A Dundee charity has backed plans to block online pornography in every UK home saying it’s “about time”.
The move by the Government is in response to concerns that the material was “corroding childhood”. The founder of an award-winning city youth charity welcomed the effort to preserve young people’s innocence.
Laurie Matthew, founder of charity Eighteen and Under, said the material should be blocked as soon as possible and described it as an “absolute disgrace”.
She said: “I’m not convinced it can be blocked because they always find ways around it but any efforts to attempt to block it would be great.
“I think there’s a real need to make absolutely certain children can’t access these things, but not just children they should get rid of it completely.
“Children are the ones that need to be protected by virtue of their innocence and their age, and if they are able to access that it is bound to be damaging to them.
“It is giving out the wrong messages and, unfortunately, some parents don’t monitor what their children are doing.”
In a speech on Monday, Prime Minister David Cameron said family-friendly filters will be automatically selected for all new customers although they can choose to switch them off.
Millions of existing computer users will be contacted by their internet service providers and told they must decide whether to activate these filters to restrict adult material.
Ms Matthew added: “Kids are very computer literate and many parents aren’t, so anything that helps preserve a child’s innocence is definitely welcome.
“But so long as there’s a market for it, there will always be people trying to find ways around it, so I think we just need to keep up to speed with it.
“It needs authorities to step in and make it harder for children to access.”
Ms Matthew said that the Government’s proposals could only go so far in protecting children, and parents must not become complacent.
“Parents need to not get relaxed about this and should monitor what their kids are looking at. They really need to keep an eye on what their kids are getting into.”