Charity: child abuse filters save men from themselves

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 23 Feb 2009 at 16:00

The secretary of a leading children's charity claims child porn filters have saved men from prison.

In an exclusive interview with PC Pro, John Carr, the secretary of the CCCIS, dismissed claims from ISP Zen Internet that the blacklisting system wasn't effective.

"It [the filter] won't stop highly technically literate and highly motivated individuals from getting it [child porn]," Carr warned. "But it will stop everybody else, including kids. And that's got to be a good thing. I don't think these smaller ISPs have got a very good argument."

He claims the filters may have saved many men from themselves. "It was intended to block the guy in his office at home one night, pi**ed, mildly curious, who could get himself into jail by going off and looking for it. It's meant to stop the accidental exposure," Carr said.

"I'm absolutely certain there are some men in prison today, and whose marriages have been completely and absolutely ruined, because they pursued what was probably a latent interest in child pornography, and they were able to do it through the internet. These guys would never have done it if the internet hadn't been there as an easy means of giving them access to it.

"The scale of offending in terms of child pornography has gone absolutely through the roof compared with the level of offending that existed prior to the internet.

"So yes, I do think there are some guys, who if it weren't for the blocking mechanisms we've got in place, would probably have got into serious trouble, but mercifully they're being stopped because we've got this technology in place."

Effectiveness "smokescreen"

Carr said that ISPs were using doubts over the system's effectiveness and cost as a "smokescreen".

"I've heard two explanations [for not implementing the IWF blacklist]," Carr said.
"One is cost and we simply don't accept that. Dealing with child pornography is not an optional extra that you do if you can afford it. As far as we're concerned, it's part of the basic cost of doing business as an ISP in the United Kingdom.

"And the second reason that's been advanced by Zen... is it's concerned by its effectiveness. All I can say is, if a journalist rings up your company, and this has been going on for several years, and you suddenly decide it's effectiveness you're worried about, I find that less than completely convincing.

"95% of the industry have found a way of doing it that for them is satisfactory, so I'd be surprised if effectiveness is a genuine reason," he added.

"I think some of these smaller ISPs are fundamentally, ideologically disposed against this whole idea. If they're not legally required to do it, they don't see why they should. That's really what it comes down to."

Zen Internet was unable to comment on Carr's allegations at the time of publication.

One of the issues the ISP might have taken exception to, however, was the IWF's decision to add The Scorpions' Virgin Killer album page on Wikipedia to its blacklist, because it contained an image of a provocatively posed naked girl. The ban resulted in a flood of traffic to the page in question and prevented millions of Britons from editing Wikipedia, until it was lifted days later.