Children will be protected by a block on online pornography which parents will have to choose to have lifted, David Cameron vows today.
After weeks of confusion over the Government’s plans to protect youngsters, the Prime Minister makes clear that under the proposals, web filters will be ‘default on’ for houses with children.In an article for the Daily Mail, the Prime Minister says it is ‘utterly appalling’ that so many children have been exposed to the ‘darkest corners’ of the internet, adding: ‘A silent attack on innocence is under way in our country today and I am determined that we fight it with all we’ve got.’
He announces that Conservative MP Claire Perry, who has led the campaign for a broader, automatic block on adult material for all internet users, is to be appointed as his adviser on reversing the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.She will be in charge of implementing the new web filter system, which will also require internet providers to check the age of the person setting controls.
Mr Cameron’s intervention follows a concerted campaign for an automatic block by this newspaper and will be welcomed by campaigners on child internet safety, although concerns remain about how the Government plans to address children accessing porn via their own smartphones, and phones and tablets such as iPads using public wi-fi.Ministers were criticised last week when they appeared to have rejected calls for an automatic block on adult material for all households.
Critics said ministers had put the profits of internet giants ahead of the safety of children by vetoing an ‘opt-in’ system, under which adults could only see adult images if they specifically asked to do so.Mr Cameron, however, insists it is clear that a ‘more sophisticated system’ will be more effective – arguing that straightforward ‘on/off’ filters are so wide-ranging that parents often switch them off in frustration when they block innocent sites.The Prime Minister says the Mothers’ Union, which has advised the Government on how to shield children from adult and violent internet content, is backing alternative proposals to allow parents to tailor exactly what they can and cannot see.
Ministers are understood to have imposed a timetable on internet providers, who will be required to raise their game and produce detailed plans by February on ensuring that all parents are giving the option of imposing filters.Mr Cameron says that when people switch on a new computer, they will be asked if there are children in the house – and if they answer yes, they will be automatically prompted to tailor internet filters.They will include options to block particular kinds of content, individual sites or restrict access at specific times of the day.
If parents click through the options to set up a new system quickly, filters against pornography and self-harm sites will be automatically left on.‘So this is a kind of “default on” for houses with children; it’s just that it adds much more control for parents about exactly what is restricted,’ the Prime Minister writes. Mrs Perry, MP for Devizes and a Parliamentary aide at the Ministry of Defence, said she welcomed the Prime Minister’s plans.
‘Clearly, like many others I thought an opt-in was the simplest and best way to do it,’ she said. ‘But you have to listen when you do consultations. It is clear people think that more needs to be done, but there isn’t a majority in favour of an automatic block. If you have proper age verification systems, then I think this new system will put us a long way ahead of the rest of the world.‘As near as damn it, we have got what we want and most campaigners are quite happy. The industry has, with a few notable exceptions, been quite slow but there is now good momentum. It will be my job to make sure it all gets implemented.’
Mrs Perry said effective checks on the age of a person setting up filters – probably using credit card details and the electoral roll – would be vital to ensure children could not get round the new system.Access to adult content via smartphones remained a concern, but she said all parents signing a mobile contract should be offered the chance to set up a filter.Jon Brown of the NSPCC said the charity still believed an ‘opt in’ system was the best way to protect children, but called the Prime Minister’s proposals ‘a big step in the right direction’.
A survey by the charity Childline of 851 youngsters – most aged between 11 and 15 – revealed that two in five young people have seen or read something online that upset them. Some 56 per cent of youngsters said they believed all illegal or inappropriate material should be filtered out as standard.Recently there has been a lot of debate about how we protect our children from damaging influences online: pornography, suicide websites, violent videos and so on.Let me be clear right from the start: I am a father of three young children and I take this issue extremely seriously.
To me, the fact that so many children have visited the darkest corners of the internet is not just a matter of concern – it is utterly appalling. A silent attack on innocence is underway in our country today and I am determined that we fight it with all we’ve got.Some might ask why, then, this Government has not taken the route of ‘default on’ filters for new computers, so that each one that is bought comes with blanket filters for all unsuitable content.There’s a simple reason why we haven’t done this: all the evidence suggests such a crude system wouldn’t work very well in practice.Take the experience of one parent I met. She has a tablet computer which her young daughter sometimes plays games on. It’s got straightforward ‘on/off’ filters, so she turned the filter ‘on’ to protect her daughter.
However, the filters were so wide-ranging that she then found she couldn’t access things like TV stations on demand; they were blocked too.The result? She just switched the filter off again, as it was becoming annoying.The point is we need a more sophisticated system than this – one that allows parents to tailor exactly what their children can see.This is what child safety experts recommend. It’s what Reg Bailey, the head of the Mothers’ Union, recommends. So that’s exactly what we’re bringing in. With our system, when people switch on their new computer, a question will pop up asking if there are children in the house. If there are, then parents will be automatically prompted to tailor their internet filters.
Want to restrict access to Facebook after 8pm? Decide to allow younger children to view fewer sites than their older siblings? Or want to stop access to certain sites altogether? Now you will be shown how to do it.To make this doubly safe, if parents just repeatedly click ‘OK’ to get through the filter set-up quickly, then filters against the most obvious threats – like pornography and self-harm sites – will be left on.So this is a kind of ‘default on’ for houses with children; it’s just that it adds much more control for parents about exactly what is restricted.
We’ve also said that providers need to work to verify the age of the person setting the controls – meaning that children can’t set up the filters themselves.Let me reiterate the key points: with our new system, every parent will be prompted to protect their child online. If they don’t make choices, protection will be automatically on. No other Government has taken such radical steps before. And once all this is in place, Britain will have the most robust internet child protection measures of any country in the world – bar none.
To get all this underway, I have appointed Claire Perry MP to be my adviser on preventing the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood.Claire is a passionate campaigner for internet safety and mother of three. Her job will be to see this through, to get internet companies on board, to do what it takes to protect children and young people online.All this comes back to something really important. It’s not just about the internet, or modern technology – it’s about childhood.These should be distinct and precious years, full of security and love, untainted by the worries and complexities of adulthood.From one parent to another, I pledge to do whatever I can to preserve that innocence and protect our children. Nothing matters more. – Dailymail
