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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 26 2016, @04:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-non-conventional-to-you-is-a-turn-on-to-me dept.

Web users in the UK will be banned from accessing websites portraying a range of non-conventional sexual acts, under a little discussed clause to a government bill currently going through parliament.

The proposal, part of the digital economy bill, would force internet service providers to block sites hosting content that would not be certified for commercial DVD sale by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

[...] Pictures and videos that show spanking, whipping or caning that leaves marks, and sex acts involving urination, female ejaculation or menstruation as well as sex in public are likely to be caught by the ban – in effect turning back the clock on Britain's censorship regime to the pre-internet era.

The scale of the restrictions only became apparent after the BBFC, which has since 1984 been empowered to classify videos for commercial hire or sale, agreed to become the online age verification regulator last month. A spokeswoman for the BBFC said it would also check whether sites host "pornographic content that we would refuse to classify".

[...] . A spokesman for DCMS [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] said the government's aim is to ensure that the same "rules and safeguards" that exist in the physical world also apply online.

Source: The Guardian


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by n1 on Saturday November 26 2016, @05:21PM

    by n1 (993) on Saturday November 26 2016, @05:21PM (#433297) Journal

    I don't think they're concerned about where things are hosted, or even having a somewhat complete list of 'banned' content types.

    On Tuesday the director of the UK’s new National Cyber Security Centre laid out vague plans to build a Great British Firewall to protect us from the dangers of cyberattacks in the digital age: “We’re exploring a flagship project on scaling up DNS filtering,” said Ciaran Martin.

    [...] What the National Cyber Security Centre proposes is a centralised system run, or at least directed by, the government. It creates a dangerous norm that it is an acceptable function of government to monitor and control the information citizens get to see and access. Will the list of suspect sites be published? Who is going to decide what gets blocked? What criteria will be used for filtering? What kind of checks and oversight will ensure the censorship capability is not abused?

    In Australia, the Communications and Media Authority used DNS filtering and was found to have understated the number of banned webpages by more than 1,000 in 2009. Among the “dangerous” sites on a leaked list were two bus companies’ webpages, online poker sites, Wikipedia entries, Google and Yahoo group pages, a dental surgery and a tour operator. In the UK, the Internet Watch Foundation has faced similar criticism for keeping secret its list of websites that internet service providers must block.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/15/gchq-great-british-firewall-creates-dangerous-norm-government-controls-information [theguardian.com]

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @05:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @05:55PM (#433312)

    Bingo: porn is the tip of the spear. The government starts blocking sites based on one sort of content, and then another… first it's child porn, then porn, then hate speech, then "fake news," then political dissent. Don't give me the "slippery slope fallacy" nonsense: slippery slopes are slippery and people do fall down them.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 26 2016, @06:01PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday November 26 2016, @06:01PM (#433318) Homepage

      It's all part of the Brexit battle - specifically, a British embargo on German porn.

      • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @07:02PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @07:02PM (#433348)

        I support this, have you *seen* German porn? It's bloody nasty!

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @09:20PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @09:20PM (#433397)

      Bingo: porn is the tip of the spear. The government starts blocking sites based on one sort of content, and then another

      First they came for beastiality, but I said nothing because I do not lay with animals.

      Then they came for S&M, but I said nothing because I don't like pain.

      Then they came for the anal, but I didn't say anything because I can't get my wife to try it.

      Then they came for the tranny porn, but there was no one left to speak for me.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27 2016, @02:26AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27 2016, @02:26AM (#433506)

        First they came

        I'm pretty sure the entire point of all this is not to do that!

      • (Score: 2) by nukkel on Sunday November 27 2016, @06:27PM

        by nukkel (168) on Sunday November 27 2016, @06:27PM (#433697)

        Seriously, you should get out more.
        You don't know what you're missing!

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 26 2016, @10:20PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday November 26 2016, @10:20PM (#433418)

      Porn is the excuse to develop site blocking capability - to use it regularly, to understand its shortcomings, and to improve its capabilities to filter information.

      Of course, what Maggie's ghost is really after is the ability to throw the switch on anything deemed worthy of hushing up - not that they would use it except in case of extreme emergency, potential royal embarrassment, or dire political need.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27 2016, @12:31AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27 2016, @12:31AM (#433469)

        Are you talking about the Great Firewall of England? No country would ever try that, or implement that, or deny that, or ...