Written question asked by Helen Goodman (Labour) on Tuesday, 17 October 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 19 October 2006. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 November 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

Child Pornography

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 19 June 2006, Official Report, column 1051W, on child pornography, what progress has been made by the UK internet industry against the target for all internet service providers to have blocked access to sites abroad containing child pornography by the end of 2007.

Answer: In June, we set the UK internet industry a target to ensure that by the end of 2007, all internet service providers (ISPs) offering broadband internet connectivity to the UK public, prevent their customers from accessing those websites. Those large providers that do not already have solutions in place for all their domestic broadband customers are continuing to roll their solutions out. A number of smaller ISPs have begun work on the implications for them. We will meet them again around the end of this year to review progress.There has been much discussion on the practical issues among the smaller ISPs and through ISPA, the ISP association. We continue to discuss ISPs’ progress towards the target and wider issues in tackling illegal images of children with the industry, the Internet Watch Foundation and law enforcement.

Secondary information