UK Govt Forces Porn Sites to Create ‘Pervert’ Database

Britain is to become a world leader in internet censorship, instituting ‘Chinese-style’ internet filters to block pornography, unless websites agree to check the identities of all visitors – risking creating a database of British porn viewers.

Sold to the public on the pretence of protecting children from being able, either intentionally or accidentally, to view pornography on-line, sexual websites will soon be required to know exactly who is viewing them. By checking identities through government databases such as local government or the Royal Mail, or though third parties such as banks or mobile phone operators, the government hopes to force companies to assume a child protection role.

Although the system being administered by the Digital Policy is designed to keep the identities of those accessing adult material secret, privacy campaigners have said the databases will inevitably be fallible, and could allow the details of individuals, and what they view, to fall into the hands of third parties.

The Guardian reports the comments of free speech campaigner Jerry Barnett, who said:

“We know that privacy in such cases is often breached by accident, by hackers, or secretly by the police and intelligence services.

“This is the state, yet again, intervening in people’s private lives for no reason other than good old British prurience and control-freakery… I don’t believe [The Government’s] plans can be achieved without drastically changing the face of the internet”.

At the moment only adult websites based in the UK are required to conform to British obscenity laws, which includes simple age-checking and following guidelines on what is considered legal or illegal to create and view – which now includes comparatively mundane sexual acts such as face-sitting, harsh language, and female ejaculation. Under the new rules, it seems probable that websites hosted abroad, such as in Europe and the United States, could be blocked completely.