ISP porn filters block sex education, rape support sites

Sexual health advice, porn addiction resources and domestic abuse aid also barred

The four major UK internet providers have begun rolling out their David Cameron-endorsed 'porn filters' this week, with questionable consequences for various online social and medical resources.

BT, TalkTalk, Sky and Virgin have all followed government advice to introduce filters for adult content, the stated intention being to make the internet in the UK more "family friendly".

However, as well as blocking access to pornographic content, it transpires that many well-intentioned web destinations are being affected too.

UK sex education site BishUK.com, which has won multiple awards and is popular with teenagers, more than a million of whom visit each year, has been blocked by TalkTalk. The ISP has also blocked Edinburgh Women's Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre's website under charges it is "pornographic".

Sexual Health Scotland, Doncaster Domestic Abuse Helpline and another domestic abuse site, Reducing the Risk, have all been blocked by BT.

A TalkTalk spokesperson told the BBC that there is "no silver bullet" when organising internet safety, and that the ISP has "always been clear that no solution can ever be 100 per cent". As such, TalkTalk says it will "continue to develop HomeSafe" and welcomes feedback to help "continually improve" the censorship service.

Similarly, BT stated that "categorisations are constantly updated" on its own 'parental controls' feature.

New customers of the ISPs will now presented with a prompt to enforce parental controls, with some ISPs defaulting this to 'on', while existing customers, it is said, will also be presented with this choice, though many are reporting that no such choice has yet appeared on some connections.

Earlier this year, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales branded the prime minster's suggestion for wide-reaching censorship of the UK internet as " absolutely ridiculous".