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Government accused over child pornography

By Tim Moynihan, Press Association

The Government is failing to resolve the issue of access to child abuse images on the internet, major children's charities said today.

More than 700,000 UK households still have easy access to illegal child abuse image sites, they said.

The Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety, which includes the NSPCC, Barnardo's and The Children's Society, expressed "regret and serious concern" at the "seriously damaging" situation for children.

Zoe Hilton, policy adviser for the NSPCC, and speaking on behalf of the Coalition, said: "Over 700,000 households in the UK can still get uninterrupted and easy access to illegal child abuse image sites.

"Allowing this loophole helps to feed the appalling trade in images which feature real children being seriously sexually assaulted.

"We now need decisive action from the Government to ensure the Internet Service Providers that are still refusing to block this foul material are forced to fall into line.

"Self-regulation on this issue is obviously failing - and in a seriously damaging way for children."

In 2006, the Home Office confirmed it was Government policy to ensure all UK ISPs should deploy a blocking mechanism for child abuse images based on the list of known illegal websites maintained by the Internet Watch Foundation, and that this should be done by the end of 2007, Ms Hilton said.

She added: "Some people commented at the time that allowing ISPs 18 months to bring themselves into line on something like this was excessively generous but at least it was a definite, time-limited commitment."

However, in June 2008, the Home Office indicated that the proportion of UK households covered had reached 95%, and another official response recently said it was still 95%, with the Government "looking at ways to progress the final 5%".

Ms Hilton said: "In other words, in getting on for three years of effort, the percentage has moved from 90% to 95%, and we still have no idea when the Government will finally conclude that the industry will not get us to the 100% which has been the basis of policy since May 2006."

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Comments

[info]podinoldtown wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 09:07 am (UTC)
This is just a prelude to censoring the Internet.

If the governemnt really wanted this to stop this they would do it.

When the powers that be say that they need to control the Internet to stop child pornogrpahy, everyone will agree. That will also stop the free flow of information that they want to curtail.

Wait and see,
[info]vhawk1951 wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 08:33 pm (UTC)
dead right . they could easily stop it if they wanted to.To stop kiddy porn they can censor the internet as much as they like in my book
re Internet
[info]podinoldtown wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 10:28 pm (UTC)
Exactly vhawk....do some research instead of letting your strings be pulled. Puppet!
Re: re Internet
[info]vhawk1951 wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 10:31 pm (UTC)
in what wise am I wrong?
Another NuLab Failure
[info]mike4626 wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 09:55 am (UTC)
child pornography destroys children. When will this government do something about it
Does it destroy children?
[info]greenman9876 wrote:
Thursday, 26 February 2009 at 07:28 am (UTC)
OK. Have you ever seen any? Do you know how it does so? Where is your evidence? All we have is your assertion that something called child pornography destroys children. Please give us something resembling an intelligent comment or say nothing at all.

This government has been doing rather a lot against child porn, and in doing so is attacking our civil liberties. If you take the word of the police and the government without seeing any evidence presented for their case, you are a fool.

My suspicion is that much so-called porn is little more than pictures of naked children. The police have five levels of child porn, levels which are entirely arbitrary and subjective.

No doubt you are aware that even computer-generated pictures and text stories can be prosecuted too. How do those destroy children directly?
Re: Does it destroy children?
[info]neilmc wrote:
Saturday, 7 March 2009 at 11:49 pm (UTC)

Let me get this right, Greenman.

"Some so-called porn is little more than pictures of naked children".

Are you saying that looking at internet pictures of OTHER PEOPLE'S NAKED CHILDREN is a viable form of entertainment for an adult on the internet?

I don't think so.

And what's with all the abusive 'give us an intelligent comment or say nothing at all' and 'you are a fool' type stuff?

Isn't it funny how someone who is outraged at the curbs on his 'civil liberties' is the first to start trying to censor others who are simply voicing their opinions?

Or is there something you'd like to tell us, greenman9876?
[info]abcdef33 wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 10:59 am (UTC)
"Child pornography on internet" is the WMD of these "Charities' coalition". The real aim is censorship on internet and information control.
The IWF
[info]sublibellous wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 12:11 pm (UTC)
The problem here is that the IWF are not accountable to anyone for the decisions they make about what is and is not acceptable. And no-one dares challenge them because only a witch would defend a witch. BURN THE WITCH!
Abuse of charitable status
[info]devondozer wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 12:20 pm (UTC)
I concur with the concerns expressed already. This shrieking soundbite is being used as a smokescreen for increased censorship & control. It has nothing to do with stopping cruelty to children.

These charities do not readily display their sources of income, but the NSPCC web site shows that 85% of its funds come from donations. I suspect that means that at least 15% comes from the government, perhaps indirectly via a quango or somesuch body. Chanting this chorus of suppression is the price they are obliged to pay for the money. It is a tidy sum and will support quite a few well paid sinecures.

Having supported a number of these charities for many years, I have now decided to stop. Too many of the bigger charities have become no more that extended propaganda units for government. The people at the sharp end, who do something useful, have little in common with their senior managements and lobbyists.
Let's just ban everything
[info]chrisp666 wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 02:30 pm (UTC)
and make the world a safer place. Seriously, here is another opportunity for NuLabour, especially the charismatic Gordie Broon to put up another smokescreen to hide all the other failures of their years of 'government' - and I use that word loosely. How long before someone says over this, 'if you've nothing to hide...'?
Re: Let's just ban everything
[info]vhawk1951 wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 08:41 pm (UTC)
be cool man, you don't need to ban anything, you just convincingly tell the world that you can track and trace kiddy porn and its availability will dry up instantly. Once these pervs are convinced that they will be traced they will stop. A genuine fear that you will be caught actually does prevent crime
if true this should be easy to stop
[info]vhawk1951 wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 08:29 pm (UTC)
what with all the technology available to them that can supposedly pick up inter terrorist emails one would have thought that GCHQ could detect kiddy porn like falling off a log. put it about that they can and it will stop instanta.
If they can't do a simple thing like that what are these dudes good for (sorry, for what are they any good)?
a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
[info]taxfries wrote:
Monday, 23 February 2009 at 09:57 pm (UTC)
One has to wonder about New Labour ambitions to censor the Web. If China can block political sites, then the UK government must have the technical ability to block anything it chooses - which was, presumably, the logic behind last year's Dangerous Pictures Act.
Internet Censorship
[info]hawksmoor2008 wrote:
Tuesday, 24 February 2009 at 02:03 am (UTC)
Surely an easy problem to solve:
1. Publish the names of the ISPs who are not blocking access to known sites
2. Let it be known that the police will focus police investigations on the subscribers of these web sites
Re: Internet Censorship
[info]greenman9876 wrote:
Thursday, 26 February 2009 at 07:17 am (UTC)
It's not as easy as you think, hawksmoor2008. Who decides which sites are pornographic? It's always the self-appointed Internet Watch Foundation, and they have never told the world what they find offensive and why. All we get from the police and these "charities" is vague, scary rhetoric about sites which might not even exist. They are after your money.

As other posters state, the aim of our government is to control our access to the Internet, as currently it is too free for their taste. Child porn is just a convenient bogeyman to scare people into compliance. It is so easy. The police never tell us any detail about the porn they supposedly seize from people's computers as to do so would be to allow the rest of us to judge for ourselves. Who knows, the police might - just - be wrong about something. It has occasionally happened before...
Excuse me?
[info]neilmc wrote:
Sunday, 8 March 2009 at 12:16 am (UTC)
Greenman, there is something which seriously worries me about your posts.

Earlier, you stated that "The police have five levels of child porn, levels which are entirely arbitrary and subjective."

This seems to indicate that you know exactly what these levels are, and this is confirmed by the fact that you have decided that they are 'entirely arbitrary and subjective', an opinion which would be impossible to hold otherwise.

And now you'd like to see the evidence so that 'the rest of us can judge for ourselves'?
Brad Purcell
[info]bradpurcell wrote:
Wednesday, 27 May 2009 at 08:20 pm (UTC)
Be careful people. Keep the kiddie porn hidden or they will bust you. Then its grab your ankles and prepare to scream like a little girl.

Brad Purcell
Atlanta, GA
brad.purcell@skyitgroup.com
Sky IT Group

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