Bollocks! Brits Throw Cold Water on Internet Porn

The British are planning to snuff access to online pornography, but if such a move ever crossed the pond, American purveyors of porn would probably call for a Declaration of Independence, Part Deux.

It seems that British children—much like their American counterparts—find it a cinch to get their hands on Internet porn. Meanwhile, their less tech-savvy parents are mostly flummoxed when it comes to using filters that ensure their kids keep their online viewing clean.

Now, the government is aiming to take on the problem. Citing a report earlier this year that showed three in 10 British children aged 10 had seen pornography online, Communications Minister Ed Vaizey is leading a plan put forth by UK’s coalition government that would automatically block all pornographic websites in order to prevent the “premature sexualization of children.” The blocked-site list would work similarly to the U.K.'s earlier, successful initiative that blocks child pornography. If the plan goes through, Internet users would have to “opt in” to be allowed to see adult porn.

Vaizey is reportedly to meet Internet providers, including BT, Virgin Media, and TalkTalk "in the near future" to discuss changing the way pornography enters private homes, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed to The Guardian.

Such a meeting would be unlikely to happen in the U.S., where online porn is big business, one that is sometimes cheekily referred to as one of America’s favorite pastimes.

How big is the market? A Tech Media Network Top Ten Review report says that all pornography, including online porn, generates $97 billion worldwide, and that while the U.S. ranks fourth in revenues behind China, South Korea and Japan, respectively, a new pornographic video is created every 39 minutes in the United States. Online porn raked in $2.84 billion in 2006, less than the $3.62 billion spent on videos that year, but the United States is the top producer of pornographic web pages by far with 244,661,900 pages or 89 percent of all content, the report adds. Germany and the United Kingdom follow with 4 and 3 percent, respectively.

The Adult Webmaster School in Newport Beach, California, which offers training to those who want to get into the business, estimates that the U.S. online adult industry generated over $9 billion in revenue in 2007.

Back in Britain, lest anyone accuse them of censorship, government officials say the plan is all about protecting children.

"We are not coming at this from an anti-porn perspective," conservative member of parliament Claire Perry said, according to a report in The Raw Story. “We just want to make sure children aren't stumbling across things we don't want them to see.”

Online reaction to the news was less than enthusiastic.

“Great Britain really is the nanny state,” one male reader griped on The Raw Story. “Can't even begin to count some of the most ridiculous preventative laws they come up with.”

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Teresa Novellino writes for Portfolio.com