Internet firms must put automatic block on porn, says Jeremy Hunt

 

 

Internet providers will be forced to automatically offer new customers the option of blocking pornographic and violent material, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt revealed last night.
As part of the forthcoming Communications Act he is lining up a clampdown to protect children by obliging internet service providers to make sure all customers have an ‘active choice’ about using parental controls.
Mr Hunt is taking the drastic action because ‘as a parent’ he wanted ‘services that are safe for my children’.
A recent survey by regulator Ofcom found the number of parents using filtering software had dropped from about 50 per cent to 40 per cent. And the recent Reg Bailey review into the sexualisation of children recommended increased choice for parental controls.
Mr Hunt told the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention last night: ‘When it comes to accessing material that can offend taste and decency standards in their own home, we should put consumers firmly in the driving seat.’
It is understood the Government has not ruled out also coming up with a way of getting existing users to make the choice. There are concerns that some parents are not aware of the controls and that they should be better signposted.

Mr Hunt has also laid out plans for a new ‘one-stop’ newspaper regulator which as well as dealing with newspapers would also regulate their on-demand websites and any internet video services they launch. This would stop newspapers having to be regulated by three different organisations – the PCC for newsprint, Atvod for on-demand websites and Ofcom.
He also said independent regulators should be ‘given the right’ to start investigations into concerns over media ownership and ‘propose remedies’.

Mr Hunt suggested, in the wake of controversy over News Corporation’s abandoned moves to take full ownership of BSkyB, that politicians be removed from making decisions about ‘media plurality’ and that it should be done by an independent body.
The Culture Secretary, who received the power to rule on the BSkyB bid after Vince Cable told undercover reporters he had ‘declared war’ on Rupert Murdoch, said he realised  people were ‘always going to question my motives’.
But in his speech the Culture Secretary warned: ‘We must take care that power is never over-concentrated in a few hands.’
In a clear recognition of concerns about the scope and scale of the BBC’s activities in the news market, Mr Hunt also revealed he is asking Ofcom to look at whether the corporation can be included in potential proposals to set ‘absolute limits’ on news market share for organisations in the UK.
He is to get Ofcom to look at the issue, which will also consider whether websites should be included in measuring ‘plurality’ in news.
There have been concerns for years about the power the corporation wields in the UK news industry.