Whitehall reviews net porn laws

Looking at ways of blocking offensive images

The Home Office is considering tighter regulations that would restrict web sites containing violent, sexual imagery - a move that could help IT managers struggling to stop such material reaching company systems.

"We are looking at ways in which the current law, in relation to blocking sites, might be strengthened," said a Home Office spokeswoman.

She confirmed the government would gather the views of industry and other interested parties before deciding what measures to take, and would probably announce the start of a consultation period within the next four weeks.

"We want to do all we can to block access to illegal sites," she added, explaining that although some images are illegal under the Obscene Publications Act, the government wants stronger laws to deal with images on the internet.

However, Mark Herbert, director of managed internet services provider Inty, questioned whether these moves would prevent such material ending up on corporate systems. "Responsibility has been shifted on to the individual or business to prevent people accessing these sites using internet access c ontrols," he said.

Nigel Hawthorn of Blue Coat Systems, a provider of control systems for web access, pointed out that it might be difficult to define "violent pornography" in law.

Meanwhile, a scheme to segregate offensive material under a .xxx domain for pornographic web sites has been delayed following pressure from the US government.

In August Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the US Commerce Department, said that the organisation had received a large number of letters expressing concerns about the harmful impact of the proposed domain.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) gave initial approval to .xxx in June, but has bowed to pressure and extended its deadline for a final decision to 15 September.

Mohd Sharil Tarmizi, chairman of the body's Government Advisory Committee, wrote: "I believe the [Icann] Board should allow time for additional governmental and public policy concerns to be expressed before reaching a final decision on this top-level domain."