I am shocked that you all at mumsnet have backed down over your initial support of the work that Ed Vaizey is doing to encourage ISP's to provide a default internet porn filter because some of your members have objected!
- I don't see how you can justify not supporting this, regardless of what some of your members might say. It isn't rocket science - the sort of hard core free porn that is currently being piped into everyone's home is well known to be harmful to both adults and children but, especially to children.
- Although, technically, it probably is impossible to filter out all porn, it certainly is very straightforward to filter out the majority of it. I set this up on my own personal connection using a free service (www.opendns.com/familyshield) - it took all of 3 minutes and is completely free. Those who tell you this is not possible probably have their own interests uppermost in their minds, rather than those of young people.
- Have you not wondered why your members who are objecting to this, are actually so vociferous in their objections? There are a great many who are in favour of porn and many who are addicted to it. These individuals will fight tooth and nail against any threat which may make it more difficult for them to access porn. They are not however, the slightest bit concerned about the damage it does to young people. You, on the other hand, should be.
- As for parents being responsible for controlling what their children can get access to, on the internet, the most concerned and knowledgable parents may not know exactly what they need to do to protect their home internet connections, as far as is possible. ISP's on the otherhand, have the technical expertise to do this if they wish to or can be persuaded to, which is exactly what Ed Vaizey and others are trying to do.
I hope you will reconsider your stance on this issue for the sake of your many members who are parents concerned about the welfare of their children - by the way, shouldn't that be all of your members.