network and restrict access for all users unless a person asks to have access to adult websites.
Hancock told the BBC that the restricted access to his website was “really frustrating because I’m trying to provide a sex education site for young people and it’s hard enough directing young people to good quality information on the Internet.
“They might fix my site in the short-term but what about all the other sites that are out there for young people, not just sex education sites… who are TalkTalk to say what is allowed and isn’t?”
Hancock said that while the Internet service providers will likely say it was an oversight and reinstate access to his website, he says the ban also likely affects young people’s access to support forums, which is particularly concerning for those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Although he has been personally affected by the filters, Hancock is far from the only one concerned about the level of censorship that has gone into the British government’s work to keep people, specifically children, from viewing porn.
Many people in the U.K. have pointed out that Google’s decision to ban 100,000 search terms could lead to the restricted access of perfectly legal content, and point out that the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary only has 231,100 entries.
And as The Wire reported this past July, other “inappropriate websites” under the filter include those about dating, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, file sharing sites, gambling, games, social networking, suicide and self-harm, and weapons and violence.
If that’s not alarming enough, many free speech advocates point out that the organization responsible for determining what sites are allowed is the controversial Chinese company Huawei, which has ties to the Chinese government — known for suppressing free speech.