David Cameron Will Not Back Ban On The Sun's Page 3 Despite Campaign Against Online Porn

David Cameron Will Not Back Ban On Page 3 Despite Campaign Against Online Porn

The Prime Minister, who has been vocal in his support of a campaign to ban online pornography, has reiterated his stance on opposing a ban on Page 3, suggesting there is a difference between newspapers and the Internet.

Speaking on BBC’s Radio 4, Cameron argued that parents could keep newspapers away from youngsters, however children often stumble across hard core pornography on the web, a concern that has led the PM to put into place plans to ensure the country’s largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - BT, Virgin, Sky and TalkTalk - force customers to remove filters that would block online pornography.

In drawing the distinction, Cameron said: "I've said what I've said about Page Three and The Sun and I haven't changed my views. But should we do more to try and help parents to protect their children from legal pornography on the Internet? Yes I think we should, and again last week we made some big progress on that."

Cameron added: "You can control your children's access to newspapers and books and magazines. The problem with the internet is that our children are all online and they're using YouTube and they're searching for videos and the rest of it and there's a danger that they can stumble across really quite, sometimes hard-core legal pornography."

He said: "I think there's a difference between a physical product as I said and the Internet and that's why I think this specific action is needed on the Internet and that's why I'm driving that.

"I've answered the question about Page Three before and I don't believe in intervening in that but the Internet is different because our children are on it. They're in it. They're searching for things and there is a danger and I've seen this happen of children finding things on the internet quite opposite to what they're looking for but often very shocking."

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Cameron said he had talked to parents who had experience of their children performing legitimate searches but finding "some pretty horrible things in front of them".

Explaining the move to a default filter setting he said: "I think it's better to say, look, when you switch on your computer, when you've got a new broadband connection, the filters are on. They're ticked on. Do you want to tick them off? I think that's the right way to do it and we're going to do that of course not only with existing customers but also new customers to. So that will as I say get through to something like 80-90% just with those four companies alone."

The interview can be heard on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, November 23 at 4pm.

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