What WILL it take for Google to block child porn?

My heart goes out to the family of 5 year old April Jones and I really think it’s time for Google and Microsoft to take moral leadership and responsibility to act over the shocking ease with which some people are allowed to use the internet to fuel their perversion.

Mark Bridger, sentenced yesterday to spend the rest of his life in jail for murdering five-year-old April Jones, had a sickening library of violent child pornography and this is by no means an isolated incident as it follows the revelation that Stuart Hazell, the man convicted earlier this month of killing 12-year-old Tia Sharp, regularly downloaded child abuse images on his mobile phone.

I believe extreme internet pornography is harming society as we seem to be afraid to take moral leadership  around speaking out about how invidious and dangerous this whole concept is . I don’t see how anyone can possibly justify allowing child pornography to be available on the internet to anyone. I don’t think it’s an issue of freedom of choice. It’s illegal and I really think internet search engine companies should be blocking it.

I recently had a 9 year old child come to see me as he had been traumatised by accidentally going on a porn site where there were violent and degrading images of women that totally shocked & frightened him. I used Emotional Freedom Technique to reduce his anxiety and reduce his trauma but this shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

There is a great deal of research that shows that young  teenage boys in particular, are being exposed to highly disturbing material so they begin to accept and think that certain kinds of violent sex is normal.

You, like me, probably never grew up with 24 internet connection and so many parents I work with have no idea how to successfully block material.

We need change – to protect our children.

Lots of kids seem to think that it’s funny or OK to share indecent images on their  mobile devices, and  sexting is all part of the damaging culture and I think it’s having a very serious effect on lots of people.

I listened to John Carr, a Government child protection adviser, today on  BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.as he  called on Google to show “moral leadership” and block pornography websites that act as a “gateway” to images of child abuse.

Mr Carr, a member of the Internet Task Force on Child Protection, said hardcore porn sites are accessible from search engines, which carry links to other websites advertising “Teen Sex” and “Barely Legal”.

He said these are code words used by paedophiles who use them to get to images of child abuse.

Mr Carr,  an internet expert, called for a “default” block on accessing pornography through search engines. Those who wanted to view it would have to register.

“Google’s moral leadership is essential here. They are the biggest players in this world. If they [were to block it], others would have to follow.”

He said this would help reduce the number of men who get drawn into looking at images of child abuse.

Mr Carr said he would bring up the issue in a meeting with Google and the next gathering of the Government’s internet task force.

A Google spokesman said internet companies are working “incredibly hard” to prevent people accessing images of child abuse.

Phillip Noyes, the acting chief executive of the NSPCC, said:

“For some time we have been concerned about the growing number of these obscene images which are becoming more easily available and can fuel the fantasies of offenders like Bridger.

“This case points to the ever-growing evidence that there is a worrying link between looking at this vile kind of material and committing other serious sexual assaults. April’s death will hopefully lead to effective measures to stamp out this vile trade.”

I’m off the fence and up in arms about this and we all need to push for change.

What do you think?