The government’s minister of culture, Barbara Follett, and her conservative shadow, Ed Vaizey, have given their support to an idea that would see league tables published displaying how effectively UK ISPs deal with the removal of offensive content.

This name and shame style list would typically deal with violent or sexually explicit web content, thus embarrassing some ISPs into dealing with the problem. Follett also criticised existing filter systems for being too weak and easy to bypass, although no specific method was highlighted:


Search engines, such as Google, were also criticised for failing to include clear links to child safety information and safe search settings on their front pages. In addition some form of "age identity card" for the Internet was also proposed, although we can't see how such a thing would be even remotely effective without face-to-face interaction.