CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘Cleanfeed’ Category

BT blocks up to 40,000 child porn pages per day: “

Cleanfeed busy

Between 35,000 and 40,000 attempts to access child pornography sites via BT Retail’s broadband network are blocked every day, it was revealed today.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Aussie government to rig filter testing: “

Opponents of Great Aussie Firewall take to the streets

The great Aussie firewall is coming apart at the seams, as opposition mounts, and critics have a field day dissecting inept government plans for testing their shiny new filters.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

House of Commons debate on Internet Regulation, 4 June, 2008

Column 893
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn. —[Mr. Watts.]
7.32 pm

John Robertson (Glasgow, North-West) (Lab): I am pleased to have the chance to discuss internet content and internet service providers with my hon. Friend the Minister for Energy, not least because I have been trying to secure this debate for several months. I know that, like me, many of my colleagues regularly receive correspondence from constituents who are worried about internet content, and I have been especially keen to discuss those matters following the Byron review, but on several occasions I have been told by the Table Office that there is no Department appropriate to field such a debate. The strategy of representatives of each Department that we tried to assign it to has been to hold up its hands in affront and deny any responsibility for the matter.

My worry is that that is an allegory of the current situation relating to responsibility for internet content, and that the excuse is, sadly, endemic. ISPs claim to be mere inanimate conduits; search engines plead their neutrality; Ofcom has intentionally been denied any remit for content; other UK Executive and regulatory bodies, including the police, have powers over only a tiny minority of websites; and the Internet Watch Foundation is limited in the subjects it monitors and by the international nature of the internet. As a result, the various initiatives that have been implemented are piecemeal and inadequate, and the internet stands out as an anomaly against similar media as a place where, essentially, anything goes. It is a paradox that the efforts of ISPs to deal with illegal content are a strong argument for regulating them, as we see that the tools they have are the most effective method of controlling material online.

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