Stefan Mileschin

UK PM David "one is an ordinary bloke" Cameron has apparently flip flopped on the issue of internet censorship because he is suddenly worried about children.

Earlier this week, the government pulled out of plans to censor porn from the internet after a survey found that no one actually wanted it.

Cameron thinks that the move's unpopularity makes it an ideal plank for Tory policy. After all, he has not done anything popular, such as sort the economy out, since he has been elected.

Talking to his favourite organ, the Daily Mail, Cameron said that automatic porn blocking will be enforced. He has also employed MP Claire Perry, who has been campaigning for the default filtering throughout the year, as adviser on preventing the sexualisation of children.

It seems that the man who feels it is ok to leave your kid in a pub is now lecturing parents on how to bring them up properly.

Perry has been told to install a new web filtering system, which will require computers to check the age of the person setting the controls.

It will cost a fortune to set up, and is attractive to Cameron because like many Tory initiatives, it is unpopular and will clearly not work.

It assumes that the people setting the controls will tell the truth, and that kids will not work a way around it. It is also possible that legitimate sites will be blocked.

Cameron, who ignored the Department for Education's report, cracked on with default blocking, claiming that a silent attack on innocence is under way in Britain and he is determined to fight it with everything he has. Given that Cameron has Trident we should be very afraid.

Cameron wants a system where parents are asked, when starting up a computer for the first time, whether they have children in the house. If they answer yes, they will be automatically prompted to set up a filter.

If parents click through without going into detail, blocks on pornography and self-harm will remain up. This will be a system that will be opt-out, rather than opt-in.

It is not clear if you will have to tell your computer that you have no kids around every time you boot up.

Cameron proudly said that no other government has taken such radical steps before. Well, there is China, Saudi Arabia and a few others. Perhaps he meant Western countries - there are a few, we've heard, that do not place the rights of parents over the civil liberties of those who decide not to stuff up the planet by having children.

Cameron said that once all this is in place, Britain will have the most robust internet child protection measures of any country in the world. Although he says "child protection", what he actually means, of course, is opt-out internet censorship.

Ministers are now thought to be pushing ISPs to produce detailed plans on how they will implement default blocks by February.

ISPs will have to come up with a preconfigured filter which requires the user to turn it off, or leave it on. It will use a blacklist.

http://news.techeye.net/internet/cam...ship-after-all