LONDON — An Internet porn blocking petition signed by more than 100,000 citizens including ministers of parliament and religious leaders will be slapped on the desks of the British government on Thursday.
Spearheaded by Premier Christian Media, the 'Safetynet' petition is asking the country’s major ISPs — including BT, Sky and Virgin — to shut down access to porn on computers and mobile devices in an effort to protect children from viewing adult content.
This petition dovetails with a 10-week public consultation fostered by the government last June to decide on whether to adopt a national Internet porn filtering plan.
The country has been under pressure from conservative members of parliament, spearheaded by MP Claire Perry, who is pushing for porn filtering in an effort to protect children.
According to reports, the Christian group is demanding that the government "take decisive action to halt this blatant and relentless assault on young and impressionable minds."
Written as a letter to Jeremy Hunt, the previous Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, the call to action claims one in three 10-year-olds has "stumbled upon pornography online" and that young people ages 12 to 17 are the largest consumers of Internet porn.
Although it is clearly a method to crack down on online adult mateiral, the group claims it's only motive is to protect kids.
"This simple measure would in no way restrict adults from accessing such websites by specific application but would help to protect generations of young people from online pornographers," Peter Kerridge, the organization’s chief executive said.
The new petition will be delivered to 10 Downing Street by Safetynet representatives and a cross-party group of members of parliament, along with a second copy to be handed to the Department for Education.
“We demand that they lock this ever-open door to pornography and depravity once and for all," Kerridge said.
A survey conducted by mobile phone website Recombu Digital last month found that more than a third of U.K. citizens would back the government in forcing ISPs to block porn sites.
Commissioned by The Telegraph, the poll canvassed 2,000 U.K. adults and revealed that 37 percent were in favor of banning adult content.