UK Started Online Filtering

UK Prime Minster has started censoring the worldwide web for the entire country, and now millions of BT customers are Internet censored from all those things that David Cameron doesn’t like. The Internet service provider confirmed that the filter is on and working.

New BT customers will have to choose on whether they want to activate the parental controls. They will also have to explain to BT why they refuse and in this case there’s a chance that their IP address will be flagged to be closely watched by GCHQ. As for existing BT customers, those will be contacted by the company during the next year and asked if they want to activate the controls and allow the government to decide what they can access.

Customers who want to turn the parental controls on will choose between 3 set filter levels – strict, moderate and light. All of them ban porn, obscene and tasteless material, along with hate and self-harm, drugs, alcohol and tobacco and dating websites. In addition, moderate and strict filters will also block websites featuring nudity, weapons and violence, as well as gambling and social networking. Strict filter also blocks fashion and beauty websites, file-sharing, games and media streaming.

You can always add or remove other websites from the list manually. Moreover, the filter can be turned off at specific times, for instance if you want it to act as a “watershed”, and it can also be set to another level during “homework time”, when kids are busy with their homework. According to BT representatives, the company takes the question of online kids protection very seriously and is glad to launch the whole home filter to help parents keep their families safe on the Internet.

In the meantime, a recent report by Ofcom showed that less than 50% of parents with children aged 5 to 15 have any filters in place on the family computer, with 13% admitting they either don’t know how to install controls or had no idea it was possible. Perhaps, David Cameron knows better how to look after children, as he famously abandoned his kid in a pub when he went out to dinner with his missus. Some people wish there was a way of outsourcing that responsibility too. Maybe Prime Minister simply doesn’t want to put taxpayer money into a public education system.