David Cameron today pledged to pass a law to protect children from sickening online pornography and admitted he ‘spluttered on his cornflakes’ when Brussels declared online filters illegal.
Prime Minister David Cameron
The Prime Minister says he will veto European Union laws voted through yesterday will force internet firms to scrap the porn filters they installed following a Daily Mail campaign.
The new rules make internet service providers treat all online traffic ‘without discrimination, restriction or interference’ – regardless of its content. It means that by the end of next year, filters that require people to opt in if they want to view online pornography will have to be removed.
But Mr Cameron said Brussels would not dictate to Britain on this issue.
In response to a question from Conservative MP Amanda Solloway he told the Commons: ‘I think it is absolutely vitally important that we enable parents to have that protection for their children from this material on the internet, and probably like her, when I read my Daily Mail this morning I spluttered over my cornflakes because we worked so hard to put in place these filters, but I can reassure her, because we actually secured an opt-out yesterday, so we can keep our family friendly filters to protect children.
‘And I can tell the House that we will legislate to put our agreement with internet companies on this issue into the law of the land, so that our children will be protected.’
Campaigners warned that the EU ruling had left children at serious risk and said it proved Britain had lost control over key decisions on matters of sovereignty.
But Downing Street and David Cameron have insisted they would bring in new domestic legislation to replace the voluntary deal that was agreed between ministers and internet firms in the wake of the Mail’s Block Online Porn campaign.
Legal experts have warned any attempt by Britain to re-impose controls would likely be ripped up by European judges as it could be challenged in the European Court of Justice. Any verdict delivered by the ECJ is automatically binding on the UK, regardless of the wishes of Parliament or the Prime Minister.
A spokesman for the Vote Leave campaign for Britain to exit the European Union said: ‘Britain has lost control over key decisions like how to protect children on the internet. This is too important to be bartered away in an EU deal done behind closed doors.
‘Cameron promised he would solve this problem. He promised it was a ‘red line’. He’s then traded it away in a backroom Brussels stitch-up to help his pro-EU campaign.’
The Mail‘s longstanding Block Online Porn Campaign called for internet firms to establish automatic opt-in porn filters to protect children from sickening material freely available on the web.
After an intervention by the PM, the major home broadband providers imposed automatic controls.
Announcing the deal with internet firms in 2013, Mr Cameron warned that easy access to web porn was ‘corroding childhood’.
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