Campaigners are demanding a clampdown on online pornography, after one Tory backbencher described it as “a fire is burning out of control”.
Having met with Internet minister Ed Vaizey, he has agreed to act as a broker between campaigners and ISPs in the hope that action will be agreed.
“We are talking about preventing children from having access to inappropriate content, and how we can work with ISPs to make it that little bit more difficult for them to do so,” Vaizey said.
The issue, which was raised by Conservative MP Claire Perry in a Commons debate last week, is separate from that of blocking child abuse material. She wants tighter controls on material that is legal for over-18s to access.
“The current way of controlling access to pornographic material on the Internet is via safety settings and filtering software, installed and maintained by users-parents, teachers and carers across the country,” she said. “Unfortunately, however, through technological ignorance, time pressure or inertia or for myriad other reasons, this filtering solution is not working.”
Perry added: “We need to say, ‘Clean up your house within a certain time, or we will come and clean it for you’.”
Perry indicated that she will press for the industry to introduce systems that block porn sites unless users opt in to access them, after verifying their age.
The move is likely to be met with fierce resistance from ISPs, on cost and liability grounds.
