Here in the UK there’s a proposal by MPs to get internet service providers to block all explicit imagery and videos by default, the idea being to protect the childrens from viewing inappropriate materials.
If such a system came into effect where you live, would you support it? Would you opt in for the mucky stuff (by which I mean anything adult-only)?
Separated poll by gender and whether you think it’s a good idea or not, to see more feedback.
Damn right I’d opt in. My girlfriend and I like our porn to much to lose it.
However, I’d fight tooth and nail to keep it from being implemented. The government steps into my life to much as it is. If people don’t want their kids seeing porn, they need to learn to use a computer properly to keep their kids from accessing it.
I forgot to check the “it’s a monstrously bad idea”. Why do parents think they can order the world to be safe for their children at all times?
Not only is it a horribly bad idea (sorry, I didn’t realize I could vote for that too), but, surely, it would be almost impossible to implement without either letting a huge amount of porn through the filters (especially as I am sure pornographers would do their damnedest to get past them) or filtering out a huge amount of non-pornographic stuff (or, more likely, both).
Maybe we would never hear of Rick Santorum again, though. 
I’d opt in just because the filtering would inevitably include false positives - and useful stuff about plumbing, small birds and the cleaners at the London Underground would be broken or inaccessible.
Also, getting the message “This content has been blocked (and we know what you’re looking for)” is more scary than a picture of a penis
Where’s the option for “This is an absolutely idiotic proposal and I hope no one in America’s Congress ever reads the linked article because I don’t want them getting any ideas”?
Well, not that I support such an idea, but it’s been proposed that pornographic material be put on a newly created .xxx domain. Though, I don’t think it’s been seriously proposed that all pornographic sites be *required *to move to the new domain. But if such were the case, blocking and filtering porn could be much more realistically achieved.
It’s a neat idea in theory, but it would be impossible. You have several obvious problems:
Last time I upgraded my contract phone the phone company put me into the under-18 pool when I registered the new one. “Eh?” I thought, seeing as I’ve been a customer for many years and I am clearly not under 18. I had to go into the local Vodafone shop to get my full internet access back (I could have done it online but the Vodafone site is a confusing clunky nightmare). The SDMB still worked, and as an experiment so did Redtube, but another message board I like, that has very little to do with drugs, was blocked for drugs. WTF!
Anyway, I cannot see any censorship effort working any better for home connections - just use OpenDNS or whatever.
The problem with this idea, as with most other attempts to segregate “adult” material, is that we all have to live with somebody else’s idea of what constitutes porn. I’d rather take my chances with governing my own internet travels than have Kathie Lee Gifford or Roman Polanski deciding what is appropriate viewing.
What *really *scares me is thinking about who is going to be the custodian of the list of people who have either opted in or opted out of porn. Imagine that showing up on a job-related background check along with your FB photo album from Spring Break '07.
Oh I see. I was not taking account of the fact that pornographers are all straight-arrow types who always play by the rules and abide by the law.
I’m agin it, and also I like porn just fine, thanks.
I forgot to check nuke anybody who thinks it is a good idea from space.
People need to learn that they are not responsible for anybody elses morals, or bringing up their kids. Learn to monitor what your own kids do, keep your nose out of my business, because I am ignoring yours.
So-called porn filters deem anything LGBT as obscene and block it. A lesbian site like Afterellen.com, which is concerned with culture and media, and is cleaner and more demure than tons of unfiltered hetero sites, gets blocked. Because gay automatically equals dirty in the minds of whichever bigoted heteronormative prudes determine these criteria, with zero accountability to the public. Porn filtering, so-called, is one realm where homophobic and transphobic bigotry is free to rampage unchecked, and nobody can really do anything about it. So the hell with all of that.
It’s a hugely bad idea. This is a job for parents, not government.
If Parliament weren’t such a bunch of in-bred half-wits they’d be dangerous.
My reasoning exactly. I wouldn’t mind it if it were perfect, but it won’t be. I remember the filter system during my secondary education years. And I’ve seen what Google SafeSearch does and doesn’t block.
I want it implemented but for completely different reasons.
I agree it’s the parents responsibillity to look after what their children see and EDUCATE**** them on what they have saw.
However I’m not for it so it can compensate neglectful parents.
I’m in it for the sake of women and men and their image.
It is one of the factors behind penis length insecurity.
Its also a major factor in supporting the view of women being second rate men.
I think this is better off as a new thread elsewhere. A debate about the nature of porn.