The Prime Minister’s plan is for pornography to be automatically blocked by internet providers, unless individuals have specifically opted for filters to be turned off. The PM will also close a loophole in the legislation to make possession of online pornography depicting rape illegal and measures will be put in place to give experts more powers to look into secretive file-sharing networks.
four out of five 16-year-olds regularly view pornography
The issue of online pornography has been put to the top of the Prime Minister’s agenda due to two high profile court cases: the murders of five-year-old April Jones and 12-year-old Tia Sharp. The two men charged with the murders were both found to have looked at child pornography online. Claire Perry MP, who met with the parents of Tia Sharp and April Jones last week, has said these men 'stumbled into child porn, and used it to make the unthinkable thinkable.'
As well as trying to clamp down on people accessing child abuse images online, the new measures are hoped to prevent young people from accessing pornography. David Cameron has previously expressed his concerns about his own children - ages nine, seven and two - as to what they are able to easily access on the Internet
A recent Parliamentary report revealed shocking statistics that four out of five 16-year-olds regularly view pornography, and one in three ten-year-olds have admitted to seeing illicit images online.
Some argue that the PM's new legislation may not do much to solve the issue however. Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group has said: 'we have no real evidence that search engines are the major way that people try to find this material. Because it’s very, very illegal, people tend to be very secretive.'