Great Britain
British Prime Minister David Cameron raised a few eyebrows and ruffled many feathers earlier this week when he proposed a nationwide ban on pornography throughout Great Britain. "I feel profoundly as a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come," said Cameron. "This is, quite simply, about how we protect our children and their innocence." The new measures would make all "extreme" and especially violent pornographic images illegal, ban a list of predetermined search terms potentially involving child pornography and force Britons to essentially "opt-in" for porn via their ISP providers. Charles C.W. Cooke of National Review smells something rotten: All in all, this smacks of a power grab. There are so many other ways of keeping children from the dangers of online obscenity that one has to ask why the state has gone straight to direct censorship. Britain has, after all, not tried everything and been forced by repeated failure to resort to this; instead, the prime minister has plucked the issue from thin air and resolved to act. Slate contributor Cyrus Nemati scoffs at the moves from a technological perspective: David Cameron, apparently, surfs the Web using Netscape Navigator 4.0 and Lycos, because he's finding pornography everywhere. It's a constant danger to his 11-year-old son, who can't look up videos of people drinking tea without finding copious amounts of hot XXX action. Presumably this is a black mark on Cameron's phone bill as well, as dial-up Internet gets very costly. (AP Photo)
