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View Full Version : Mi ISPs response to Cameron's "Won't someone think of the children" debacle



RecQuery
26-Jul-13, 11:20
http://aa.net.uk/kb-broadband-realinternet.html


We provide a real internet connection with our internet/broadband services. A real internet connection, such that IP packets from you get to where they should do, and IP packets to you get to you. There is no messing about.

As a company we have strong views on doing the right thing - we support Open Rights Group (https://www.openrightsgroup.org/). See our director's blog at www.me.uk (http://www.me.uk/) for more views on this topic.

Active choice is not a choice The government wants us to offer filtering as an option, so we offer an active choice when you sign up, you choose one of two options:-


Unfiltered Internet access - no filtering of any content within the A&A network - you are responsible for any filtering in your own network, or
Censored Internet access - restricted access to unpublished government mandated filter list (plus Daily Mail web site) - but still cannot guarantee kids don't access porn.

If you choose censored you are advised: Sorry, for a censored internet you will have to pick a different ISP or move to North Korea. Our services are all unfiltered.
Is that a good enough active choice for you Mr Cameron?

Press: For comments from our director, or interviews, please email our press office (http://clueless.aa.net.uk/contact.cgi?dept=press&TEMPLATE=http://aa.net.uk/contact-blank.html)

A petition on censorship (http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/51746)

Parents

Many of us at A&A have children and we understand that parents have concerns over what their children may find on the Internet. It is important to consider the best way to tackle this at home, just like any of the other risks that face children as they grow up. Just as you do not expect the highways agency to stop any cars coming down your road so you can let your children play on the tarmac unsupervised, please don't expect us to try and block unsavoury content on the Internet - we could not do that even if we wanted to - just look at how ineffective blocks on the pirate bay have become, and that is just trying to block one web site!

Simply use a search engine to look for parental controls - there are many packages, free, and paid for, and even built in to many computers to help manage access to the Internet on a per user, and age appropriate, basis. If you are not sure, please do call our support staff who can point you in the right direction, or consider simply supervising younger children instead.

Censorship

It is not our role to try and censor what you do with the internet. We do not try and log or limit what you are accessing. It is your responsibility to stick to the laws that apply to you. We have no intention of putting in place any censorship systems or using censored transit feeds.

Censorship systems are usually introduced under the guise of some emotive topic such as stopping child abuse which nobody could argue with. Such systems are very very unlikely to have any actual impact at all on the actual problem they claim to solve. Such systems often break or hinder the normal working of the internet, as seen by wikipedia recently. They are usually easy to circumvent. If they work at all then they just drive the offensive use underground and using encryption so making it harder to find and deal with. They are also the thin end of the wedge as once a system is in place then adding more is easy. Bear in mind most ISPs using such systems then have no control over what is censored or why. If we accept censorship for child abuse, then we have to accept it for terrorism, and then maybe political extremist views, and then maybe not so extreme views, and maybe wrong thinking or pictures of policeman (oh wait, they just tried to make that illegal too!)... "then they came for me and there was no-one left to speak out" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...).

When you signed up for our service you specifically ask for an uncensored and unfiltered internet access. We have no plans to add adult content filters or other stupidity. You are, of course, welcome to run your own filtering on your network and have parental controls configured on PCs on your network. If you have children for which you allow unsupervised Internet access (is that wise) then we would encourage you look in to such parental control systems.

Alrock
26-Jul-13, 20:41
& that's why I'm glad I went with them, thanks for the recommendation...

ducati
29-Jul-13, 20:18
They sound like a bunch of irresponsible tossers to me.

A bit like the guy I saw on telly recently who published a 3 D print model of a gun because he was offended there were some places you aren't allowed to buy them.

A drone strike waiting to happen. :eek: