Ha, good luck with this.

Where there’s a will(y), there’s a way, and it’s going to take quite a clampdown to stop South Africans from perusing a bit of porn here and there.

Enter the South African Law Reform Commission, who have published a paper that proposes the “blocking of internet porn by default”.

Ostensibly, the paper wants to protect children from “exposure to pornography and child sexual abuse material”, but that’s how the thought police always dress these things up.

MyBroadband below with more:

As part of its recommendations, it said that all devices – new and second-hand – be issued or returned “to a default setting that blocks inappropriate content, with an opt-in possibility depending on proof of age of the buyer/user as being 18 and older”.

“Giving effect to this recommendation will serve to protect both the child and the provider, though regulations will be required to provide for effective implementation.”

Yeah, it’s going to require coordination at many levels, which means I’m immediately losing faith.

Still, let’s carry on – the recommendations will require:

• Manufacturers or distributors of any technology or device that can access the Internet to ensure that default settings block access to child sexual abuse material or pornography.
• Communications service providers to ensure that default settings blocks access to child sexual abuse material or pornography.

There will then be legal ramifications for those who unlawfully and intentionally uninstall these default blocking settings, and further requires companies who sell devices to keep a register of when the default blocks have been removed.

Wow, it’s all a little George Orwell 1984-ish, isn’t it?

The South African Law Reform Commission seems to be taking its lead from the UK:

…the UK will implement a default block on 15 July 2019, which will see all UK Internet service providers having to confirm if users are over 18 before letting them access porn sites.

“Adult websites will need to show a splash screen to UK users when they arrive on the site. This interstitial screen must contain no adult material and should inform visitors that they must prove they are over 18 years old in order to continue,” stated the report.

A user must then use an “approved age verification system” and enter a username and password. All sites which serve users in the UK will have to implement this system.

In order to prove their age, porn fans must use their passports, driver’s licences, or credit cards, and porn passes will be sold in shops for £4,99.

If you thought buying condoms was awkward, wait until you’re buying your porn pass and the neighbour’s in the queue behind you.

Surely we have bigger fish to fry in this country?

I would suggest that concerned parents install their own blocks on home devices, but given that they would probably have to ask their teenage children how to do that, I don’t reckon that’s going to succeed.

[source:mybroadband]