Poland to join UK's 'war on porn'?

photo - PR

“We'll think about introducing similar regulations in Poland. Protection of young people should be our priority,” Justice Minister Marek Biernacki tells the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

British PM David Cameron said on Monday this week that “online pornography is corroding childhood. In the darkest corners of the internet, there are things going on that are a direct danger to our children, and that must be stamped out.

“I feel profoundly as a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come,” Cameron said, announcing plans for each internet user to 'opt in' to being able to receive porn sites and internet providers will be asked to draw up a 'blacklist' of sites containing illegal or depraved content.

Plans by the Polish government to introduce a similar system has already drawn criticism.

Marcin Cieślak, director of the Polish branch of the Internet Society, has said the 'filters' could be part of a slippery slope to wider censorship on the internet.

“Today porn, tomorrow terrorism, the day after Snowden and Pussy Riot,” he said.

Critics say that the plan to filter out content found on search engines like Google will be ineffective against extreme porn as most users of such material access it through special closed forums or from access it from external hard drives. (pg)