Internet providers called upon in war against child porn

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Internet companies have yet again found themselves heavily involved in the ongoing battle against the availability of child porn online.

It’s been proposed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron that in future, every home in the UK is to have pornography blocked by their internet provider, unless the householder choose to receive it.

Mr Cameron has called upon internet providers to do more to stop results from “depraved and disgusting” search terms during a speech in Parliament.

He also said he wanted search companies to go even further and block certain search terms from providing results and threatened internet providers with “legislative options,” which could be used if firms do not comply.

Currently, the UK’s top four internet service providers (BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin)—who collectively serve 88 percent of the country’s internet users—impose varying levels of opt-in porn filtering, but only for new customers. Mr Cameron intends to enforce a blanket ban for all, with only those households that actively refuse the anti-porn firewalls will being able to access explicit images. Filters will also protect smartphones and tablet computers.

It’s Mr Cameron’s opinion that companies such as Google are not doing enough to prevent the problem from the outset and only reacting when they are alerted to an issue. Something that he addressed in his speech: “I have a very clear message for Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest. You have a duty to act on this – and it is a moral duty.

“You’re the people who have worked out how to map almost every inch of the earth from space, who have developed algorithms that make sense of vast quantities of information. You’re the people who take pride in doing what they say can’t be done.

“Set your greatest brains to work on this. You are not separate from our society, you are part of our society, and you must play a responsible role in it.”

Mr Cameron recently met with the parents of April Jones and Tia Sharp. Both girls were murdered by convicted paedophiles who accessed child abuse images online.

However, Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, which defends online freedoms, feels that internet companies are being made responsible for something that they have little control over, telling the BBC: “It would be better to increase funding for policing of the criminals responsible for the production and distribution of images of child abuse, and to crack down on the methods used to pay for them.”

There is little information as to when and how these new measures might be implemented but most of the major ISPs have remained quiet over their involvement and how it might affect them.

A Google spokesperson said: “We have a zero tolerance attitude to child sexual abuse imagery. We are committed to continuing the dialogue with the Government on these issues.”

This article was written by journalist and blogger Matthew Crist, on behalf of criminal defense attorney in Minnesota – Rivers Law.