How To Survive The Claire Perry Internet » BBC

Lord asks “Shouldn’t Filters (that don’t work) be compulsory?”

Op — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 13:52:41 +0000

On the same day that the BBC reports that “Children can turn off Net Filters” a LibDem Lord has asked whether the choice of filtering should be taken out of parents (read everyone’s) hands and be made compulsory

I also welcome the recognition by the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport of the need for adequate filtering to protect young people from online abuse. However, as was discussed in this House only recently with the Online Safety Bill of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, should we not be making filtering compulsory? Is it enough simply to leave it up to parents to make the choice about appropriate safety features?Lord Clement-Jones

Within weeks of the filters that everyone predicted would herald a slippery slope to mandatory filtering with ever encroaching levels of censorship going online we’ve already started to slide.

Now more than ever you need to start teaching your friends and family how to survive the Claire Perry Internet.

Publicity Leads to an unblock for TorrentFreak

Op — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 20:37:16 +0000

2 days after TorrentFreak posted about Web filtering in the UK Sky has caved and admitted to yet another over blocking mistake and has recategorized torrentfreak.com so it is now reachable.

In the opening of their article the BBC clearly state that overblocking is affecting lots of other legitimate websites;

filters are intended to allow parents to ensure children cannot view adult content.

But the automatic blocking of all file-sharing sites meant that news site TorrentFreak and other legitimate sites were also blocked.

BBC

Whilst this is a victory for TorrentFreak.com there are still plenty of other site owners that may not know if they have been blocked and are losing revenue or being blocked from providing the help they are trying to provide.

Read the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25638872

BBC Newsnight exposes Filter Overblocking

Op — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 08:46:37 +0000

As the four ISPs who are spearheading the ill-fated UK Internet filters are on the eve of rolling out their solutions the BBCs Newsnight program experimented the filters and unsurprisingly encountered distressing overblocking.

BT blocked sites including Sexual Health Scotland, Doncaster Domestic Abuse Helpline, and Reducing The Risk, a site which tackles domestic abuse.BBC

Let’s not forget that back in June Ms Perry dismissed concerns about overblocking as a “load of cock” and yet here is the BBC telling the world that at the behest of the UK Government our ISPs are preventing people from accessing help after being raped or having suffered from domestic abuse.

After being confronted by the errors the ISPs had the following to say for themselves;

Sadly there is no silver bullet when it comes to internet safety and we have always been clear that no solution can ever be 100%. We continue to develop HomeSafe and welcome feedback to help us continually improve the service.TalkTalk

We know that no one single technology currently provides all the answers. That’s why we have a quick and easy way for misclassified sites to be unblocked. Any Sky home has the ability to fully customise their filters.Sky

Categorisations are constantly updated to keep pace with changing content on the internet and we will investigate any concerns and make changes as necessary. BT Parental Controls can be customised to suit each individual family’s needs.BT

You can read the full article here.

Jimmy Wales: David Cameron’s porn filter idea is ridiculous and will fail

Op — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 00:55:32 +0000

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, one of David Cameron’s most high-profile technology advisers, has rubbished plans to introduce porn filters through the UK’s internet service providers, dismissing the proposals as “ridiculous” and saying money would be better spent on policing internet crime.

He went on further to say

We should be devoting a significant proportion of that to dealing with the real criminal issues online, stealing credit card numbers, hacking into sites … that is going to take an investment in real, solid police work.The Guardian

The ISPs hate the idea, consumers hate the idea and even the Governments own celebrity advisors hate the idea.

But they are going to go ahead, you know, for the children…