The British Prime Minister launched a national fight on pornography. He joins Iceland who announced a similar fight last February.
What is their motivation to take up these politically explosive fights?
Children. In Iceland it was teenage boys re-enacting porn on younger children. In Britain, it was the murders of two young girls by men consuming child pornography.
The British plan does the following:
- Child pornography websites replaced with a splash page declaring the images illegal and warning the consequences for viewing them.
- Internet search engines will not accept obvious searches for illegal pornography and will assume a non-porn interpretation to other searches.
- All mobile phones will have porn filters with the default set to "on."
- All public wi-fi networks will have family-friendly filters.
- All home internet accounts will have filters with the default set to "on."
- Internet safety education will be added to the national student curriculum.
- A national parent education campaign teaching how to protect and educate children regarding online dangers.
- Laws that make the same standards apply to the internet as apply to stores selling sexual content.
It is time for the USA to join this fight.
Don't we have the motivation? A Cleveland man abducted three girls ages 14, 16, and 21 and held them for ten years. He was charged with almost 500 counts of rape and sexual abuse. He admitted being addicted to pornography.
It is time for each of us to join this fight.
I don't just mean pressing our government to join the efforts of Great Britain, though that would be good. I mean installing filters, adding accountability software, and implementing pornography education.
The Cleveland man, nor the British murderers, nor the Iceland teens believed their viewing of pornography would lead to those horrific crimes, but it did. Don't take a chance on being that person. Certainly do everything and I mean everything you can to protect your child from that person. The stakes are too high.
Calamur, K. (2013, February 28).
Iceland's Plan To Ban Online Porn Spurs Outrage
. Retrieved from NPR: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/02/28/173187642/icelands-plan-to-ban-online-porn-spurs-outrage
Cameron, D. (2013, July 22). Speech: The internet and pornography: Prime Minister calls for action. Retrieved from Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-internet-and-pornography-prime-minister-calls-for-action
FoxNews.com. (2013, July 22). British Prime Minister Cameron declares war on Internet porn. Retrieved from FoxNews.com: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/22/british-prime-minister-announces-strict-anti-porn-policy-in-uk/?test=latestnews
Leger, D. L. (2013, July 13). Ariel Castro faces 977 charges in Cleveland kidnappings. Retrieved from USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/12/ariel-castro-charged-with-kidnapping-rape/2513199/
Stacklin, J. (2013, July 26). Cleveland kidnapper avoids death penalty with plea deal. Retrieved from Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/cleveland-kidnapping-suspect-plea-bargain-041908571.html
