The big UK ISPs already censor the internet. And there’s no opt-out.
I was pulling your leg, any time I get to enjoy some delicious schadenfreude about the one developed country further down the road of dystopia than us, I will.
Well, I’ve long thought that the main problem European nations and the US had with Hitler was not his politics, but that he wasn’t their fascist overlord, but I’d never say that out loud, so forget I thought it and think about Naked Kate Winslet.
Done.
See? Wasn’t that relaxing? What the world needs to do is follow Italy’s lead and have more attractive naked politicians.
Not enough information. You didn’t even provide a link! 
Because naive voters are easier marks?
All politics, nothing to do with ‘protecting children’. Parents should look after their own bloody kids. Presumably we’re locking up library books that have swear words or naughty pictures in them, in case a wandering child should happen upon them while mummy’s reading Hello?
It’s the same with the criminalisation of khat and the whole austerity mess. Votes and ideology explain it all.
Apparently he became president of England on a vow to drive porn into the sea or something.
Meh. Just meh. First time I hit adult site blocking was when I switched my phone carrier, and was trying to place a bet online. I got a popup, saying the account owner had to authorise access to sites, and a link for callback. 30 seconds later call came in, I answered a couple of account verification questions, and the bar was lifted. Shame really, if they’d taken 2 minutes more I would have missed betting on a losing horse.
Your ISP already knows what you browse, and doesn’t care. All this does is stop default access to all adult sites (gambling, porn, whatever) which at a time when most teenagers have a smartphone isn’t that bad an idea. Of course it’s not even close to 100% effective. I’m damned if I could think of any measure that would be, short of a great firewall of china style system. But it’s hardly censoring your personal viewing.
So basically, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is full of shitty parents/guardians who cannot be trusted to properly supervise their offspring?
Has the Daily Mail blamed illegal immigrants yet?
Very good. Of course that logic applies equally to anywhere that applies access locking to tv content, or similar. Which is pretty much everywhere.
If you want to forego the hyperbole, a pretty decent article on it can be found here:
In short, this new step will not censor you, reveals nothing compared to what your ISP already knows, and will help a little to prevent inappropriate access to adult sites. I really can’t see much justification for anguish.
Nonpornographic sites will inevitably be accidentally blocked, killing their business. Lists of the households that opt out of censoring will be compiled and inevitably leaked. Technically literate teenagers (and all teenagers motivated to access pornography will eventually become technically literate) will continue to have unfettered access to pornography, and it will be moved to avenues that are harder for parents to police.
Honestly, it’s not the end of society, or the beginning of dystopia, or the start to a slippery slope. It’s just really stupid.
I have no illusions that this will prevent technically literate people being able to access whatever they want. But that’s not the intent.
I was sitting with my daughter the other day, watching her use a tablet to browse a website with a set of games for pre-teens. Make your own princess, horse grooming, that sort of junk. Out of interest when I took the tablet off her, I checked how many links I had to click to get to adult content, in a web style version of degrees of separation. 4 links. THink the first one was to a teen game site, from that to a dating site, that to an adult friend finder style site.
For me, no problem. I’m more than happy to setup various levels of content control at browser, device, router, ISP preference, etc. But I’ve worked in IT for 20 years. If you’re not au fait with that sort of config, then the only option is to not let a small child use the web unless you sit and watch their every click.
So will it stop teenagers watching porn? No. Good thing too, teenagers like porn, and I’m firmly in the “porn did me no harm” camp. But would porn be suitable for a young pre-teen? I don’t think so, so this seems like a good step to me. Easy to circumvent, doesn’t tell your ISP anything they didn’t already know about your viewing habits, but will help prevent accidental clicks by youngsters.
Ye Merry Olde Enlgand is acting a right pisser eh? Well carry on and cheerio.
Censorship and mind control is typical of conservatives the world over. And they’re nothing if not jumping on bandwagons.