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David Cameron has admitted his plans for opt-out content filters will face "many problems" as his proposals begin to take shape, and said that content such as The Sun's Page 3 or Fifty Shades of Grey would not face the axe.
Cameron had asked internet service providers (ISPs) to make adult content filters an opt-in decision, but admitted on the BBC's Jeremy Vine programme that it would be up to the ISPs to decide what to block, suggesting that pornography and self-harming sites would be in their crosshairs.
"It will depend on how the companies choose to do it," he said. "It doesn't mean, for instance, it will block access to a newspaper like The Sun, it wouldn't block that, but it would block pornography."
He admitted there would be occasions in which these filters would fail, and that they "don't work in every instance. We're not saying it's the be all and end all answer to the problem," he explained.
In addition, he said he did not believe that written pornography – Vine mentioned Fifty Shades of Grey – would be blocked by ISPs, but he remained cautious in saying that ISPs would be the decision-makers in the process.
"I'm not saying we've thought of everything and there will be many problems down the line as we deal with this, but we're trying to crunch through these problems and work out what you can do and can't do," he insisted.
Cameron's proposals were met with a mixed reaction yesterday. Parent groups and children's charities backed his ideas, while organisations supporting an open internet criticised the prime minister for not understanding how filters really work.
Cameron had asked internet service providers (ISPs) to make adult content filters an opt-in decision, but admitted on the BBC's Jeremy Vine programme that it would be up to the ISPs to decide what to block, suggesting that pornography and self-harming sites would be in their crosshairs.
"It will depend on how the companies choose to do it," he said. "It doesn't mean, for instance, it will block access to a newspaper like The Sun, it wouldn't block that, but it would block pornography."
He admitted there would be occasions in which these filters would fail, and that they "don't work in every instance. We're not saying it's the be all and end all answer to the problem," he explained.
In addition, he said he did not believe that written pornography – Vine mentioned Fifty Shades of Grey – would be blocked by ISPs, but he remained cautious in saying that ISPs would be the decision-makers in the process.
"I'm not saying we've thought of everything and there will be many problems down the line as we deal with this, but we're trying to crunch through these problems and work out what you can do and can't do," he insisted.
Cameron's proposals were met with a mixed reaction yesterday. Parent groups and children's charities backed his ideas, while organisations supporting an open internet criticised the prime minister for not understanding how filters really work.