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| Protecting our children from porn | Protecting our children from porn |
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| We at the Institution of Engineering and Technology believe that government proposals to use legislation to force internet service providers to block access to pornography will be ineffective and harmful (Report, 22 July). There are better ways to protect children. Every illegal image is a crime scene but law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to identify, locate and protect every victim, nor to identify, and charge every abuser. More resources must be provided. That is the top priority and legislation to block access will do nothing to help, while making it harder for troubled adolescents to search for on sexual health and sexual identity issues. | We at the Institution of Engineering and Technology believe that government proposals to use legislation to force internet service providers to block access to pornography will be ineffective and harmful (Report, 22 July). There are better ways to protect children. Every illegal image is a crime scene but law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to identify, locate and protect every victim, nor to identify, and charge every abuser. More resources must be provided. That is the top priority and legislation to block access will do nothing to help, while making it harder for troubled adolescents to search for on sexual health and sexual identity issues. |
| Protecting children from seeing legal adult pornography, online exploitation and sexting are different issues that are best addressed by parents following the excellent advice provided by Get Safe Online and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, and teaching their children to do the same. Universal blocking of websites, search terms and content is a blunt, ineffective tool. Such blocks can easily be circumvented, and children will continue to share ways to access sites their friends tell them about, whether the content is pornography or music files. The serious criminals are already using encryption and other technical means to hide their activities, which blocking by ISPs will not affect. | Protecting children from seeing legal adult pornography, online exploitation and sexting are different issues that are best addressed by parents following the excellent advice provided by Get Safe Online and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, and teaching their children to do the same. Universal blocking of websites, search terms and content is a blunt, ineffective tool. Such blocks can easily be circumvented, and children will continue to share ways to access sites their friends tell them about, whether the content is pornography or music files. The serious criminals are already using encryption and other technical means to hide their activities, which blocking by ISPs will not affect. |
| There is no quick technical fix that will protect children – it needs education, responsible parenting and more resources for enforcing the laws that already exist. Dr Martyn Thomas Institution of Engineering and Technology | There is no quick technical fix that will protect children – it needs education, responsible parenting and more resources for enforcing the laws that already exist. Dr Martyn Thomas Institution of Engineering and Technology |
| • Before each household formally commits itself to accepting or rejecting access to restricted material online, should we not be given guarantees concerning how this knowledge is put to use? Which organ of government will keep the records of those households that are signed up to a filter and those that are not? And how can the government bind any successor administration to an undertaking not to find it economically advantageous to put such information up for sale? W Stephen Gilbert Corsham, Wiltshire | • Before each household formally commits itself to accepting or rejecting access to restricted material online, should we not be given guarantees concerning how this knowledge is put to use? Which organ of government will keep the records of those households that are signed up to a filter and those that are not? And how can the government bind any successor administration to an undertaking not to find it economically advantageous to put such information up for sale? W Stephen Gilbert Corsham, Wiltshire |
| • First, our eight-year-old twins have access to the internet only through a computer in communal areas – they have no hand-held devices of their own. Second, there is clarity in our home that the adults and not the children are in charge. Third, we prioritise spending time with our children so we know what they are doing – mostly more interesting than surfing YouTube. If we insist on giving our very small children mobile gadgets which give them a hotline into an adult world from the privacy of their own bedrooms, we are asking for problems. The internet is a virtual world and, as in the real world, our children must be accompanied until ready to go alone. Government action alone will never solve this problem. Preventing our young children from wandering around unprotected is our adult responsibility. Ruth Clements Glasgow | • First, our eight-year-old twins have access to the internet only through a computer in communal areas – they have no hand-held devices of their own. Second, there is clarity in our home that the adults and not the children are in charge. Third, we prioritise spending time with our children so we know what they are doing – mostly more interesting than surfing YouTube. If we insist on giving our very small children mobile gadgets which give them a hotline into an adult world from the privacy of their own bedrooms, we are asking for problems. The internet is a virtual world and, as in the real world, our children must be accompanied until ready to go alone. Government action alone will never solve this problem. Preventing our young children from wandering around unprotected is our adult responsibility. Ruth Clements Glasgow |
| • Before David Cameron goes ahead with outlawing possession of scenes of simulated rape he should remember the fiasco of the Dangerous Dogs Act and consider exactly what harm he wishes to prevent and how he is to define it. The National Gallery has The Rape of the Sabine Women by Rubens hanging on its walls. Will the director escape prosecution by removing it to thebasement or will he have to destroy it? Are all copies of Ingmar Bergman's film The Virgin Spring to be destroyed as well? MaryWhitehouse failed to have the National convicted for staging Howard Brenton's Romans in Britain but will the proposed law prevent any future productions of the play? | • Before David Cameron goes ahead with outlawing possession of scenes of simulated rape he should remember the fiasco of the Dangerous Dogs Act and consider exactly what harm he wishes to prevent and how he is to define it. The National Gallery has The Rape of the Sabine Women by Rubens hanging on its walls. Will the director escape prosecution by removing it to thebasement or will he have to destroy it? Are all copies of Ingmar Bergman's film The Virgin Spring to be destroyed as well? MaryWhitehouse failed to have the National convicted for staging Howard Brenton's Romans in Britain but will the proposed law prevent any future productions of the play? |
| At least we should be grateful that scenes of simulated murder are to be permitted or galleries would have to be cleared of all those saintly martyrdoms and Quentin Tarantino's career would come to an instant end. Anthony Matthew Leicester | At least we should be grateful that scenes of simulated murder are to be permitted or galleries would have to be cleared of all those saintly martyrdoms and Quentin Tarantino's career would come to an instant end. Anthony Matthew Leicester |
| • I'm sure filters can play an important role in reducing access to pornography, but they can also have perverse results. I volunteer in a charity bookshop where, among other things, I list books for sale on the internet. One day I received a warning from the charity's ISP about the inappropriate title of a book I was entering – Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Martin Staniforth Leeds | • I'm sure filters can play an important role in reducing access to pornography, but they can also have perverse results. I volunteer in a charity bookshop where, among other things, I list books for sale on the internet. One day I received a warning from the charity's ISP about the inappropriate title of a book I was entering – Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Martin Staniforth Leeds |
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