World Class
David Cameron describes campaign with police and internet firms to pursue abusers and users of online images and video
From the end of 2013
all new computers will block pornography by default to help children
browse the internet safely. Photograph: Cultura/Alamy
The government plans to "drain the market" of child sexual abuse images online by launching a campaign with the police and internet companies to pursue both the publishers and those who access the material, David Cameron has said.
The prime minister proposed international collaboration between police and internet companies to pursue child abusers and those who viewed images and video online.
He said that from the end of 2013 all new computers sold would have filters switched on by default, meaning consumers will have to opt in to access pornography. But he admitted that the government had yet to solve the problem of how households with one internet connection but multiple devices could balance the internet browsing choices of adults with restricting access to children.
Speaking to Jane Garvey on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Cameron denied that the initiative was timed to deflect criticism over lobbying by his election strategist Lynton Crosby.
He insisted that it was technically possible to act despite doubts about enforcement. "This is an issue I have long been interested in but it has taken me some time to get my thinking right," he said. "What has changed … is that for too long we have taken the view that you can't do much about the internet, that it is ungoverned so there is nothing you can do.
"There is a triangle. We have to stop the people putting up the images, stop those accessing it and ask the internet companies to do better in stopping access to them."
He said police were able to monitor peer-to-peer file sharing, where content is harder to track. Live streaming of abuse has also been identified as a developing problem.
Cameron praised consumer internet companies such as Twitter and Google for increasing efforts to identify and remove links to offensive material and for introducing flash warnings to users who may inadvertently be clicking through to illegal material.
But he admitted to an ongoing row with internet service providers who, he said, were objecting to plans to filter content according to a "blacklist of horrific terms … they see it as a matter of free speech, but these images are illegal".
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency (Ceop) had been given more powers and he had "sub-contracted someone from GCHQ to work in my office to help us understand how best to use the technology to stop this".
Cameron said he had not seen images of child sexual abuse during the drafting of the plans but had had some material, which he described as evidence of a crime scene, described to him.
The prime minister proposed international collaboration between police and internet companies to pursue child abusers and those who viewed images and video online.
He said that from the end of 2013 all new computers sold would have filters switched on by default, meaning consumers will have to opt in to access pornography. But he admitted that the government had yet to solve the problem of how households with one internet connection but multiple devices could balance the internet browsing choices of adults with restricting access to children.
Speaking to Jane Garvey on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Cameron denied that the initiative was timed to deflect criticism over lobbying by his election strategist Lynton Crosby.
He insisted that it was technically possible to act despite doubts about enforcement. "This is an issue I have long been interested in but it has taken me some time to get my thinking right," he said. "What has changed … is that for too long we have taken the view that you can't do much about the internet, that it is ungoverned so there is nothing you can do.
"There is a triangle. We have to stop the people putting up the images, stop those accessing it and ask the internet companies to do better in stopping access to them."
He said police were able to monitor peer-to-peer file sharing, where content is harder to track. Live streaming of abuse has also been identified as a developing problem.
Cameron praised consumer internet companies such as Twitter and Google for increasing efforts to identify and remove links to offensive material and for introducing flash warnings to users who may inadvertently be clicking through to illegal material.
But he admitted to an ongoing row with internet service providers who, he said, were objecting to plans to filter content according to a "blacklist of horrific terms … they see it as a matter of free speech, but these images are illegal".
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency (Ceop) had been given more powers and he had "sub-contracted someone from GCHQ to work in my office to help us understand how best to use the technology to stop this".
Cameron said he had not seen images of child sexual abuse during the drafting of the plans but had had some material, which he described as evidence of a crime scene, described to him.
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