Dominique Lazanski

Tuesday

Dominique Lazanski

An internet filter would be counterproductive

Following Claire Perry's campaign for porn prohibition, the Department of Education has now launched a consultation on parental internet controls. For those of you unaware of the policy proposals, it is something we should be concerned about as it poses a very real threat to our internet freedoms. This year, Perry held an independent inquiry on online child protection. The report, released in April, recommended that internet users who wish to view pornography should have to opt-in to it. In other words, there should be default blocking of legal content by internet service providers unless users request this block be turned off.  From a technical point of view, the introduction of a default adult content filter will be a blunt instrument to deal with the issue.

Friday

Dominique Lazanski

How to regulate the Internet?

This week, the Open Rights Group launched a campaign against the proposed website blocking scheme between copyright holders and Internet Service Providers.  The campaign was launched on the back of a leaked document suggesting that a voluntary code for industry website blocking be introduced. The document was presented to Ed Vaizey, the relevant minister. Vaizey meets regularly with internet stakeholders to debate digital issues, including net neutrality, parental controls, and, of course, web blocking. These meetings are a vast improvement over the last government, which made technology policy decisions behind closed doors without much – if any – input from outsiders.