Neither. It's done through the ISP.
I've just logged on to our sky account and disabled it. Took less than 1 minute to do.
Sky to Block your favourite sites by default...
- Thread starter J.T
- Start date
Neither. It's done through the ISP.
I've just logged on to our sky account and disabled it. Took less than 1 minute to do.
Had your fill of oats?
Soldato
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It just took me 5 seconds to deactivate Sky broadband shield, life goes on...
I had it enabled anyway, it doesn't really work though as it's just using a list by the looks of things and no content based filtering.
I do object to it being turned on by default though, it's the first thing to block but I bet it's not the last (they already block many p2p sites).
I do object to it being turned on by default though, it's the first thing to block but I bet it's not the last (they already block many p2p sites).
Associate
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thanks dave! protecting our children. so whats happening with this peado ring at westminster then?
Don't agree with it then switch ISP, money is the only thing they understand*
* Please don't take this statement as condoning skys decision, I think its stupid but the power to deal with it remains in the customers hands. Cite draconian censorship reasons as why you left and move supplier.
* Please don't take this statement as condoning skys decision, I think its stupid but the power to deal with it remains in the customers hands. Cite draconian censorship reasons as why you left and move supplier.
Soldato
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No it isn't.
Of course even well meaning proactive parents make mistakes. However they should have raised their child well enough that seeing pornography isn't going to do any real harm to their children.
I'm frankly tired of some parents trying to blame anything other than their own lack of parenting skills. Yes parenting isn't easy (been there, got the T-Shirt) but it requires effort, stop trying to blame 'the Internet' and work hard on raising your little precious.
Easy enough to filter your own internet. Don't need it doing at ISP level...
Soldato
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Depends on where your principals lie; If you just want the boobs, switch the filter off. If you don't like the idea of censorship and a list of names kept who turn the filter off on some database then you take action.
You'd need to do more than switch ISP though. I'd suggest writing to your MP.
However I'm guessing most people don't care, or are apathetic, or don't want to be seen as dirty old men. 'Think of the children' and all that.
I like this idea! Can we extend it to self-service checkouts as well please?
By the person taking the test of course...
Why not discuss with the school about setting up a workshop for parents on how to make the internet safer for their children? Educating someone on how to do something for themselves is far more useful than doing everything for them.
The main point of this is not the actual P0rn filtering its self it's the fact they are forcing the block, yes you can turn it off but if you do that then for all you know it could be automatically putting your name in a "Possible sex offender" list.
Scream tin foil hat as much as you like but things like this should always be an opt in, never and opt out!
Scream tin foil hat as much as you like but things like this should always be an opt in, never and opt out!
What concerns me is, what are they blocking? I don't suppose they are going to give you a list of the sites but there are sites that wouldn't want your kids to look at but as an adult are very funny (thinking chan sites for example)
For me its pretty pointless, if one of my teenage kids wants to look at porn and it won't come through wi-fi then they will just switch to mobile. I expect in time with determination they will start using a proxy having googled how to get round the problem. Self harm / suicide stuff, just the same. If they want to find it they will.
For me its pretty pointless, if one of my teenage kids wants to look at porn and it won't come through wi-fi then they will just switch to mobile. I expect in time with determination they will start using a proxy having googled how to get round the problem. Self harm / suicide stuff, just the same. If they want to find it they will.
While I agree there are some sites that "should" be blocked, where does the line lie? We already have the situation where torrent sites are now blocked, what about Russia today or other non european news sites? Sites of organisations and groups opposed by the UK government?
It's also not about what is blocked overtly but monitoring that takes place. The keeping of logs for 18months by ISPs (against EU law IIRC), monitoring of Internet traffic and the accessing of email accounts by government forces, many of which are questionably legal currently (which is why the security services and Cameron are trying to force through the "snoopers charter" again). Much of our legislation is significantly more draconian than even the U.S., which has the bill of rights and freedom of expression to fall back on, let alone the real of the west.
Being the worst country in the western world for Internet freedom and government monitoring is not something we should be proud of is it?
I understand you are very authoritarian so we will probably never agree on this but for many of us that would prefer personal freedom to th occasional chance of terrorism (or our kid "accidentally" stumbling on to a "dodgy" website).
As already mentioned this filter is the thin edge of the wedge that is very easy to bypass. I'm guessing every year 9 student now knows how to change the DNS setting on their personal internet device (computer/smartphone etc.). It was like that when I was at school (we would always bypass the filters) and I doubt it's changed. Unfortunately the younger generation are almost always more tech savvy than the generation before, it's a losing battle that never seems to be understood by politicians. The politicians who are invariably worried about new technology they can't control 100%.
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Permabanned
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Its all a move towards controlling the internet. The start is these block lists and it ends with people having a white list for an internet. With major commercial sites being the only sites available. That way they can prevent the next facebook or similar.
Soldato
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I doubt sky will be auditing who turns off the filtering.
My main worry is that filtering is never 100% effective. A lot of parents will assume that because this feature is in place they can let their children use the Internet unsupervised without any worries.
I also think even though well intentioned allowing broadband providers to block content could isn't appropriate. Especially when we've talking about a provider like Sky who have business connections with many online content providers.
My main worry is that filtering is never 100% effective. A lot of parents will assume that because this feature is in place they can let their children use the Internet unsupervised without any worries.
I also think even though well intentioned allowing broadband providers to block content could isn't appropriate. Especially when we've talking about a provider like Sky who have business connections with many online content providers.
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Its true. I just read they have recreated CISPA, even though so much effort when in to defeating it, the lawyers have simply recreated it under a different name and changed the wording and its going to start all over again. Since the internet started to threaten existing media monopolies, newspapers and TV, there has been a concerted effort to change the internet away from what it is today towards a more controlled and toned down version. Normal internet may always be available from some ISP like zen internet or if you pay enough through business lines. But them major ISP will slowly start changing from black list to white lists and then you will pay for content eventually and not the internet. You will have packages, like sky does with TV, you will have a news package, blogging package, social package etc. All will be white listed and any sites outside of that will not be accessible, that way they can get their media monopolies back and squash the internet threat.
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The power to move from one ISP that blocks content by default to....another ISP that blocks content by default? It won't be long before all do it.