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There’s a bigger problem that these clueless policymakers fail to see: creating a requirement to offer clean/filtered Internet access increases expectations of some parents that their children will be “safe” from porn. This is bad security. We don’t want parents paying less attention to security/child safety because they’re relying on technology.

Let me start again: there is a much bigger problem than access to porn: child safety. Kids who search for porn don’t mind seeing it, and kids who encounter it unsolicted will generally be offended and go elsewhere. (The lucky kids will be those who have grown up learning about sex as a natural part of life, but have not been sexualised beyond their youth: they will stumble upon porn, be unoffended but also uniterested beyond initial curiosity and maybe even a chat with Mum and Dad.)

We need to be attentive parents, not solely to protect our kids from porn, but to protect them from predators, bullying, spyware, illegal activity and other things that might harm or upset them.

Some time ago, I listened to this podcast on Internet Child Safety by Larry Magid (IT Conversations): http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail488.html

I cringed when I saw the title, but he anticipated that and moved on to explain that he wasn’t advocating censorship or focusing narrowly on porn. Instead he talked about real concerns and strategies to deal with them as parents. Worth a listen for concerned parents and far more insightful than Kim Beazley’s knee-jerk view.