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LYMEC, the European Liberal Youth, announce our bewilderment at the United Kingdom government’s proposals for homes to have pornography automatically blocked by their internet provider unless the householder actively chooses to receive it.
Although children should grow up in a safe environment, LYMEC believes it is the responsibility of parents and not the state to make sure this happens. By creating an “opt-in” list, the British government is forming an unnecessary and unhealthy culture of stigma around pornography which is out of place in the twenty-first century.

It is unacceptable that any government should be the business of forcing Internet Service Providers into automatically blocking otherwise lawful websites and thereby setting a moral agenda for the rest of society.

This filter approach will do little to prevent the spread of non-consensual and child pornography, which are the issues that really need to be addressed. LYMEC believes that such unlawful content should be completely deleted and not merely hidden by censorship; and those guilty of making, owning and viewing such content should face criminal prosecution.

However, the recent announcement by David Cameron is politically excessive and technically naive. We hope that Liberal Democrats within the coalition government act quickly to put a stop to this excessive and authoritarian measure.