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Irish internet providers have criticised a decision by their counterparts in the UK to restrict access to internet pornography. Under a new scheme introduced last year aimed at protecting children from explicit material online, subscribers to four of the UK’s biggest internet service providers now have to opt in if they want to view sexually explicit websites. Customers who do not specifically opt in will be unable to log on to pornographic websites.
 
The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) has dismissed such measures as “censorship”, saying the responsibility should lie with parents to regulate what children access on the web. “If internet service providers are dictating what can be accessed, then that could be seen as nothing less than censorship. Essentially we would be deciding what would be the inappropriate material. That should be left to the parents or guardians,” said Paul Duran from the ISPAI. The ISPAI represents 20 Internet Service Providers in Ireland including Eircom, O2, Vodafone and UPC.
 
Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald admitted that the UK was “further ahead” in terms of protecting children from inappropriate online material, but she refused to comment on whether there were any plans to persuade Irish internet providers to adopt the British model. She launched Safer Internet Day 2012 at St Brigid’s Primary School in Dublin. The event aims to promote safer internet use for children, and marked a new Garda Primary Schools Programme module dealing with online bullying.
 
Senator Jillian van Turnhout was highly critical of the attitude of the ISPAI. The independent senator and former children’s rights campaigner said it was a terrible shame that Irish internet service providers were more concerned with stopping the downloading of songs and other forms of entertainment than they were with awful images of children being abused.
 
She noted that the ISPAI had taken a similar view, objecting to “censorship”, when asked to block all child abuse material. Such a step had been taken in several European countries, she pointed out. The national centre for missing and exploited children in the US estimated that 20 per cent of all pornography on the internet depicted the abuse and exploitation of children, said Senator van Turnhout.
 
Senator Ronan Mullen said the decision of the Irish providers to criticise the action of their UK counterparts seemed quite scandalous. He echoed Senator van Turnhout’s charge of hypocrisy “where they are quite willing to see access blocked when it comes to infringement of copyright, yet they do not seem to have a sense of the wider public interest and the protection of the most vulnerable children in society”.
 
Senator Mullen said he was disappointed that the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, could not go so far as to even comment on whether there were plans to persuade Irish providers to adopt the British model. “Why do we lack courage when it comes to trying to shape the media and the internet environment so as to protect children from accessing unacceptable material,” he asked. He expressed the hope that the Government would take a more courageous approach.
Irish Independent. February 7. The Irish Times. February 8.