Ya know I was born in the late 50's in the frigid British North to Irish parents, buy the time I was 19 I got the fuck out of Blighty via Freddy Laker, a wing and a prayer. I love the idea of England, I love my birthplace, but even back then it was a shit place to live, horrible weather, horrible taxes, expensive... I mean who the hell would choose to live in such a place?

I almost cry wen I watch 'V' for Vendetta, cos I miss what England once was. So why am I posting this rant in the main forum? Because of this article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18616909 British WAM is different, Sploshing is funny and uses substances like baked beans and custard, where I think most American/German WAM is more serious and hard core.

Will this law (if it happens) see the end of British WAM? Or will it not effect busineess and there fore production? I am curious what all you British Wammers think about this kind of government control? I always thought that the great thing about the internet is that it is free knowledge, no one controls it and no one can tell you what you can and can not do, sure there are some bad people on it, there is good an bad in all groups, but does this mean the Brits are going to choose for the people as they are incapable of choosing for them selves? I will never return to England...

Just had to get this off my chest... Sorry

Phil

 

It's been talked about for a while. It's presentation politics. They are bringing it up because it's just politically correct to do so, will get in the news and panders to a minority who they hope might swing their vote. I don't think it will happen because it's actually impossible to define ALL pornography in a categorical manner (e.g. parts of our fetish do not involve any obvious sexual references).

I can't imagine it would do any more than parental controls that exist already can - and if parents are not present or in control, there's not much internet restrictions will do to help that anyway (and I speak as a parent in this case).

I think this'll get moved to O/T.

there always gonna be someone trying to block and censor the internet or other media. but choices made by elected idiots and big cheeses trying to come across as caring and for the people don't mean a thing and wont change anything. if you want to look at something on the internet you will and so will children which is what all theses things are generally aimed at. government will never stop free choice and the internet the best example of free choice people will always find a way if they want to.

as for living in England i was born here and have lived here all my life. i don't know anything different but i like living here its a good place i probably wont move anywhere else. there are problems in all parts of the world wherever you live some bigger than others but you just deal with it and get on with your life . that's all you can do

 

Um me To defend my country somewhat firstly, shit weather depends on you point of view - personally I don't like the heat, yeah taxes aren't great to pay but then again if I get taken to hospital the first thing they assess is what's wrong with me not if I am able to pay for my treatment so I can live with that, it's a lesser evil in my opinion.....I could go on but I don't want to damage the "Special relationship".

I am somewhat concerned by this idea though. However I think it will probably fail if they try an implement it in one of several ways:

Firstly with any block someone will always find a way around it.

When it comes to what is considered acceptable and what isn't there is going to be huge problems with getting a consensus. If it falls to one person or a small body of people particularly if they are perceived to be government controlled then the civil rights movement and press are going to kick up a right stink. Its not much of a step then to block any website that criticises the government etc.

Lastly the technology probably just won't work.

As for the government themselves, don't blame me for them. I most certainly didn't vote for them. Fingers crossed they will be out by the next election and this stupid idea will die a death along with Cameron's political career!

 

Looks to me like they are suggesting a "Locked down out of the box" method similar to the one implimented by Microsoft in general when it introduced server 2003. Simply put it means that everything is blocked by default and you have to make the choice to unblock it rather than everything being unblocked by default and you having to make the choice to block it.
In all actuallity it is quite a good idea, yes it can create frustration by not being able to find or make something happen you want strait away but it certainly reduces the instances of security breaches and I suspect this could reduce the instances of children getting their hands on porn by making it simple for parents, do nothing, but if you want porn you will just need to remove bars from the system.
I didn't see an erosion of freedom or rights in the idea.

 

There does need to be someway of filtering if your buying a pc to be used by a minor, no doubt this will rage and rage for a long time.

I'm quite a fan of the system, on daily motion where you have to turn the family filter off, before viewing something with a warning on it. Thus if you choose to turn it off its your decision. Similar to the view put across by Yamtree. Though by default it cannot be viewed.

regards

Andy and the team.

 

 

Agreed And England is full of amazing fun girls who love to get messy. I know some of them ;) England isn't so bad

 

 

If, as a consenting adult, you have the choice to opt in and out then that's fine.

The problem with the proposal is that it implies that it will automatically protect minors from irresponsible adults' currently unrestricted internet connections. It doesn't account for those same irresponsible adults choosing to lift the bar and effectively rendering the whole thing useless.

The household politics between couples might lead to some amusing exchanges, though:

Mrs: "We don't need to lift the bar on porn do we dear?"
Mr: "Er, no, dear, we..er.. don't.."

and

Mrs: "Just got a letter from the broadband company. The bar's been lifted - we're able to get porn! Did you do this?"
Mr: "Er...no...it must be a mistake..."

No offence Yam but they are hardly going to advertise an erosion of civil liberties. In the same way the old labour government never got elected on the promise that it was going to bring in university tuition fees. Of course they aren't going to say we are going block sites that criticise the government. However if a mandatory block of content is set it's got to come under a criteria for instance what constitutes pornography. My worry is who's call that will be and over time could that that criteria be tweaked and altered so by using this legislation the government could effectively censor the internet and only allow you to see what it wants. It's not what this idea is now that worries me, its where it could end up. One thing you should never do is underestimate the scum that line the houses of power and the lows they will stoop to keep the status quo and stay there.

As the original article states by far the best way of stopping children accessing porn is by having proper supervision by a responsible adult.

 

Always the "protect the children" approach. Because you know... if you don't want to protect the children you are a BAD PERSON.


To protect children from being in car accidents, we should stop therm from going in cars.

 

Why would anyone chose to live in the UK (not just England)? Well for me the K is rather important - I'm rather fond of our thousand-year monarchy. Republics are all very nice (I've been to the ones in Germany, France, Ireland, and of course the USA), but I'm a lifelong royalist. Unlimited free healthcare for everyone for life is pretty cool too, and being able to get almost anywhere, even to the wildest and most remote places, by train, definitely rocks. Sometimes I think it'd be nice to be somewhere where the weather was predictable, and hot sunny days for outdoor shoots could be depended on like they can in Texas, but the ever-changing weather is part of the charm, TBH!


Well said Sophie, agree completely!

On the subject of the proposed block, it'll almost certainly not happen as those who actually know how these things (don't) work will get to give their input both at consultation stage and at committee stage if it ever gets as far as being a bill. And of course lots of Conservatives here believe that what people do in their own time is their own business - building a nanny state was always more of a Labour thing to do than a Tory one. Indeed the coalition was elected partly because of a backlash against the last Labour government's attempts to micro-manage people's private lives - they actually tried to outlaw BDSM at one point - and failed, needless to say.

I certainly don't see any risk of the proposal having any impact on the UK WAM scene, you have to be 18 to get a credit card and buy WAM content anyway, so even if by some miracle someone did produce a block that actually worked, those who wanted WAM (or porn or whatever) would just turn it off and carry on as before. Any serious attempt to actually ban the sale of adult content would almost certainly derail spectacularly as soon as it was proposed, as it'd clash head on with just about everything from traditional British freedoms to the Human Rights Act, and all kinds of political hell would break loose in consequence.

Loved it! 1 2

 

We generally pay no attention to most of the shit ideas our politicians and governments come up with. Even if they implement an idea, they will botch it, as they couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery. This should be no exception and if we don't worry about it, no need for you to.

There are other options besides "cold & damp" and "hot & damp" you know. The middle east, northern Africa, a lot of Australia, and the US southwest are arid deserts. It's currently 75f and raining in Seattle, but it's 104f and about 5% humidity in Las Vegas.

Unfortunately, this week I'm in Seattle...

 

Very true & I'm not forgetting honest

 

... people that appreciate the finest legal system in the world, a lack of religious nut cases running shit, low gun crime, 3 hours in a plane and you are anywhere in Europe... or Africa, polite people, safer driving environment, cultural tolerance, a low racism level, a non polarized political system, a consistent education level, a lack of fundamentalism...


Should I go on?

I'm English, I have been coming here for eight years for long stretches and been a resident living here for two years. They are both great places to live. Both have their problems, hold a gun to my head (That will happen in America...) and I wouldn't be able to choose a country I had to live in for the rest of my life.


Oh, also... a standard American thing is to say "the food in america is bland and boring isn't it?"

Also, I have travelled the length and breadth of America and have yet to find a great loaf of bread and decent cheese is an absolute rarity. That is still a puzzle to me.

 

Speaking as a citizen of the commonwealth (Canadian), I'd personally love to live in the UK. I've heard more than a few horror stories about the NHS, but I've also heard tell of experiences just as bad with our socialized medicine here. And your weather is, by and large, much nicer on average than Toronto, where we seem to have either frigid cold or mind-poaching sweltering hot and only a few weeks of decent comfortable weather per year. You have better television, a well-read population, a relative lack of religious wingnuts in positions of governmental power...and at least from this foreigner's perspective, a variety of dead sexy accents.

Man, I really need to find myself a sweet Welsh girl next time I'm over there and marry her...

has anyone noticed how I have this knack of starting fights? LOL Must be the Irish blood

I do agree with you Noise, America is a fucked up place too, sometimes I just look around the store at all the complaining, overweight plad and just wana come home to dear old blighty... No where is perfect, its actually 105 Deg in Texas today, even with the A/C on full blast in a 2012 Dodge I am still hot! There are many religious nut jobs here, hell I can't buy a beer on Sunday still, but then again I don't hear prayer from the local mossk either. Nothing wrong with the legal system here, just fill in the right form, pay the right amount of money and you can do almost anything and get away with it. There is a lot of racism here and public education sucks I admit all this, but I still prefer it to England, all England ever did was knock me down, again and again. Petrol is $3.25 a gallon, a good draft beer (pint) is about the same price and I have never paid more than 22% in taxes!

The law bothers me because it is the beginning of censorship like China, sure it may be an opt-in or out thing, but do ya think they will have a record of that? Censorship can also scare people into not doing something too. Slave Lisa and I have 4 kids between us, my youngest is 9 and of course I don't want her exposed to anything questionable yet, I am a Dad and I will make bloody sure I do my best at protecting her until the time is right. But that is my job as a parent, not the governments job! Ya see where I am going here?

Sophie I have always thought English girls are hot, fun and sometimes messy, we have a few hot ones over here too, but ya know I bet ya would love to lay by my pool and get a tan every day, sip a nice drink, party your ass off when ever you feel like it...

Phil

 

Correctamundo!!

Not to mention its going to cost the government (IE taxpayers) a ton of money! If your English and this doesn't chap your ass, your need to ask yourself why you should have to pay so that some dead beat parent doesn't have to monitor his kids!

The conservative government was supposed to bring some austerity, not enact do-nothing programs that waste massive resources to fix a minor problem that is better solved with personal responsibility.

My poor British cousins..........your screwed.