The UK porn blocks, a pet project of PM David Cameron, will continue even though the EU's rules on net neutrality prohibit the blocking of specific types of content. Under EU law ISPs are supposed to treat all kinds of data equally.
However parliamentary sovereignty means that the UK is able to pass a law which requires UK ISPs to automatically block certain types of content, the Telegraph reports. EU law also requires that service providers abide by the laws in the countries they are based and operate in.
Cameron's ongoing war on pornography has meant that ISPs first introduced opt-in controls for parents to use which later became on by default for customers signing up for a new contract. Some people find this alarming as it creates a list of people who want to look at porn, something that could be exploited by hackers if this information fell into the wrong hands.
The idea of asking ISPs to block is to prevent children from stumbling upon porn by accident. However the blocks don't do anything to address adult content found on other sites like Twitter and Reddit. As always, the best way to protect your kids from seeing adult material online is to supervise their online activity.
For adults looking to see porn without asking their ISPs to unblock content there are countless VPN options that will allow them to browse sites as they like. This, of course, means that under-18s can also make use of the same services, with many VPNs offering quite flexible payments, through PayPal and other processors. And, of course, TOR offers a free way to unblock the internet for anyone using it.
While the aim of protecting children is noble, it's also incredibly hard to manage practically. The government's obsession with porn means more hoops for grown adults to jump through.
