(CNN) -- Saying that "the darkest corners of
the Internet" pose a real threat to children, British Prime Minister David
Cameron on Monday rolled out a plan that would, by default, block pornography
on most computers, smartphones and tablets.
British wireless and Internet
providers have agreed to put adult-content filters on phones, public Wi-Fi
networks and home computers in the coming months. By the end of the year, the
filters will become the default setting for anyone setting up broadband
Internet service at home, Cameron said.
"I'm not making this speech
because I want to (moralize) or scare-monger, but because I feel profoundly as
a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come," Cameron said. "This is, quite simply, about how we
protect our children and their innocence."
All of those filters could be
deactivated by those who can "prove" they are 18 or older, Cameron
said.
The plan is the result of a
monthslong effort by Cameron to restrict access to Internet porn. He has called Google and other search companies into meetings,
demanding they do more to hide porn from children, and appointed Parliament
member Claire Perry as a special adviser targeting the issues.
The plan will require no action
from Parliament because service providers and other Web companies are
participating voluntarily. Some already provide service with porn filters as
their default settings.
Not surprisingly, Web freedom
advocates and other critics were quick to decry the plan. For one, many say
effective Web filters simply don't exist.
"As a technological feat, it
would be utterly impossible," columnist Andy Dawson wrote in the Daily Mirror,
a nationwide tabloid frequently critical of Cameron's Conservative Party.
"His porn shield speech
today, and the proposals that are in it are the deranged ravings of someone who
has decided that something must be done, has decided what it is, but doesn't
(realize) that it isn't actually feasible. He's got just as much chance of
banning (gray) clouds while giving us all access to the nice white, fluffy
ones."
Critics say that automated
filtering technology inevitably allows offensive material through accidentally
as well as creating "false positives" that block inoffensive content.
Others, such as BBC technology
correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, say default-on filters can create a
false sense of security among parents, who could become more lax in monitoring
their children's online behavior.
The Internet service providers
that have signed off on the plan provide service to roughly nine out of 10
households in Great Britain.
In his speech, Cameron cited a
two-pronged problem: the online exploitation of children through child
pornography and the easy access children have to otherwise legal pornography at
an early age.
"In one we're talking about
illegal material, the other legal material that is being viewed by those who
are underage," he said. "But both these challenges have something in
common. They are about how our collective lack of action on the Internet has
led to harmful -- and in some cases truly dreadful -- consequences for children."
The prime minister announced an
effort to expand and streamline currently fragmented child-porn databases and a
new interpretation of law that will make porn depicting rape illegal.
He also announced a new
"Family Friendly Wi-Fi" label that will allow hotels, restaurants and
other businesses to advertise that the Web access they provide has porn filters
enabled.
Two recent British murder trials
in which the defendants were each said to have viewed images of child sexual
abuse online have heightened public concern over the issue.
One case was that of April Jones,
a 5-year-old girl whose disappearance last year in a remote part of Wales
sparked a huge search. Mark Bridger was found guilty of her murder in May, but
her body has still not been found. The other was the murder of a 12-year-old
girl, Tia Sharp, by her grandmother's partner.
Cameron said he had met with the
parents of those two girls on Friday.
"Protecting the most
vulnerable in our society, protecting innocence, protecting childhood itself --
that is what is at stake," Cameron said. "And I will do whatever it
takes to keep our children safe."
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