pornography22

BT reports that it is now blocking 35,000 attempts to access child pornography in
Britain every day.
And one leading e-commerce figure has described over Internet Service
Providers' failure to block access to such sites as "outrageous", and called on
other ISPs to follow BT's lead.
The figures from the telecoms company, which accounts for one-third of the
internet market in the UK, are based on data acquired since it introduced a filter
in June 2004 to block access to child porn sites.
It is feared the overall number could be much higher and that many attempts to
access illegal material are slipping through filtering technology.
"While it’s good to see that BT has taken steps to stop its users from being able
to view illegal child pornography, clearly the message that not blocking users
from viewing this type of material isn’t acceptable isn’t getting through to other
ISPs," Mark Herbert, the founder of intY, the business internet and e-mail
specialists, told Times Online today.
"It’s outrageous that ISPs allow their customers to access this type of illegal
material, they shouldn’t be exposed to it even accidentally through an innocent
Internet search.
The industry has shifted responsibility on to the individual or business to stop
people accessing these sites using Internet access controls. If one ISP can put
controls in place then surely others can as well?" Mr Herbert said.
The Cleanfeed program, which prevents users from accessing sites blacklisted
by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), initially registered 10,000 attempts to
access them by BT’s 3.1 million domestic users each day.
Today’s figures showed there were 4 million blocked attempts to access the
websites over the last four months. Downloading images from such sites could
constitute an illegal act which is punishable with a jail sentence.
The report will alarm policy makers and the internet industry, which have sought
to control child pornography through a combination of approaches.
Members of the public and computer repair shops play an important part by
reporting to the police people they think could possess or be distributing illegal
images. The Internet Watch Foundation, www.iwf.org.uk, also investigates
suspicious websites.
The British authorities have also taken part in international operations aimed at
tackling the international market in illegal images. In the most high-profile
clampdown, Operation Ore, the American and British authorities co-operated to
catch people downloading child pornography using credit card details and
information from internet service providers to track down offenders.
In 1997, when IWF came into operation, 18 per cent of the potentially illegal
content assessed by the body - almost exclusively child abuse images - was
hosted in the UK. At the end of 2003, that figures had fallen to less than 1 per cent.
The Home Office has consistently pointed out that Britain already co-operates
closely with other countries over how the internet is policed and says this
approach will continue. However, tracking down the source of images available in
the UK, which could come from almost anywhere in the world, can still be very
difficult.
There has also been resistance to surveillance of online behaviour from some
British organisations. Internet Freedom, the campaign group, last year warmed
that fresh measures proposed by the Government to criminalise the possession
of obscene material distributed online risked limiting people’s freedom.