Material between lines and prefixed with the word Slide is a copy of a slide from the presentation. Apart from the two quotes, the remainder of this page is based on my notes taken at the meeting, and should be viewed as my own opinion.
Miss Stewart is the head of division C4 of the Home Office, who have responsibility for various areas of the criminal law, including sexual offences, cinema licensing, and video classification. This makes them the ideal body to take charge of this issue.
I have been asked to omit the illustrations on this slide, as being not suitable for distribution under the name of the Home Office.
"The Internet is not subject to quick and easy fixes."
"Civil servants can't solve this on their own."
This slide carried 5 pornographic pictures, of a level to be found in (say) Fiesta. I have been asked to omit these illustrations, as being not suitable for distribution under the name of the Home Office.
The main worries are that children can gain access to "adult" material. We are at a stage where parents often know much less than their children about computers. Parents want some way to know that their children are only accessing suitable material when unattended. More generally, consumer information is seen as an issue - people should be able to browse the Internet and not be worried about having porn suddenly appear in front of them. There are also some secondary issues, such as the Internet being used to publish court evidence while it is still sub judice and under embargo.
There is no intention to just introduce some heavy-handed system of regulation. Not only would it discourage use of the Internet, it would be extremely difficult to devise and implement a system that even worked.
Presentations
Introduction
