5 ms·

There's no "UK Porn Filter". Please stop believing this.

dijit 13y ago
last line of the article "Only new customers affected" so, at the moment there is no filter for old customers, but that will change.
- jamescun 13y ago
  All the ISPs say only new customers are affected. I have had Virgin for over 6 months now and it suddenly enabled itself. Same goes for my parents who have been with Sky for a number of years now and their filter enabled itself and my mother couldn't even load her work email.
wernercd 13y ago
Slight wave of hand There is no porn Filter. These aren't the droids you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.
JacksonGariety 13y ago
Elaborate, maybe?
- citricsquid 13y ago
  The government "asked" (read: pressured) some of the biggest ISPs to provide parental filtering controls to all customers, set at a broadband account level. For new customers these filters are enabled by default, but any customer can turn them off through their broadband account control panel (see here: http://i.imgur.com/dWxORfJ.png http://i.imgur.com/dWxORfJ.png). There are quite a few smaller ISPs who have refused to implement these filters. There is no filtering at a country level and anyone can opt out with one click. The difference between now and 1 year ago is that instead of being opt-in the parental filters ISPs provide are now opt-out (for new customers).
  - pyrocat 13y ago
    "one click" "new customers" these claims have been called into doubt in this thread already.
    - citricsquid 13y ago
      I can only speak for myself but my experience has been exactly as I claimed. I have two broadband connections in my home, one from BT and one from Virgin Media. The BT connection has no filtering enabled (the screenshot in my post is from my BT account) and it only took one click to confirm I didn't want filtering, my Virgin Media connection is not filtered and I haven't had to touch any settings for that. Perhaps an individual ISP has improperly implemented their system?
      - babuskov 13y ago
        If there was no filtering on BT, why did you have to click to confirm anything? What would happen if you did not confirm?
        citricsquid 13y ago
        I wanted to see how the system worked so that I would be able to comment on it from a position of experience and be able to provide screenshots for when it was being discussed.
      - pyrocat 13y ago
        > Perhaps an individual ISP has improperly implemented their system? This is most likely the case. My larger point being, let's not even defend or apologize for this system.
      - JacksonGariety 13y ago
        If you're posting to Hacker News, we can probably assume you're above the average level of computer usage. Maybe for you it seems like "one click," but for grandma and her new laptop, would it be?
  - 13y ago
doctorfoo 13y ago
There is a "UK Porn Filter". You can, however, opt out, and existing customers may currently not yet be affected. There is a fear that people will blindly choose the default "opt in" because of taboo and other social pressures. Also, in some cases it's very difficult to opt out (for example, I cannot opt out of my mobile content filter because I don't own a credit card).
- citricsquid 13y ago
  The filter on your mobile phone has existed for years (when I was a teenager in 2006 my Orange mobile phone had such a filter), it's a practice over a decade old. It has nothing to do with the supposed "UK Porn Filter" (which doesn't exist).
  - danudey 13y ago
    The 'UK Porn Filter' refers to the default content filtering by ISPs pushed by David Cameron and implemented by UK ISPs. Whether there's one huge filter affecting everyone in the UK (there isn't) or every ISP in the UK implements a filter of some kind based on arbitrary but consistent criteria, the term isn't wholly unreasonable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_United_Kingdom#Default_blocking_of_content_by_Internet_Service_Providers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_Unit...
- SixSigma 13y ago
  Which mobile phone provider ? I just went into the three shop and said "take the porn block off please"
  - doctorfoo 13y ago
    My nearest provider (Vodafone) store is over an hours drive away. I've never particularly considered going there; but even if that is a possibility I'd still class it as "difficult to opt out". I personally would also feel quite embarrassed going into a shop and having to effectively tell staff I want to look at porn. I don't think I would do it.
alan_cx 13y ago
We all know that there are various filters, different for each ISP, which exist because the government pressured them in to it. Generically and collectively we are all oh so terribly lazy and refer to them as a UK porn filter. Please stop believing that we are stupid enough to take that short hand as literal.
- DanBC 13y ago
  I've read many posts from people who think that the government controls the filter and controls what is on the filter and that the filter is mandatory. It's important to correct that misinterpretation.
- BlackDeath3 13y ago
  >We all know that there are various filters, different for each ISP... Please stop believing that we are stupid enough to take that short hand as literal. I didn't know this. Perhaps I'm stupid.
- ghshephard 13y ago
  Are you suggesting that the UK government does not have a certain list of banned sites that it sends to ISPs that prevent them from being viewed? That sounds like a UK porn filter to me. It also sounds like a filter that the government can use for other purposes, in much the same way it can pick up people for "terrorism" whose sole crime is engaging in political activity the government does not like.
Toenex 13y ago
Well if there is a UK filter for porn I can assure you I appear to be on the right side of it. ;)
InclinedPlane 13y ago
You're playing semantic games. There's a series of different filters at each UK ISP put in place by government request. Whether there's one brick wall around the entire country or a bunch of separate walls of different materials it's still a wall.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

dijit 13y ago

last line of the article "Only new customers affected" so, at the moment there is no filter for old customers, but that will change.

jamescun 13y ago
All the ISPs say only new customers are affected. I have had Virgin for over 6 months now and it suddenly enabled itself. Same goes for my parents who have been with Sky for a number of years now and their filter enabled itself and my mother couldn't even load her work email.

wernercd 13y ago

Slight wave of hand There is no porn Filter. These aren't the droids you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.

JacksonGariety 13y ago

Elaborate, maybe?

citricsquid 13y ago
The government "asked" (read: pressured) some of the biggest ISPs to provide parental filtering controls to all customers, set at a broadband account level. For new customers these filters are enabled by default, but any customer can turn them off through their broadband account control panel (see here: http://i.imgur.com/dWxORfJ.png http://i.imgur.com/dWxORfJ.png). There are quite a few smaller ISPs who have refused to implement these filters. There is no filtering at a country level and anyone can opt out with one click. The difference between now and 1 year ago is that instead of being opt-in the parental filters ISPs provide are now opt-out (for new customers).
- pyrocat 13y ago
  "one click" "new customers" these claims have been called into doubt in this thread already.
  - citricsquid 13y ago
    I can only speak for myself but my experience has been exactly as I claimed. I have two broadband connections in my home, one from BT and one from Virgin Media. The BT connection has no filtering enabled (the screenshot in my post is from my BT account) and it only took one click to confirm I didn't want filtering, my Virgin Media connection is not filtered and I haven't had to touch any settings for that. Perhaps an individual ISP has improperly implemented their system?
    - babuskov 13y ago
      If there was no filtering on BT, why did you have to click to confirm anything? What would happen if you did not confirm?
      - citricsquid 13y ago
        I wanted to see how the system worked so that I would be able to comment on it from a position of experience and be able to provide screenshots for when it was being discussed.
    - pyrocat 13y ago
      > Perhaps an individual ISP has improperly implemented their system? This is most likely the case. My larger point being, let's not even defend or apologize for this system.
    - JacksonGariety 13y ago
      If you're posting to Hacker News, we can probably assume you're above the average level of computer usage. Maybe for you it seems like "one click," but for grandma and her new laptop, would it be?
- 13y ago

doctorfoo 13y ago

There is a "UK Porn Filter". You can, however, opt out, and existing customers may currently not yet be affected. There is a fear that people will blindly choose the default "opt in" because of taboo and other social pressures. Also, in some cases it's very difficult to opt out (for example, I cannot opt out of my mobile content filter because I don't own a credit card).

citricsquid 13y ago
The filter on your mobile phone has existed for years (when I was a teenager in 2006 my Orange mobile phone had such a filter), it's a practice over a decade old. It has nothing to do with the supposed "UK Porn Filter" (which doesn't exist).
- danudey 13y ago
  The 'UK Porn Filter' refers to the default content filtering by ISPs pushed by David Cameron and implemented by UK ISPs. Whether there's one huge filter affecting everyone in the UK (there isn't) or every ISP in the UK implements a filter of some kind based on arbitrary but consistent criteria, the term isn't wholly unreasonable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_United_Kingdom#Default_blocking_of_content_by_Internet_Service_Providers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_Unit...
SixSigma 13y ago
Which mobile phone provider ? I just went into the three shop and said "take the porn block off please"
- doctorfoo 13y ago
  My nearest provider (Vodafone) store is over an hours drive away. I've never particularly considered going there; but even if that is a possibility I'd still class it as "difficult to opt out". I personally would also feel quite embarrassed going into a shop and having to effectively tell staff I want to look at porn. I don't think I would do it.

alan_cx 13y ago

We all know that there are various filters, different for each ISP, which exist because the government pressured them in to it. Generically and collectively we are all oh so terribly lazy and refer to them as a UK porn filter. Please stop believing that we are stupid enough to take that short hand as literal.

DanBC 13y ago
I've read many posts from people who think that the government controls the filter and controls what is on the filter and that the filter is mandatory. It's important to correct that misinterpretation.
BlackDeath3 13y ago
>We all know that there are various filters, different for each ISP... Please stop believing that we are stupid enough to take that short hand as literal. I didn't know this. Perhaps I'm stupid.
ghshephard 13y ago
Are you suggesting that the UK government does not have a certain list of banned sites that it sends to ISPs that prevent them from being viewed? That sounds like a UK porn filter to me. It also sounds like a filter that the government can use for other purposes, in much the same way it can pick up people for "terrorism" whose sole crime is engaging in political activity the government does not like.

Toenex 13y ago

Well if there is a UK filter for porn I can assure you I appear to be on the right side of it. ;)

InclinedPlane 13y ago

You're playing semantic games. There's a series of different filters at each UK ISP put in place by government request. Whether there's one brick wall around the entire country or a bunch of separate walls of different materials it's still a wall.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]