How unanswerable companies and government departments choose what is acceptable (to them)
? do you want to support these companies making decisions over your rights
? will opting out identify you as some sort of social deviant, ala ‘Daily Mail’ 😉
BT … admitted that UK parents who don’t want their kids to seek advice about their sexuality online could block access over its network.
However, while BT continues to offer that control to its subscribers, the company has now backtracked on how it labels its sex education category.
BT defined as sex education websites, which said they could be blocked “where the main purpose is to provide information on subjects such as respect for a partner, abortion, gay and lesbian lifestyle, contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.”
BT, defending its wording, said on Friday that “Some parents of very young children may wish to block sex education material.”
.. the control stays for any mum or dad who might have a serious problem with their child’s sexuality
To the dismay of some, O2 appeared to be offering to block all sorts of websites … over its service when a subscriber switches on the “parental control” feature ..
Burger chain McDonalds was apparently included on O2’s whitelist of safe content for under-12s. But Childline, a charity set up to protect kids from – among other things – violent parents, was on the banned list under the parental control option.
O2 confirmed..t it was “working closely with BBFC [British Board of Film Classification] to review and change the site classification as we speak.” The BBFC cobbles together a Classification Framework for mobile operators to help define what content should be deemed unsuitable for under-18s.
O2 added that “BBFC is used by all major networks in the UK. They review all the content that’s suitable for under 12s.”
BT said its Parental Controls blocking system would cover all internet connected devices in the home.
New customers will have to make a choice on whether or not to activate the parental controls when setting up their internet connection for the first time. The option of having the controls implemented is pre-selected and customers have to confirm that choice or actively choose not to switch on the controls which block content potentially unsuitable for children.
BT will be contacting all of its existing consumer customers during 2014 so that they then have to make a decision on whether or not to set up the controls.
UK mobile operators have finally announced the body that will regulate and classify adult content available on mobile phones. The specially formed organisation – called the Independent Mobile Classification Body (IMCB) – is an independent and separately-financed subsidiary or the premium rate regulator, ICSTIS.
Meanwhile, it’s likely that Virgin Media will unveil its DNS lookup-based blocking system before the year is out.
Of course children should be protected, remember our own childhood, but extreme over protection is not far from brainwashing the next generation. What happened to good parenting?
BTW, merry Christmas