This week, both UK ISPs and Google start a new battle against pornographic content, by blocking access to it. While Google’s actions stand on moral grounds, will UK users have to live a porn free life in the future?
Image credit: Nydailynews
Google to fight child porn with image blocking tool
Google, the world’s most popular search engine company, is working on a new image blocking tool to block child pornographic content. The company’s upcoming new software will allow law enforcement agencies, activist groups, websites etc. to collectively build a database of abusive content, which will then be filtered by Google. This open database is perhaps what is required for all small groups working towards the same cause to collaborate and eradicate such morally wrong and abusive activities.
The big push towards this cause comes from the UK, where the politicians (including UK Prime Minister David Cameron) are pressurizing Google to ”use their extraordinary technical abilities to do more to root out these disgusting images,” in a ‘The Telegraph’ report. According to the report, Google is setting up a $2 million fund to help independent developers to develop new software which will complement the company’s existing ‘pattern recognition’ technology that has been in use since 2008.
UK ISPs to block porn by end of 2013
Coming by pornographic content in the UK might just get harder over the next year as ISPs in the country will begin including porn filters by default starting from the end of this year. The new policy will apply to all customers, whose only option out of the system is a temporary one. Claire Perry, a Member of Parliament explained that they “will have automatic put on, so if you turn the filter off at 9pm, it turns on again at 7am.”
Applying filters to block child porn is moral, hell giving the users an option to filter porn in general is also a good option, but this is simply a choice-less imposition by the government. Blocking adult content is not fine, the government can block illegal content but not adult content in general. The government doesn’t get to decide who wants to watch what, it’s the people who themselves decide that.
The new system has good intentions, but a really bad implementation which is sure to receive a lot of backlash in the coming months. What they need to do is make the system an option to every citizen, not a mandatory and forced restriction. Only then can they hope for a truly positive response. After all, when was the last time people were oppressed and didn’t fight back?
via Wired (UK)
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