UPD2 UK ISP Launch of Child Internet Censorship Rules Face Possible Delay

The Government’s controversial plan to force the country’s largest broadband ISPs into adopting network-level filtering systems, which would be used to help censor adult websites (Parental Controls), could suffer a delay after the minority Liberal Democrat side of the coalition voted against the measures.

The motion, F17 – Protecting Children From Online Pornography, essentially called upon the LibDem party’s Autumn Conference in Glasgow (Scotland) to support the government’s overall strategy for enabling automatic opt-in network-level filtering of adult websites (Active Choice+) by the end of 2013 (details here and here).

Baroness Benjamin, Lib Dem Peer, said:

“This motion is about protecting children from online pornography and inappropriate material – it’s not about censorship or stopping adults from accessing legal material. Arguments about opt in, censorship or freedom of expression are simply not applicable here. This pandemic crosses a sacred line – although the internet is a wonderful resource, it also has a dark side.”

Motion F17 Summary (Mover: Baroness Benjamin)

Conference calls on the Government to..

1. Work with the software industry to introduce opt-in filters to explicit material on all new internet enabled electronic devices.

2. Ensure that those adults wishing to view pornographic material should be required to opt in to websites containing such material by providing verifiable proof of age.

3. Work with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) providers to police actively their platforms and filter out explicit material which is currently easily accessible to children.

4. Support parents to take a more active role in how their children use the internet and to understand the risks involved.

5. Ensure that teaching about the dangers of the internet and the distorted view of sex provided by pornography forms part of sex education teaching.

But advocates of the government’s strategy will be displeased to learn that the conference overwhelmingly voted to send the proposals back to the party’s Federal Policy Committee (FPC), which means that Deputy PM Nick Clegg would now be obliged to oppose or redraft the measures.

Admittedly it should be said that the proposals still appear to have broad support among the majority of Conservative and Labour MPs, although coalition unity might call for some degree of redrafting before the measures can be approved.

It’s understood that many of the party faithful viewed the proposal as “illiberal” (censorship), likely to be highly ineffective (i.e. very easy to circumvent), incompatible with previous policies (e.g. Autumn 2011: Preparing The Ground: Stimulating Growth in the Digital Economy and Spring 2012: Civil Liberties) and some feared that it would ultimately result in the arbitrary blocking of legitimate sites (e.g. medical, online shops etc.).

In fairness the government would probably argue that its solution gives both new and existing broadband account holders an “enforced” choice about whether or not to enable the filters, although the boxes would all come pre-ticked with “yes” (on) and the selection of filtered categories (e.g. porn, social networking, file sharing, self harm etc.) would also all be pre-ticked with “yes“.

Nicholas Lansman, ISPA Secretary General, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“A number of ISPs are moving to a system where customers will be presented with an unavoidable choice over what kind of content types they would or wouldn’t like to see filtered. The decision to turn on filters is then put into the hands of parents and carers who know best what is appropriate for their children. We agree with some of the sentiments yesterday that pointed out that filtering is not a silver bullet and is often imperfect and should not replace parental mediation.”

We support the optional approach but not the idea of ISPs pre-ticking all of the boxes (nudge strategy), which could risk some consumers making a poorly informed decision. It should also be said that there are already plenty of free Parental Control solutions available, some of which can also work at the network-level (e.g. OpenDNS).

UPDATE 11:07am

Added a comment from the UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) above.

UPDATE 1:21pm

A quick snapshot of feedback from ISPs suggests that all of the major providers, except for TalkTalk because its HomeSafe solution has been live for a couple of years now, still expect to launch their network-level filters by the end of this year as planned. So the political side might have run into a few problems but so far ISPs have not changed course.