Porn, the Internet, and False Positives

A pair of great tits. Will the new Porn filters ban them?

The UK government has launched into the battle against Internet Porn (again) - BBC:

Every household in the UK is to have pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they choose to receive it, David Cameron is to announce. In addition, Mr Cameron will say possessing online pornography depicting rape will be illegal, bringing England and Wales in line with Scotland. In a speech, the prime minister will warn that access to online pornography is "corroding childhood".

The new measures will apply to both existing and new customers. Family-friendly filters will be automatically selected for all new customers - though they can choose to switch them off. And millions of existing computer users will be contacted by their internet providers and told they must decide whether to activate "family friendly filters" to restrict adult material. Customers who do not click on either option - accepting or declining - will have filters activated by default.

The ISPs will drag their feet of course, as it is both lucrative content and an expensive nightmare to police. And then there will be the inevitable absurdities that hit the newspapers , such as when those hoping to access pictures and texts on say The Rape of the Sabine Women find the material is deemed offensive. And other pressure groups will try and make things they disapprove of, like Lolita and Khajuraho and Page 3, banned as Porn. Then others will counter-protest. And the hundreds of other innocent Google searches that will fail, or be deemed suspicious, because, as the satirist Tom Lehrer remarked as far back as the 1960's, "when correctly viewed, everything is lewd" (see video below).The Government and ISPs will find that the negative effects of false positives is what will bring this to its knees.


Tom Lehrer's March For Porn (above video).

Besides, most of the really unpleasant stuff is on peer to peer networks and search-rdark sites anyway, but the Goovernment knows that. This is not about doing something, its is about being seen to be doing something, and as always it will be the unforeseen consequences that will be of consequence