Unholy alliance on porn between Cameron and the Mother's Union
http://blog.hargrave.org.uk/2011/10/unholy-alliance-on-porn-between-cameron.html
These days even the Mother's Union are on Twitter. For reasons best known to them the Church of England charity has allowed itself to be used by Cameron as part of his latest announcements about filtering the Internet. Now of course I don't think it a good idea for children to have access to porn but that does not mean I am going to jump on the bandwagon and support a plan that just won't work. Even if it did I am far from sure it would be the right thing to do.
We know it won't work because for years school's have tried to censor their Internet connections and for years kids have got around their attempts with proxy servers, Open DNS and VPNs. Sites that are genuinely useful have been filtered and some filtering companies seem to filter anything anyone asks them to - sometimes even school's own websites (submitted of course by students to make the point).
In any event is looking at porn really the main problem for families and children in the UK? No of course it isn't. We only need to look at the Mother's Unions own Twitter feed to find what really is:
So nothing will really change even if it needed to and the headlines tomorrow will all be about porn filters whilst child poverty will continue to be ignored.
I am sure the Mother's Union have good intentions but that just won't do. Good intentions don't give families enough money to support their children and their children the role models they need to grow up and flourish.
The fact is Cameron is using the Mother's Union for political advantage. This isn't a government that puts the interests of families and children at its centre and the Mother's Union should be supporting parents in pointing that out to Cameron rather than forming an unholy alliance with him.
We know it won't work because for years school's have tried to censor their Internet connections and for years kids have got around their attempts with proxy servers, Open DNS and VPNs. Sites that are genuinely useful have been filtered and some filtering companies seem to filter anything anyone asks them to - sometimes even school's own websites (submitted of course by students to make the point).
In any event is looking at porn really the main problem for families and children in the UK? No of course it isn't. We only need to look at the Mother's Unions own Twitter feed to find what really is:
As they say it really is shameful that by 2013 no less than 600,000 more children will live in poverty. This tweet links to a story from CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group) which lays the blame for this situation squarely on Cameron and his Government:
“It doesn’t have to be like this. Government is about choices and there’s nothing more important than what we owe to our children. We need a child poverty approach that builds on what has been proven to work in previous years, which saw the most sustained drop in child poverty levels since records began, including during the recession. That’s investing in child benefit and child tax credits, providing help for parents to find and afford the childcare they need to take up jobs, and genuine help for people to find jobs they can raise a family on.”But hey, let's ignore all this. Look in the other direction and bang on about children having access to porn. Something actually the Government can do almost nothing about. By this evening the ISP concerned were distancing themselves from Cameron's words pointing out this was only for new customers, only if you ask for it, and basically saying it would make no difference.
So nothing will really change even if it needed to and the headlines tomorrow will all be about porn filters whilst child poverty will continue to be ignored.
I am sure the Mother's Union have good intentions but that just won't do. Good intentions don't give families enough money to support their children and their children the role models they need to grow up and flourish.
The fact is Cameron is using the Mother's Union for political advantage. This isn't a government that puts the interests of families and children at its centre and the Mother's Union should be supporting parents in pointing that out to Cameron rather than forming an unholy alliance with him.
