[MP-Ryan]

http://boingboing.net/2013/12/23/uks-new-national-firewall-bl.html

The Great Firewall of Cameron is going live, with all British ISPs defaulting their customers to an "adult content filter" -- meaning that you have to call up and say, "I demand pornography!" or all the sites on the blacklist will be off-limits to you. Included in O2's "parental control blocklist" are such hotbeds of hardcore porn as Slashdot, EFF, Linux Today, Blogspot, No Starch Press, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and, of course, Boing Boing. The "parental control" list is something you have to ask for (not the default-on filter), but it's being actively marketed to parents as the responsible thing to do. For the record, I've switched my broadband to Andrews and Arnold, who oppose Internet censorship.

But hey, there's nothing wrong with the government imposing censorship on the "bad" parts of the Internet, right?

*snort*

[Flipside]

Let's not forget that it has also managed to accidentally block Sex Education and Advice sites...

Apparently you will also be able to turn the filter off from your ISP options online, so it's not difficult, just bloody patronizing, considering all these ISP's already had opt-in filters that performed exactly the same role. Makes me worried really, if parents cannot even be bothered to request a porn filter to protect their precious child, and instead expect everyone else to do their job for them, what else can they not be bothered to do for their child?

[headdie]

You know, I'm not even going to bother.  if there was no user control of this then yes it would be a bad thing but there is and as such this is pretty much a none event, have fun with the pointless *****ing over how governments must destroy us all

[Flak]

I think I am more concerned by how are they able to block things off completely. New porn sites pop up every day, and they certainly need the resources to keep up.

[The E]

You know, I'm not even going to bother.  if there was no user control of this then yes it would be a bad thing but there is and as such this is pretty much a none event, have fun with the pointless *****ing over how governments must destroy us all

There is something seriously wrong when completely innocuous sites are swept up in this desire to filter all the porns.

The fact that these filters are opt-out, instead of the completely above-board opt-in method, that's the bad part. People like us, we know that these things are there, and can disable them when we're bothered by them, but J. Standard User? They're not even going to notice that a large part of the net just went dark.

[jr2]

Now watch them block us for having a sexually-explicit name.  "Hard Light Productions?  Uh-huh.. *block*"

opt-in would be awesome, just have them do a mailing or whatever to let folks know it's available..  sheesh.

[Phantom Hoover]

You know, I'm not even going to bother.  if there was no user control of this then yes it would be a bad thing but there is and as such this is pretty much a none event, have fun with the pointless *****ing over how governments must destroy us all

No. These filters may not be the latest sign of the ~impending fist of tyranny~ like you keep hearing on reddit, but they are very definitely Such Bull****.

[MP-Ryan]

The fact that these filters are opt-out, instead of the completely above-board opt-in method, that's the bad part.

^^^ THIS ^^^

Censorship is fine when it's self-directed and a behaviour you have to knowingly engage in.  It's when its done for you with no action on your part that it is problematic.

[Nuke]

i discovered the other day that all my usuall free no strings attached porn sites are not so free the second you access them with a mobile browser. pron was meant to be free.