In 2013, David Cameron (Conservative PM) intends to police the internet in a manner never seen before in Britain. His (misguided and frankly deluded) intentions are to introduce an 'opt-out' automatic filter on all internet browsing. Besides being implausibly and practically ridiculous, the scheme harbours a sinister threat to not only liberty whilst on the internet, but civil liberties all together. Not only will pornography be on the filter list, but other content such as alcohol, smoking and even web forums. Isn't banning web forums the first step to infringing free speech? Open opinion? What's next? Restrictions upon political sites? Restrictions on informed political debate? How long before the information left available for public access is that which is directly decided upon by the political establishment? It seems that the choices of the everyday man are becoming narrower by the day. Are we on the road to a state of restrictions from which we can't ever escape? |